Scots Abroad: The Scottish Experience Overseas in the 18th and 19th centuries

Course code: 88ZY
Level 4, Semester 1 (Honours taught route course)

• Introduction
• Staff
• Prerequisites
• Timetable
• Aims and intended learning outcomes
• Prescribed and recommended texts
• Assessment

Introduction

This course will undertake an historical investigation of the Scottish experience and impact of the Scots in a world context in the 18th and 19th centuries. Topics to be considered are migration and emigration, travel and exploration, and missionary expeditions. Emphasis will be on Scots, or people of Scottish descent, in the U.S.A. and Canada, with some attention given to Australia, New Zealand, India, the Caribbean and Africa.

This course will build on the skills used at Levels 1, 2 and 3 History though a higher level of achievement and increased independent learning will be demanded.
 

Staff

Prerequisites

See the calendar and student timetable for latest timetable information.

This course is a Level 4 elective, worth 20 credits within the MA Liberal Arts (History) degree.

Timetable

Lecture 2 hours per week:

Mondays 11 -1 Room 236

Lectures
Lectures are intended to provide a general introduction and overall framework of a given topic. More in-depth discussion will take place in seminars.

Seminars
Emphasis will be on investigating and analyzing primary sources. 
 

Aims and intended learning outcomes

Aims:

• To further develop the intellectual interests and analytical skills acquired by students during their first three years
• To encourage an awareness of the existence and nature of different historians’ views and approaches
• To familiarize students with methodological approaches, chronological periods and geographic areas
• To foster an interdisciplinary approach to historical studies
• To engage in critical and analytical discourse, as expressed in essays, seminar presentations and participation, and the final exam
• To gain familiarity with complex historical debate and interpretation, and acquire skills in interpreting primary and secondary sources
• To encourage and foster independent and self-directed learning
• To encourage and develop confidence, imagination, skills and self-discipline required to master a similarly demanding brief in the future, whether in historical research or in any sphere or employment where these skills are valuable 

On completion of the course, students will be able to demonstrate:

• An understanding and appreciation of some of the principal themes, issues, developments, and controversies relating to the Scots overseas
• An ability to write, verbally communicate and argue logically and persuasively about the topic
• An interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Scot abroad
• Critical and analytical skills in both written and oral work
• An ability to evaluate, process and assess a complex range of historical sources, both primary and secondary, relating to the Scot abroad
• Furthermore, students will have gained experience in discussing historical issues through seminar participation and will be able to make critical evaluations of historians’ arguments, methodologies and interpretations

Prescribed and recommended texts

• Michael Fry, The Scottish Empire (2001)
• Marjory Harper, Adventurers and Exiles: The Great Scottish Exodus (2003)

Other books you may find particularly helpful are:

• T. M. Devine, Scotland’s Empire, 1600-1815 (2003)
• Eric Richards, Britannia’s Children: Emigration from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1600 (2004)
• P. Rider and H. McNabb, A Kingdom of the Mind: How the Scots Helped Make Canada (2006)
• Celeste Ray, ed. Transatlantic Scots (2005)
• Don Watson, Caledonia Australis (1985)

Assessment

Book Report (20%); Essay (30%); Final Exam (50%)