History and Postcolonial Critique

6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 4000844FNW for working students in the 2nd semester at a (F) Master - specialised level.

Semester

2nd semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

NOTE: registration for this course is only possible for working students. Day students can register for courses whose code ends with an R. At Inschrijven / studentenadministratie@vub.be you must be registered at the VUB as a working student for the current academic year.

Taught in

Dutch

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

History, Archaeology, Arts, Philosophy and Ethics

Educational team

Benoît Henriet (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

26 contact hours Lecture
130 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

Building on efforts to "decolonise" the academic curriculum, this course seeks to present different "decolonial", "post-colonial" and/or "decentralised" visions of history. Throughout the semester we will read, study and discuss together historians, concepts, intellectual movements that have had a significant impact on historical science. The course has two aims. First, to make students reflect on the existence of Eurocentric and historicist biases in the historiography. Secondly, to make students critically approach the implicit biases of history writing. Students are challenged to consider the relevance of the various theories and theses studied in the light of their own knowledge and research experiences. The course takes on the form of a literature seminar.

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : Reader, een bundel van sleutelteksten met betrekking de postkoloniale kritieken van geschiedschrijving

Additional info

Students are provided with a reader, a collection of key texts related to the postcolonial critique of historiography.

Each lesson is organised around a theme, and two texts from the reader are linked to each theme. For each lesson, students are asked to critically read and analyse these two texts. Each week, a series of questions will be discussed together.

During the meetings, the historical and intellectual contexts of the studied theme, author and/or context are presented. Afterwards, the two texts are summarised and discussed (in terms of key concepts, methodology, relevance, contribution). To conclude, a collective debate around the previously sent questions is organised.

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

The student must understand at least 6 of the following key concepts of postcolonial approaches:

Positionality
Orientalism
Exotism
Afrocentrism
The Black Atlantic
Coloniality/Decoloniality
Subaltern movement
Provincialisation
Biopolitics
reading archives "along and against the grain"
The post colony
Necropolitics
Queer theories

The student must show that he/she can critically analyse a theoretical scientific text. She/he must:

Identify the central theory/concept of the texts
Critically explain the methodology of the author(s)
Take into account the period, discipline and expertise of the author(s)
Defend a critical evaluation of the intellectual contribution of the texts studied.

The student must show that she/he can apply concepts and theories to her/his own research in a critical way (see evaluation below).

The student must demonstrate self-reflectivity. She/he must reflect on the influence of her/his social situation on the determination and approach of her/his research objects.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
LEC Teamwork determines 20% of the final mark.
LEC Paper determines 60% of the final mark.
LEC Report determines 20% of the final mark.

Within the LEC Teamwork category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Groepswerk with a relative weight of 20 which comprises 20% of the final mark. This is a mid-term test.

Note: ...

Within the LEC Paper category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Paper with a relative weight of 60 which comprises 60% of the final mark. This is a mid-term test.

Note: ...

Within the LEC Report category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Verslag with a relative weight of 20 which comprises 20% of the final mark. This is a mid-term test.

Note: ...

Additional info regarding evaluation

There is no exam fort his course: students are evaluated on the basis of various tasks performed during the semester:

- Task one: students must submit six one pagers over the course of the semester. These short essays are reflections on six freely chosen texts from the reader. They must contain the following elements: 1° a summary of the core argument and methodology used by the author. 2° a reflection on the advantages and disadvantages of a critical use of the theoretical/conceptual apparatus of the text linked to a personal research experience.

-Task two: students have to present in groups two texts related to a module. Each group has to make and present a synthesis of each text, and organize a discussion about the texts in and with the class.

-Task three: at the end of the academic year each student has to write a 2000 to 3500 word assignment. The assignment is a critical application of at least one of the studied concepts/theories to a personal research experience (workcollege thesis, and bachelor or master thesis).

In the assignment, the student has to make a critical use of the studied decolonial research agenda, in two connected ways. Firstly, the student must demonstrate self-reflectivity. For this they have to apply several questions to their chosen research experience:

Am I using a Eurocentric/ethnocentric perspective in my research? Why?
Does my identity influence my research? How and why?
Can I use the works of non-Western scholars/intellectuals?
Are there "marginalised voices" that I can include in my sources?

Secondly, the student must demonstrate a critical approach to at least one postcolonial concept/theory. He/she should try to answer the following questions:

Is the methodology pertinent to my research? Why?
Are the author's conclusions consistent with my own observations? Why?
Can I, from the point of view of my own research, make other observations/conclusions than the author, with the same methodology,...?
Did this theory/concept add anything to my research? Why (not)?

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context