Master
2020/2021
Methodology of Contemporary Asian Studies
Type:
Compulsory course (Socioeconomic and Political Development of Modern Asia)
Area of studies:
Asian and African Studies
Delivered by:
School of Asian Studies
When:
1 year, 3 module
Mode of studies:
offline
Instructors:
Alexandra Sizova
Master’s programme:
Socioeconomic and Political Development of Modern Asia
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Contact hours:
42
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This course will introduce students to sociopolitical research methods and familiarize them with the tools and techniques that scholars use to study the history of East Asia. Students will learn about the process of modern historical inquiry and gain a better understanding of the diverse resources that historians use to conduct research. The course concentrates on particular themes and periods, and will be structured topically. The first unit will focus on research methodology and examine how and why historians conduct research in Social and Political History. The second unit will study a variety of historical thought and writing in East Asia, within social and political contexts, which will represent examples of the major historiographical schools, their tools, methods and ideas as developed over time. The third unit focuses on the technical skills that historians employ when conducting research with primary materials and on different historical resources that can be used for historical research in Social and Political History of East Asia. During the forth unit students will conduct their own research with close guidance from the instructor and write extensive, richly-documented research papers. The course encourages students to evaluate their studies in the light of their knowledge of historical thought. It provides students with the methodological training they require to orient their research strategies in an increasingly interdisciplinary field. In the course they study works by a different historians, philosophers and social analysts and form their own judgments about them. The course is taught by lectures and seminars. Through a wide-ranging series of seminars students will develop a meaningful familiarity with the interpretive strategies and secondary materials that define major approaches in current historical scholarship. Weekly discussion of the assigned readings for each seminar, moderated by the course instructor, will support class cohesion. The course is focused also on student papers, which will comprise a part of their major thesis. Student feedback is by means of questionnaire and individual discussion.
Learning Objectives
- The main aim of this course is to provide new graduate students from the Department of Asian Studies with an introduction to sources, approaches and methodologies in Social and Political History of East Asia.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Encourage a critical understanding of different historical methodologies and historiographic tendencies in Social and Political History of East Asia.
- Develop a knowledge of historiographical issues and their importance for contextualizing research.
- Develop an apprehension of the interaction between sources and historical interpretation.
- Develop a cognition of how different types of sources can be combined to address specific historiographical problems.
- Enhance students' ability to deal with some practical issues of historiography and historical research at a graduate level including problems of effective academic writing.
- Enable students to engage with the wider debates of in the field of historical study.
- Encourage students to seek a sound theoretical and epistemological foundation for their own work within the field.
Course Contents
- Methodology of Sociopolitical Research: Concepts, Problems, Methods of Research
- Contemporary Methods in Sociopolitical Research
- Historiography of East Asia
- Theories of International Relations. International Relations in East Asia.
- Creating a Research Project
- Reading Primary Sources. Documents related to East Asia.
Assessment Elements
- Class attendance
- Written multiple choice test Duration – 45 minutes
- Class participation
- Written exam
Interim Assessment
- Interim assessment (3 module)0.2 * Class attendance + 0.2 * Class participation + 0.4 * Written exam + 0.2 * Written multiple choice test Duration – 45 minutes
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Aladdin Assaiqeli. (2010). Doing history: Research and writing in the digital age. By Michael J. Galgano, J. Chris Arndt and Raymond M. Hyser. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.CF7D6EF6
- Iggers, G. G. (2005). Historiography in the Twentieth Century : From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=482374
- Jackson, R. H. . (DE-588)123370760, (DE-576)293679878. (2010). Introduction to international relations : theories and approaches / Robert Jackson; Georg Sørensen. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.312277741
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Across cultural borders : historiography in global perspective / ed. by Eckhardt Fuchs and Benedikt Stuchtey. (2002). Lanham, Md. [u.a.]: Rowman & Littlefield. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.098767674
- Hafez, K., & Kenny, M. A. (2000). The Islamic World and the West : An Introduction to Political Cultures and International Relations. Leiden: Brill. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=105596
- Pérez-García, M. (2018). Introduction: Current Challenges of Global History in East Asian Historiographies. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4053-5
- Weller, R. C. (2017). 21st-Century Narratives of World History : Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1632505