Course Catalogue

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How does empire shape a city? That's the question this course sets out to answer, taking the city of Glasgow and the British empire as its case study. More than simply trying to teach a history of Glasgow, the course is also focused on the practical skills required to research it. A series of online mini-lectures will introduce the imperial history of a range of different sites and spaces in the city: from public buildings to private homes, from parks and gardens to docks and factories. We'll explore the history of these places more deeply in our weekly seminars. And we'll focus on how to research them in a series of practical sessions, and the Q&A that accompanies each mini-lecture. Practical sessions will include a city walk and visits to heritage collections within the city.

■ 10 x 1-hour seminars as scheduled on MyCampus

■ Online: five hours including 1-hour introductory session and 8 prerecorded place-based mini-lectures with asynchronous Q&A

■ Five hours of on-site sessions, including a city walk and sessions at heritage collections in the city (eg the UofG Archives and UofG Library map room)

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

Standard entry to Masters at College level.

HIST4295 Empire in the City

None

Authored Walk (3000 word equivalent) - 60%

Report (2000 words) - 40%

This course aims to:

■ develop a critical understanding of the history of the city of Glasgow and its relationship to the British empire

■ analyse the physical environment of the city today as a product of that history

■ carry out their own research on the history of specific sites and spaces in the city

■ enhance their comparative analytical ability

■ engage with different methodological approaches to history and the debates they have inspired within the discipline

■ develop key transferable skills in research and communication

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

■ identify the key political, social, cultural and economic changes in the life of Glasgow across the period, placing the city's transformation in the context of its relationship to the British empire

■ explain the material transformation of urban space in the city as a physical manifestation of these changes, relating the physical environment of the city today to its imperial history

■ independently locate relevant primary materials relating to the subject, both online and in physical archives, placing them in dialogue with the relevant secondary literature

■ make critical comparisons with cities elsewhere in the world

■ assess the value of different methodological approaches to urban history in an imperial context

■ document their research and present their findings effectively in textual, visual, and oral communication, incorporating different kinds of substantiating evidence

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