Workshops on History PH-SM>woh

Workshops on History is an introductory, skills-based course devoted to the historian’s research workshop. It introduces students to the main stages of historical research: formulating a research problem, searching for scholarly literature and sources, evaluating evidence, applying source criticism, comparing historiographical interpretations, constructing historical arguments and presenting research results.

Students work with different types of historical sources, including textual, visual, material, oral, quantitative and born-digital sources. They practise searching library catalogues, bibliographic databases, archival finding aids and digital repositories, as well as documenting and organising research materials.

Particular attention is paid to the relationship between research questions, sources, evidence and interpretation. Students learn how to identify the thesis, argument and methodology of a scholarly text; evaluate the provenance, context, reliability and limitations of historical sources; compare competing interpretations; and construct arguments supported by appropriate evidence.

The course also introduces selected methods and tools of digital historical research, including digitised collections. Throughout the semester students gradually develop an individual historical research project, from the formulation of a research question and search strategy to source analysis, argumentation, academic writing and presentation of research results.