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HIS2063
RECORDING HISTORY: MEMORIES OF BELFAST SINCE 1945
Convenor: Dr Sean O’Connell
Level: 2
Semester: 2
All single honours or joint honours students who wish to write a dissertation at Level
3 must take EITHER this module OR HIS2055 (History and Society).
Course content
This project-based module introduces oral history as a research method for
historians. You will conduct individual and group research on an aspect of the
history of Belfast since 1945. Each group works on devising its own research topic.
Topics might include: life in Belfast’s working class communities; youth in the
‘swinging sixties’; crime and policing; marriage and family life; women and work.
Students will develop knowledge of twentieth-century British and Irish social history
through their case study of Belfast.
When carrying out oral history interviews students work in pairs: one student
conducts the interview and the second student transcribes the interview. Students
develop knowledge of oral history’s strengths and weaknesses and enhance their
understanding of the broader methodological issues posed by research in modern
social history. In providing a professionally presented transcript of their interview,
students will engage with important skills that can be employed in dissertation
research and in the world beyond graduation. Team working skills will be developed
through collaborative research on your chosen topic. They will also be fine-tuned via
the opportunity to ‘pitch’ a programming idea (based on any aspect of all the oral
history interviews collected by the whole group) to BBC Radio Ulster. An increased
capacity for independent learning (through the conduct of one-to-one interviews and
the transcription and analysis of those interviews) is a further important aspect of
this module. Oral presentational skills will be developed through reporting on workin-progress in seminars and in the group presentation. The module will, therefore,
significantly enhance many of the skills related to the types of employment to which
history graduates aspire, i.e. team-working, interpersonal skills, the ability to
synthesize large bodies of information, and the compilation of written reports.
Please note that this module requires full attendance. Students cannot afford to
miss classes if they are to work effectively as part of the group and take part in all
the assessments.
Teaching methods
Teaching methods will involve lectures, workshops and tutorials.
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Lectures provide an intellectual grounding on the ‘history from below’ approach to
history and on the uses of oral history. Lectures will also provide detailed
information on the social and cultural history of post-war Belfast.
Tutorials provide the opportunity for students to engage in discussion about social
history, oral history and post-war Belfast.
Workshops provide training in matters such as: finding interviewees; preparing for
the interview; carrying out the interview; preparing the transcript; analysing the
transcript; preparing to ‘pitch’ ideas to the BBC.
Assessment:
Interview transcript (20%)
1,500-2,500-word critical commentary on interview transcript (20%);
Group presentation: pitching programming ideas to the BBC (10%);
4,500-5,000 word project report (50%).