LHIST5217 Global Fascism Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course investigates the rise of fascism in the twentieth century,  the first truly ‘global’ century. While traditionally reserved for Italy, Germany (and sometimes Japan), the course asks whether ‘fascism’ can be understood as a global phenomenon. Students will learn key debates on fascism, and explore its rise in the context of intellectual and political links across the globe. India will serve as a case study of fascism beyond Europe. 

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.  

In the written assignment students will gather and analyse information utilising understanding of relevant cultural phenomena and ideas and the societal, political and economic context.  

Summative Assessments

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

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. 

• Luna Sabastian, ‘Spaces on the Temporal Move: Weimar Geopolitik and the Vision of an Indian Science of the State, 1924-1945′, Global Intellectual History 3, no. 2 (2018): .
• Benjamin Zachariah, Developing India: An Intellectual and Social History c.1930-50. Oxford 2005.
• Roger Griffin, ‘What Fascism Is Not and Is: Thoughts on the Re-Inflation of a Concept’, Fascism 2, no. 2 (2013): 259–61.
• Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcout, Brace and Co., 1951.

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.

• Fascism in Italy and Germany
• Debating ‘fascism’ and ‘totalitarianism’ 
• Global fascism?
• Fascism in India 
• Historikerstreit (‘historians’ dispute’) and Historikerstreit 2.0