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Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title Researching Local History :People,Place & Time
Module Code HIS1006 (ITS: HIS6)
Faculty Humanities & Social Sciences School History & Geography
NFQ level 9 Credit Rating 15
Description

In this module students are equipped with the skills and techniques necessary to carry out local history research as, in completing this module, students produce a piece of original research on a topic in local history. Students learn how to: approach such a project; identify, and analyse, appropriate documentary and non-written sources of historical information; research and write about local history; as well as how local history research is presented and published.

Learning Outcomes

1. Evaluate the methodological and historiographical issues of concern to professional local historians
2. Discriminate between local history written according to high academic standards and that of inferior quality
3. Appraise the different strands that have contributed to the development of Irish local history in the past three decades and defend local history as a valid field of academic research
4. Assess research proposals and critically evaluate a piece of published local history
5. Generate a viable research proposal that identifies key primary and secondary sources and project milestones
6. Critique the documentary and non-documentary primary sources available for writing local history and demonstrate a facility in working with these sources
7. Carry out an original local history research project that complies with professional standards and conventions


WorkloadFull time hours per semester
TypeHoursDescription
Tutorial18No Description
Online activity60No Description
Independent Study297No Description
Total Workload: 375
Section Breakdown
CRN11448Part of TermSemester 1 & 2
Coursework100%Examination Weight0%
Grade Scale40PASSPass Both ElementsN
Resit CategoryRC1Best MarkN
Module Co-ordinatorNeville ScarlettModule TeacherLeeann Lane, Shirley Anne O'Brien
Assessment Breakdown
TypeDescription% of totalAssessment Date
Completion of online activityOnline contributions15%n/a
AssignmentPeer Review and review of a published local history article5%n/a
AssignmentResearch Proposal5%n/a
AssignmentSources review – Extended Essay15%n/a
PresentationOral presentation10%n/a
Extended Essay / DissertationResearch project50%n/a
Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories;
RC1: A resit is available for both* components of the module.
RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module.
RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element.

* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite None
Co-requisite None
Compatibles None
Incompatibles None

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

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Unit 1: Introduction to Local History

Unit 1 Introduction to Local History
Historiography and Schools of History; Defining Local History Community; Place orientated approaches & Historical Geography People oriented Local History; Aims of the Local Historian

Unit 2: Approaches to researching and Writing Local History I

Unit 2: Planning a Local History Project

Unit 3: Researching and writing local history II

Unit 3: Researching and Writing Local History

Unit 4: Documentary Sources for Local History (Part 1)

Unit 4: Sources for local history (part 1)
Books of Survey and Distribution; Tithe Applotment Books; The Primary Valuation of Tenements (Griffith’s Valuation); Estate records Census Records: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Unit 5: Documentary Sources for Local History (Part 2)

Unit 5: Sources for local history (part 2)

Unit 6: Documentary Sources for Local History (Part 3)

UNIT 6: Sources for local history (part 3)

Unit 7: Non-written sources for local history

Unit 7: Non-written sources for local history

Unit 8: Guidelines for the presentation and publication of local history

Unit 8: Presentation and IHS Referencing
Guidelines for the presentation and publication of local history

Indicative Reading List

Books:
None

Articles:
None
Other Resources

None

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