Module manager: Dr William Jackson
Email: W.Jackson@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
This module is not approved as a discovery module
This module explores the history of intimacy and race in colonial southern Africa during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The module follows British migrants who were documented by the state: women abandoned by their husbands, men seeking repatriation back to Britain, children deemed to be in circumstances of hardship or neglect. Working with archival sources from South Africa the module engages with recent imperial historiography: on intimacy and the family, gender and sexuality, medicine, health and the emotions. The module introduces you to micro-historical ways of writing history, using the lives of seemingly minor or inconsequential people to ask questions of broader historical forces. We consider the relationship between ordinary people and the colonial state and the extent to which the state intervened into people’s intimate lives. The module helps you analyse primary sources: we use archival sources from South Africa to write colonial ‘histories from below’ and to reflect on Britain’s relationship with its imperial past. Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
This module aims to examine the relationship between intimacy and race in late nineteenth and early twentieth century South Africa, and to investigate histories of race and empire at the level of ‘ordinary’ people’s lives. It seeks to enable you to analyse a range of primary sources, contextualising them historically and connecting them to historiographical debates. In the module, we will formulate analytically productive ways to think and write about aspects of social history such as class, the family, the life-course, ‘experience’, domesticity and the emotions. This will help you to reflect on your own subjectivity in researching histories of race and empire, especially through a micro-historical approach.
On successful completion of the module you will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Critically assess the historiography on colonialism and race in early twentieth century South Africa.
2. Evaluate recent debates on the history of race, empire, intimacy and the family.
3. Implement the methodologies of social history, particularly a micro-historical approach.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module you will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes
4. Communicate complex ideas verbally and in writing.
5. Critically analyse primary and secondary sources.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supervision | 2 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Lecture | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Seminar | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Private study hours | 179.6 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20.4 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
You will submit a plan (with bibliography) for your essay and will receive individual feedback prior to submission of the summative assessment. You will also receive feedback on your microhistory and have the opportunity for an individual consultation prior to the submission of the essay.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Essay | 40 |
| Coursework | Microhistory | 60 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 29/04/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team