Module description
The purpose of this course is to introduce the students to World History through the comparative analysis of economic creations of inequality, foundations of power and the way legal frameworks and forms of government interfered with social hierarchies. The main areas of observation will be Europe, China, India and Japan, the Iranian and the Ottoman empires, West Africa, Central Africa, Ethiopia, the pre-Colombian, colonial and postcolonial societies in America. The access to property and the rights of succession will be the key to understand different regimes and different social frameworks. Then we will analyse specific political, economic and social functions, occupations or conditions, which will allow us to understand production, reproduction and changes of hierarchies. The role of symbolic systems in the process of perceiving and producing inequality will also be part of the programme. The goal is to establish a comparative perception of world history that will allow the students to consider future specialisation in that field.
Assessment details
1 x 1,500-word formative essay; 1 x 3,000-word essay (100%)
Teaching pattern
10 x 2-hour seminars (weekly)