Course finder

Semester 1

Water and Society in Pre-Modern Eurasia (HIST10503)

Subject

History

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 History courses at grade B or above, and please note that we will only consider courses with a specific focus on History (not including History of Art) towards these pre-requisites. We will only consider University/College level courses. **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

What would history look like if it were written from the perspective of water? This course explores this question by comparing the range and depth of human entanglements with water across different periods and regions of the world.

Course Description

Water might well be the most ordinary substance, yet its history is nothing short of extraordinary. From health to transportation and from religion to sociability, water flows through every aspect of our lives, past as much as present. This course reconstructs this rich and complex history through a series of weekly seminars designed to address different themes and issues connected to water. These are addressed comparatively using examples from the British Isles, Continental Europe, China and the Near East, and spanning from about 1100 to 1700. Material for consideration will consist of a mix of scholarly essays and primary sources, including visual and material evidence as much as written records in translation. The last week of the course will feature an excursion along Edinburgh's own river: the Water of Leith. The course will enable students to think critically and historically about the place of water in our past, present and future, while also gaining familiarity with the larger field of environmental history. They will consider the part played by water in the rise and fall of pre-modern societies, evaluate its role in the construction of meaning and belief, and examine the efforts required to access it, shape it and control it. In addition, students will have the opportunity to practice comparison across a variety of scales and time spans, engage with scholarship at the interface of science and the humanities, and reflect on the role of history in the face of today's challenges.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 80%, Practical Exam 20%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a History or HCA exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in two 3rd year History courses each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. This includes courses in Economic History and Scottish History. Enrolment in a third course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the September Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course