Module manager: Professor Andrea Major
Email: A.Major@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2024/25
| HIST3500 | History Dissertation |
This module is not approved as a discovery module
On completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. address a historical problem in depth, involving the use of contemporary sources and secondary literature
2. design and research a sustained and independently-conceived piece of historical writing, according to a research method defined by the student
3. gather and select suitable evidence to develop and sustain a historical argument in an extended piece of coursework,
4. present their argument with clarity, fluency and coherence.
- Locating and handling appropriate primary and secondary source material;
- Interpretation and analysis of complex documentary-based material;
- Engaging with the historiography of the topic and situating their research within relevant scholarship
- Researching a topic using methods appropriate to the historical discipline and subject matter;
- Undertaking research with intellectual integrity and, where appropriate, with due consideration of research ethics;
- Presenting findings in an extended written report conforming to the academic standards of the historical discipline.
Students will write a dissertation of 12,000 words based on their own research, utilising primary and secondary sources according to a research method and programme designed in consultation with the supervisor. The dissertation can be written on a topic of the student's choice, relating to international history and supervised by a member of staff from the School of History. Normally, supervision will be undertaken by the tutor of one of the special subject modules available to International History and Politics students.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workshop | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Supervision | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Lecture | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Private study hours | 393 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 7 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 400 | ||
Independent online learning consists of:
- Working through online resources relating to the research process
- Reading exemplary dissertations held in Leeds History First
- Reviewing guidelines and advice on fieldwork, where appropriate
Private study consists of:
- Bibliographic research
- Preparation of a project proposal
- Preparation and tasks relating to supervision meetings
- Reading and research in primary and secondary source materials in libraries and archives
- Preparation and writing-up of findings.
- Four one-to-one meetings with supervisor;
- Production of a project proposal towards the end of semester one;
- Review of a chapter outline / structure;
- Submission of draft material from the assignment.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay or Dissertation | 12,000 word dissertation | 100 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 18/10/2024
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