School of History, Classics & Archaeology

Sneak preview of our innovative online MSc History

Students who attended Dr Adam Budd’s Innovative Learning Week lectures today (19 February) were treated to a sneak preview of an exciting new MSc History course, which the University of Edinburgh will offer for the first time from September.

Addressing what some might expect to be a potentially dry topic, ‘Why historiography matters’ Dr Budd engaged 28 participants in a lively, interesting and thought-provoking presentation, which has been recorded for future use by distance learners.

As well as considering the practical tasks of working with source material (method) and the critical study of those tasks (methodology), Dr Budd compared the approaches of different historians.

These included comparative historian Marc Bloch (1886-1944), executed by the Gestapo for his work in the French Resistance before finishing his meditation, The Historian's Craft - and narrative historian Vera Brittan (1893-1970), who described so movingly the sinking of the Britannic, recalled by eye-witnesses, not least a survivor from sister ship, the Titanic.

The talk was one in a series of four offered today and tomorrow by lecturers from the new online MSc History programme, just some of the 50 events which are running within the School of History, Classics and Archaeology during Innovative Learning Week

Further information