Module ARAM210 for 2019/0
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Postgraduate Module Descriptor
ARAM210: Themes and Conflicts in Iranian History and Culture
This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.
Module Aims
The module aims to give an overview of the prime themes, conflicts, events, and personalities of Iranian history, to give you a confident grasp of the main essentials, and to develop your abilities to research, analyse and discuss the political and historical questions involved. The module aims to develop your skills in using primary and secondary data and sources when evaluating or contextualizing issues in Iranian history and culture.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
---|---|
Module-Specific Skills | 1. Understand key issues over a broad sweep of Iranian history 2. Explain confidently the significance of personalities and events within the range of the module |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Find, use and analyse secondary and primary data relevant to specific issue areas 4. Place issues discussed in a wider context and deploy critical arguments. |
Personal and Key Skills | 5. Apply critical and analytical skills through readings, class discussions and presentations 6. Enhance your ability to undertake historical and political analysis. |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
Pre-Islamic Iran; devolved rule, religion and the nature of kingship
The Islamic conquest; Continuity and change; perceptions and significance
Invasions and resurgence from Seljuk to Timurid (c900 AD to 1450)
Sufism and the great Persian poets
The Safavids and the nature of Iranian Shiism
Nader Shah and the 18th century interregnum
The Qajars and the Constitutional Revolution; humiliation and liberalism
Reza Shah, the army and development
Writers and intellectual movements in the twentieth century
Mohammad Reza Shah, Mossadeq and Khomeini
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
---|---|---|
22 | 278 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 22 | 11 x 2 hour seminars |
Guided independent study | 120 | Readings for class |
40 | Preparation of presentations | |
118 | Research and writing of 2 essays |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
ELE
Other Learning Resources
Encyclopedia Iranica (http://www.iranica.com/)
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|
Weekly presentations | Weekly | 1-6 | Verbal feedback |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
---|---|---|
100 | 0 | 0 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|---|
Essay 1 | 50 | 4,000 words | 1-6 | Mark with written comments |
Essay 2 | 50 | 4,000 words | 1-6 | Mark with written comments |
0 |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
---|---|---|---|
Essay 1 | Essay (4,000 words) | 1-6 | August/September reassessment period |
Essay 2 | Essay (4,000 words) | 1-6 | August/September reassessment period |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Ervand Abrahamian, Iran between Two Revolutions, Princeton 1982
Yann Richard, Iran, Cambridge, 2019
Ali Ansari, Modern Iran Since 1797, London, 2019
A J Arberry, Classical Persian Literature, London 1958 (reprinted 2004)
Michael Axworthy, Iran: Empire of the Mind, London (Penguin) 2008
The Cambridge History of Iran (7 vols) (various authors)
Richard N Frye, The Golden Age of Persia, London, 1975
Marshall G S Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, Chicago, 1974
Nikki Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution, Yale, 2006
Ann K S Lambton, Landlord and Peasant in Persia, London, 1991
David Menashri, Post-Revolutionary Politics in Iran: Religion, Society and Power, London, 2001
Baqer Moin, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah, London, 1999
Roy Mottahedeh, The Mantle of the Prophet, Harmondsworth (Penguin), 1987
Reza Saberi, A Thousand Years of Persian Rubaiyat, Bethesda, 2000
The Idea of Iran, various authors in volumes, Tauris, 2002-