The Problematic Past: History and Controversy (HIST3004)
Course level
Undergraduate
Units
2
Duration
One Semester
Class hours
2L 1T
Recommended prerequisite
4 units in Level 2 History
Assessment methods
Assessment will be a combination of seminar participation, an oral presentation, and written work totalling 4,000 words. Written assessment will focus on a combination of academic understanding of problematic pasts, and activities that have a work-integrated learning focus. For the latter, students will have a range of options appropriate to the particular controversy or aspect of the controversial nature of History they elect to focus on. These will include options such as speech drafts for political leaders, opinion pieces for newspapers, and curriculum documents for secondary schools.
Course enquiries
Associate Professor Martin Crotty (m.crotty@uq.edu.au)
This course is not currently offered, please contact the school or faculty of your program.
Course description
History matters. As the common aphorism has it, those who control the past can control the present, and the future. As a consequence, historians often find themselves and their subject caught up in debate - at times heated debate - both within the profession and in broader discussion of matters of public importance. This course examines controversies around new ways of understanding the past (women's history and Aboriginal history, among others), new ways of relaying or preserving that past (particularly in regard to digital technologies) controversies among historians over questions of historical practice and interpretation, and contentious public and political debate over historical issues such as race relations. Topics examined will be both Australian and international.
