CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL FOR UNDERGRADUATES
TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY
Key Information
Module code
Taught during
Module workload
Module leader
Department
Credit
Level
Pre-requisites
Assessment
ISSU1016
Block One: Monday 4 July - Friday 22 July 2016
45 teaching hours plus approximately 100 study hours
Professor Axel Körner
History, Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences
0.5 UCL credits, 7.5 ECTS, 4 US
Level 1, first year Undergraduate
Standard entry requirements
3,000-word essay (100%)
Module Overview
The module will encourage students to think beyond the historical framework of nation states, introducing
basic debates in transnational history and exemplifying these approaches with the help of specific historical
examples, covering the period 1750-2000.
Module Aims
Transnational history examines the ways in which ideas, people or goods travel across (national) borders,
analysing in particular processes of adaptation, translation and assimilation. During the twentieth century,
with the advance of communication technology, the impact of transnationality on our social, cultural and
economic lives has increased dramatically. Historians need to take account of these developments. Debates
about national identity, ethnic and religious conflict, or fights for resources, present an important framework
for the re-orientation of historical research.
Teaching Methods
Each week will start with a lecture, followed by text-based seminars and group work. The course includes two
field trips. There will be weekly drop-in-sessions for groups and individuals to discuss their project work.
Please note that this module description is indicative and may be subject to change.
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Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this module, students will:
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Be able to think historically beyond the nation state
Have a better understanding of the historical foundations of globalisation
Apply this knowledge to particular historical case studies
Connect historiographical debates to current affairs
Have increased their inter-cultural awareness
Assessment Methods
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3,000-word essay (100%)
Key Texts
Christopher A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World. London, 2004
Jürgen Osterhammel, The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century.
Princeton, 2014
This is preliminary reading students should have completed before the course. A more detailed bibliography
will follow.
Please note that this module description is indicative and may be subject to change.
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