LHIST5216 Women and Power in Tudor England and Beyond, 1500-1800 Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This is a political, diplomatic and cultural history course that focuses on the roles of women in early modern society. Both elite and ordinary women are considered in this course which offers a better understanding of the challenges women faced during the early modern period. This course covers themes such as queenship, colonisation, religious female reformers, and witchcraft. It covers Europe and beyond, including Asian territories, as well as African ones. The course is designed to bring together several approaches to the study of early modern history – political, social, diplomatic and cultural – and to try to approach the study of women’s history in a rounded way, looking at the lives of both the elites and the ordinary people who lived during the early modern period.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies..

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures/seminars 

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1: all sessions in the same sized group

OR 

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

OR

• Directed study 

4-12 scheduled hours, the exact number varying according to the balance of 1:1s, 2:1s, or small groups. The plan will be confirmed by the start of the course, taking into account student numbers and the proposed topics, readings, and specific tasks.

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150.

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE. 

Summative Assessments

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

For the exam students will answer questions about global early modern history, utilising their understanding of sixteenth-century culture, society, drawing on the critical theories about gender and power in the early modern world. 

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Clark, S. (ed.) (2000) Languages of Witchcraft: Narrative, Ideology and Meaning in Early Modern Culture. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Questier, M. (2019). Dynastic Politics and the British Reformations, 1558-1630. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Levin, C. (1999, 2013) The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Paranque, E. (ed.) (2019). Remembering Queens and Kings of Early Modern England and France. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Peirce, L. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Early modern queenship
• Revolutions and women
• Religious female reformers
• War and female leaders
• Witchcraft and the patriarchy