Approaches to Queer and Trans Histories HIST5193

  • Academic Session: 2025-26
  • School: School of Humanities
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
  • Typically Offered: Either Semester 1 or Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: No
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No

Short Description

How have historians sought to understand sexual and gender diversity in the past? What methods might we use to interpret sources that contain evidence of gender and sexual diversity? What can the study of minority or non-normative genders and sexualities tell us about how gender and sexuality structure politics, society and culture across time and place? This course introduces PGT students to key questions in queer history and trans history, situates historical scholarship in relation to the distinct but related theoretical and methodological traditions of queer studies and trans studies, and prepares students to do their own research in these and related fields.

Timetable

10x 2-hour seminar per week for ten weeks.

Requirements of Entry

Standard entry to Masters at College Level.

Excluded Courses

HIST5194

Co-requisites

None.

Assessment

Historiographical review essay (3000 words) 60%

Book review (1000 words) 25%

Seminar contribution 15%

Course Aims

This course aims to:

 

■ Analyse the development of queer history and trans history as fields of study

■ Engage critically with relevant historiographical and methodological debates

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

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

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

 

■ Assess key developments in the historiographical fields of queer history and trans history

■ Analyse and engage critically with the arguments of theorists and historians

■ Formulate an intervention into a historiographical field conversation

■ Develop ideas about secondary literature through substantive, collaborative contributions to seminar discussion and online forum posts.

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.