HI2B2-15 Go-Betweens: Crossing Borders in the Early Modern World
Introductory description
This 15 CATS second-year module option investigates global interactions in the early modern world (1400-1800) through the figure of the go-between. Each of the men and women – diplomats and traders, mestizos and missionaries, converts, slaves, and captives – offer a window onto a world in which societies and life trajectories were increasingly shaped by trans-regional connections, and where all kinds of borders were regularly being crossed.
Module aims
By following individuals as they met and mingled across the globe, students will deepen their understanding of the role of human agency in the macro-processes of religious change, commercial expansion, imperial conquest, and economic integration that marked the early modern period. Examining African, Asian and Native American actors and sources alongside European ones, this module encourages students to develop a non-Eurocentric perspective that pairs a global outlook with close attention to practices of mediation on the ground. The module draws on insights from global history, cultural history, micro history, economic history, and literary criticism to interrogate the making and unmaking of political, social, racial, and sexual boundaries. We will explore questions such as: what does it mean to speak of “cultures” that “encounter” one another? How does one define a “go-between” who “mediates” in a “middle ground”? And in what ways are current views of the early modern past shaped by our globalised present?
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
Week 1: A Brokered World? Go-Betweens and Spaces of Mediation
Week 2: Individuals and Communities
Week 3: Middlemen and Middlewomen
Week 4: Conquest and Collaboration
Week 5: Travel and Religious Exchange
Week 6: Reading week - no seminar
Week 7: Intimacy and Mestizaje
Week 8: Captives and Converts + Workshop Session
Week 9: Diplomats and Communication
Week 10: Objects, Images & Transculturation
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the processes which made the early modern world increasingly interconnected.
- Communicate ideas and findings, adapting to a range of situations, audiences and degrees of complexity.
- Generate ideas through the analysis of a broad range of primary source material, including textual and visual sources.
- Analyse and evaluate the contributions made by existing multi-disciplinary scholarship.
- Act with limited supervision and direction within defined guidelines, accepting responsibility for achieving deadlines.
Indicative reading list
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/hi2b2/bibliography/
View reading list on Talis Aspire
Subject specific skills
See learning outcomes.
Transferable skills
See learning outcomes.
Study time
| Type | Required |
|---|---|
| Seminars | 9 sessions of 2 hours (12%) |
| Other activity | 2 hours (1%) |
| Private study | 130 hours (87%) |
| Total | 150 hours |
Private study description
History modules require students to undertake extensive independent research and reading to prepare for seminars and assessments. As a rough guide, students will be expected to read and prepare to comment on three substantial texts (articles or book chapters) for each seminar taking approximately 3 hours. Each assessment requires independent research, reading around 6-10 texts and writing and presenting the outcomes of this preparation in an essay, review, presentation or other related task.
Other activity description
Workshop session
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A1
| Weighting | Study time | |
|---|---|---|
| Seminar contribution | 10% | |
| 1500 word applied task (digital group project) | 40% | |
| 3000 word essay | 50% |
Feedback on assessment
Written feedback provided via Tabula; optional oral feedback in office hours.
Courses
This module is Optional for:
- Year 2 of UENA-VQ32 Undergraduate English and History
This module is Option list B for:
-
UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of V100 History