Undergraduate Course: The White Man's Burden: Race, Gender and the Victorian Empire (HIST10383)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course focuses on the development of the British empire between Siraj ud Daulas 1756 storming of Calcutta and the establishment of the Kenya Colony in 1920. The course pays particular attention to the roles played by race, gender and ethnicity in constructions of British imperialism. |
| Course description |
This course will introduce students to the key themes, events, and personalities of the Victorian Empire. British imperial power came in many forms and drew on a variety of strategies for rule, including but not limited to: military conquest and subjugation, collaboration with indigenous elites, cultural subversion, and technological hegemony. This course will investigate each of these strategies while also considering the full spectrum of colonial responses which they provoked. However, the course pays particular attention to the ways in which 19th century gender and racial thought shaped the imperial project. Recent years have seen an increasing divide develop between scholars who locate imperial power primarily in the sphere of economics and those who emphasise instead the overwhelming importance of social and cultural phenomena, such as perceived racial differences, gender hierarchies and conflicting interpretations of British nationality. By integrating these increasingly disparate approaches to British imperialism, this module will allow students to develop a multi-faceted understanding of empire which encompasses both metropolitan and indigenous, male and female perspectives. The domestic impact of imperial expansion was massive, and this course will therefore also consider the formative role played by imperialism in the construction of British culture, identity, and economic policy.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Personal Tutors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Administrator to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503780). |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Standard VS pre-reqs for this level in this Subject Area
Or other (please specify): students should normally have taken and passed a university-level British history survey course. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, command of the body of knowledge considered in the course;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, the ability to develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
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Reading List
Burton, Antoinette, (ed), Gender, Sexuality and Colonial Modernities (1999).
Goot, Joanna de. ' "Sex" and "Race": the construction of language and image in the nineteenth century', in Susan Mendus and Jane Rendall, (eds), Sexuality and Subordination (1989).
Hyam, Ronald. Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (1990).
Midgley, Clare, (ed). Gender and Imperialism (1998).
Cannadine, David. Ornamentalism (2001).
McClintock, Anne. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Conquest (1995).
Rainger, Ronald. 'Race, politics and science: the Anthropological Society of London in the 1860s', Victorian Studies, 22 (1978): 51-70.
Said, Edward. Orientalism (1978).
Ballhatchet, Keith. Race, Sex and Class under the Raj: Imperial Attitudes and Policies and Their Critics, 1793-1905 (1980).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This course will help students develop a range of transferable skills, including:
- the ability to manage ones time effectively, work to deadlines, and perform effectively under pressure;
- the ability to gather, sift, organise and evaluate large quantities of textual evidence;
- the ability to marshal argument in both written and oral form;
- the ability to work independently and as part of a pair or larger group. |
| Keywords | The White Man's Burden |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Benjamin Weinstein
Tel: (0131 6)50 3762
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Annabel Stobie
Tel: (0131 6)50 3783
Email: |
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