Introduction to the Study of History

FaculteitFaculty of Humanities

NiveauBachelor

Studiejaar2026-2027

Beschrijving

Course goals

Learning Objectives & Skills:
This course has five learning objectives. In this course you

will learn that the academic practice of history is just one way to access the past, that many other alternatives are available as well, and that each approach has its own methods, principles, and presentation formats.
will become familiar with a number of key concepts in the academic study of the past;
will become familiar with the wide of range of historical approaches to the past;
will learn that approaches to the past are not fixed and that a change in approach can lead to a radically different view of the past;
will learn that every historian—you included!—makes certain choices when studying the past and that debate about these choices is what constitutes the academic discipline of history.

The skills you will learn/develop in this course include:

Critical thinking. You will learn to reflect on history, the practice of history, and your own role as a historian;
Studying. You will learn how to study a textbook and how to study for an exam;
Academic writing. You will develop yourself as a writer of academic prose;
Research. You will learn to articulate your position in an academic debate.

Content

How do historians make sense of the past? What does it mean to study history? What does the academic discipline of history involve? This course, which serves as an introduction to the history degree at Utrecht University, explores these and similar questions about history as an academic discipline.

We will compare the academic practice of history with other ways of viewing the past and identify the difference between studying history at a university and doing history elsewhere. We will consider the history of the academic discipline of history—also known as historiography—and explore how historians today can relate to the work of previous generations of historians.

Exploring these topics will allow you to familiarize yourself with the wide range of academic approaches to the past. It will help you articulate how different approaches to the past yield different kinds of histories. And it will enable you to position yourself as a historian—a fundamental skill that you’ll use throughout your time here at the UU as well as in your future life as a historian.

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