Module Specifications..
Current Academic Year 2023 - 2024
Please note that this information is subject to change.
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Description The major towns and cities of colonial Ireland were centres of wealth, strategic importance, and population. Their governing authorities created a great many documents that can tell us about how the people of these towns dealt with the problems of urban life and attempted to control the mixed and changeable populations of urban centres. This course will draw on these documents to examine life in medieval Irish towns, discussing their evolution, their economy and how they were governed. It will then build on this understanding to look at Irish urban populations using three important lenses of historical analysis– class, gender and race. The course will ask students to contend these with these contested analytical categories and encourage them to think critically about the terms we use – ‘ethnicity’ and ‘race’, ‘sex’ and ‘gender’, ‘class’ and ‘status’. To do so, they will engage with the relevant historiography of Irish and European towns in the later middle ages but also with key primary texts including the records of urban administrations across the colony (all either English originals or available in translation) as well as the records of the colonial administration in Dublin. Students will use some of these records to design, research and write their own independent research projects (dissertations). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Learning Outcomes 1. Identify key events and developments in Irish medieval urban history 2. Engage with and interrogate the arguments of historians of medieval Ireland 3. Provide informed analysis of primary sources from Irish medieval towns 4. Construct a clear argument well-supported with historical evidence 5. Deliver historical arguments clearly in written formats 6. Engage in self-directed learning through sustained independent research on a topic of personal interest 7. Develop communication skills verbally in presentations and class discussions 8. Deepen critical thinking and analysis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and Learning Activities
Introduction to medieval Ireland c.1170Urbanisation: Terms and conceptsDefining the townTown administrations and hierarchiesTown topography and defenceDublin’s topography: the medieval city revealed in the modern streetscapeUrban economiesThe problems of urban lifeClass and Status in Irish towns: the Issue of oligarchiesClass and Status: guilds, pageantry and urban elitesRace and ethnicity: terminology and the Irish of the colonyRace and ethnicity: differentiating the Irish and alien statusGender and sex: terminology and women’s rolesGender and sex: Women’s experiences in medieval Irish towns | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Other Resources 53171, Loop, 0, A full comprehensive reading list will be provided on loop along with further resources, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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