COURSE FORMAT: 

Two seminars per week (1.5 hours each)

COURSE SYNOPSIS: 

This course consists of two parallel strands spanning the semester. One of these strands explores the history of Scotland from its earliest period until the recent past, focusing in particular on key topics or themes in Scottish historical studies, as well as on receptions of Scottish history in literature and film. The other strand takes a deeper dive into the study of Scotland in the so-called Viking Age, considering questions of sources, evidence and approaches in particular. The ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries can seem remote and complex today, but key developments which occurred at this time, including the formation of new ethno-linguistic identities, and the development of institutions, gave rise not only to the medieval kingdom of “Scotia”, but to the very Scots themselves as a self-conscious European people.

TEXTS AND OTHER RESOURCES:

Houston, R. Scotland: a very short introduction (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Woolf, A. From Pictland to Alba: Scotland 795 to 1070 (Edinburgh University Press, 2007).

METHODS OF EVALUATION AND GRADE-WEIGHTINGS:

historiography project - 25%
reception project - 25%
source-pack project - 25%
seminar work - 25%

**PLEASE NOTE:This is a preliminary web course description only. The Department reserves the right to change without notice any information in this description. The final, binding course outline is distributed in the first class of the semester.**