History in Practice, Practice in History (HIS345)

In this course, students will collaborate in small groups to develop a dissemination project. Students will choose a topic or theme with historical relevance and decide on the genre and medium for this project. Seminars and group supervision will support and guide the groups, but it is expected that the students work themselves within their groups. The dissemination project will be developed in dialogue with relevant public or private organisations outside of the university, such as museums, archives, schools, or the tourist industry.

Through this course, students will learn how different media and genre define the possibilities and limitations of communicating historical knowledge, and how such communication also needs to be developed and reconsidered for different target groups and audiences. Students will also earn experience in and reflect on how communication of historical knowledge and research might affect and impact different societal contexts. They will also be invited to reflect on how this is part of a society’s culture of history, the historian’s diverse roles within society as well as what significance historical knowledge has for public debates.

The course will challenge students in their collaborative and communicative skills. Within the groups, students will work with project management, project leadership, division of labour, and evaluation. Students will also need to establish contacts and relations with different types of actors and relate to a wider public. Overall, students will make use of oral, written and multi-modal skills.

Knowledge:

• Students have specialized insight into why and how the field of history and historical knowledge are relevant to various societal actors and in different contexts.
• They have in-depth theoretical insight into the dissemination of historical knowledge to a broad public.
• They can analyze and assess issues related to the dissemination and popularization of historical knowledge.

Skills

Students should be able to:

• Utilize and critically assess the relevance of historical knowledge from various information sources to structure and formulate academic arguments for dissemination to a broad audience.
• Use different types of media and genres to convey theoretical perspectives and knowledge in the field of history.
• Apply academic methods to conduct a research-based historical dissemination project.
• Systematically evaluate the implementation of a research-based dissemination project and identify areas for improvement.
• Reflect on their role as historians in society.

General Competence

Students should be able to:

• Apply their knowledge and skills, in collaboration with others, to plan, execute, and evaluate projects.
• Communicate historical issues, analyses, and conclusions to a broad audience, using historical concepts and perspectives.
• Contribute to innovation and new thinking in the practices of historical dissemination.

Two mandatory assignments:

• Idea for dissemination project approved by supervisor.
• Report from the dissemination project. (1500 - 2000 words)