Syllabus
Syllabus Procedures and Methods of Historical Research:
1. Introduction into Method of Historical Research.
2. Primary sources: structure, types and classification. Published and unpublished sources. The main principles of archival research.
3. Possibilities and limits of the historian during the research of primary sources.
4. Primary sources critique. How to read and evaluate primary (and other) sources (reasons of creation of a source, origin of a source, context of the creation of primary sources, authors, etc.).
5. Non-academic sources (novels, sagas, movies, etc.). Movie as a primary source: possibilities and limits.
6. Assignment: Primary sources critique. Students' presentations and evaluation. Discussion.
7. Objectivity of the historian, or does an objective historical truth exist? Reconstruction of historical events and their interpretation.
8. Ideology and history: interrelations.
9. Terms and terminology.
10. Theoretical methods in history. Schools and approaches.
11. Political history, social and cultural history. History of mentalities, microhistory, Alltagsgeschichte or the history of everyday life, and others.
12. Conclusions. The final discussion. The theoretic lectures are followed by seminars (discussions). During the Summer Semester (i.e. course Procedures and Methods of Historical Research) students have to prepare the following assignments:
3. Secondary sources critique. The aim of the assignment is to process and analyze relevant secondary sources (relevant secondary literature). The assignment should contain a short analysis (or review) of several secondary sources which are relevant for the topic. The following questions should be asked: What is the author's opinion or/and approach to the related problem/topic? When was the research (book, study, or article) published? Could that time period influence the author and her/his opinion (for example the Cold War period, socialist, communist or other political regime and ideology, emancipation or social movements, revolutions, etc.). Is the author biased in her/his opinion? Why? Do you agree with the author? As well as other related questions.Each source's review in the assignment should be at least 200-220 words long. Students have to find and process at least 5-6 secondary sources. The secondary sources in the assignment have to be analyzed in a chronological order (from the oldest to the latest).Each assignment must contain exact references, and state all sources (title, page, etc.) and a bibliography. Use footnotes as references. All assignments must meet with standard formal requirements of an academic paper (i.e. name and surname of student, title, pagination, references, list of literature, etc.).
4. Primary sources critique. Once the secondary sources are analysed students have to find out and process primary sources which are relevant for the proposal's topic. The primary sources could be published (printed materials) or unpublished (archival materials such as documents, reports etc.)At least 5-6 sources have to be processed and analysed. During processing students should be guided by following questions: When was the source created? What kind of source is it (police reports, official documents, chronicles etc.)? Who is the author/s of the source? For whom is the source intended? What is the purpose of the creation of the source (propaganda, leaflets, secret reports etc.).Each source's analyses in the assignment should be at least 200-220 words long. Students have to process at least 5 primary sources.Each assignment must contain exact references, and state all sources (title, page, etc.) and a bibliography. Use footnotes as references. All assignments must meet with standard formal requirements of an academic paper (i.e. name and surname of student, title, pagination, references, list of literature, etc.).
Annotation
The main aim of the course Procedures and Methods of Historical Research is to get practical knowledge on how to create and formulate the research topic, how to formulate the goals, hypothesis and objectives of the research, and how to find, process, and interpret relevant sources (secondary literature, printed sources, archive sources, etc.).
In other words, the main aim of the course is to create a strong and solid methodological frame for the future student’s future research, especially within the master thesis, as well as to improve the student's writing and research skills.
Besides improving practical academic skills, we will study different theoretical and methodological approaches in history. The attention Attention will be focusedbe given to on interrelated theoretical questions of historical research such as What is the relation between political power and history? How reliable are dates and facts in history? Is a total historical reconstruction of a historical event possible? Does an „objective historical truth”“ exist? Can history and the historian be objective? How could we interpret the history?