Global Environmental Histories of Empire HIST4314

  • Academic Session: 2025-26
  • School: School of Humanities
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 4 (SCQF level 10)
  • Typically Offered: Either Semester 1 or Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: Yes
  • Taught Wholly by Distance Learning: Yes
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No

Short Description

Many histories of empire have been anthropocentric, based upon an artificial separation between the human and natural worlds, yet the legacies of the ecological impacts of imperialism continue to shape the world we live in. This course will introduce students to environmental approaches to histories of empire, helping them to understand the long history of climate change and its links to colonialism.

Timetable

15x1 hr lectures, 5x1 hr seminar over 10 weeks as scheduled in MyCampus.

This is one of the Honours options in History and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Requirements of Entry

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into History, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

Excluded Courses

None.

Co-requisites

None.

Assessment

Essay (3000 words) - 70%

Poster presentation - 30%

Course Aims

This course aims to:

■ Provide students with the opportunity to engage with contemporary historiographical debates about environmental history and to use environmental history as a tool for understanding the complexities of the ecological impacts of imperialism

■ Engage critically with relevant historiographical and methodological debates

■ Develop advanced skills in independent research and communication (oral, written, and visual)

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to: 

■ Apply environmental history approaches to histories of empire

■ examine the ways different religious, political and economic beliefs have shaped human attitudes to the natural world

■ Understand the role of law in facilitating the ecological impacts of imperialism

■ analyse different types of primary and secondary sources and use them to construct a well-supported independent written and oral argument.

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.