Sources and Methods of Cultural History

Course goals

After completing the course:

• You will know and master the main cultural history methods at an advanced level.
• You are able to convert this knowledge into and apply the concrete research skills needed to conduct independent cultural-historical research.
• You are able, in an independent and reflected manner, to make the link between a given source and an appropriate theoretical framework and method.

Content

This course introduces you to some of the most important methods used by cultural historians, such as discourse analysis, close reading, and digital hermeneutics. These methods are linked to key cultural-historical theories covered in the course Understanding Culture and illustrated through the hands-on study of primary sources, such as ego documents, digital databases, and material objects.