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FAK3103 Theory and Method in History, Part 1 7.5 credits

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Perspectives on historical research, historiography, sources and criticism of sources, methods in historical research, explanations in historical research as well as in the social sciences in general.

Information per course offering

Termin

Information for Autumn 2025 Start 27 Oct 2025 programme students

Course location

KTH Campus

Duration
27 Oct 2025 - 12 Jan 2026
Periods

Autumn 2025: P2 (7.5 hp)

Pace of study

50%

Application code

50894

Form of study

Normal Daytime

Language of instruction

English

Course memo
Course memo is not published
Number of places

Places are not limited

Target group
No information inserted
Planned modular schedule
[object Object]
Schedule
Schedule is not published
Part of programme
No information inserted

Contact

Examiner
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Course coordinator
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Teachers
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Course syllabus as PDF

Please note: all information from the Course syllabus is available on this page in an accessible format.

Course syllabus FAK3103 (Spring 2019–)
Headings with content from the Course syllabus FAK3103 (Spring 2019–) are denoted with an asterisk ( )

Content and learning outcomes

Course contents

Perspectives on historical research, historiography, sources and criticism of sources, methods in historical research, explanations in historical research as well as in the social sciences in general.

Intended learning outcomes

For the research student after the course to be able to account for, discuss, analyse and apply historiographical practices - international as well as national Swedish, different perspectives on science in general and historical research in particular, important themes and problems recent historical research, sources and criticism of sources, methods of historical research, construction of explanations in historical research in relation to those of social science in general and to have reflected on the course literature in relation to the topic of the thesis.

Literature and preparations

Specific prerequisites

Eligibility to be accepted in the graduate programme History of Technology.

Literature

Ernst Breisach, On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and its Aftermath (Chicago, 2003); John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past (Oxford, 2002); Georg G. Iggers Historiography in the Twentieth Century (1997); Peter Burke, What is Cultural History? (Cambridge, 2004); Miguel A. Cabrera. Postsocial History: An Introduction, eng. övers. (Lanham, Md., 2004); Elizabeth Clark, History, Theory, Text: Historians and the Lingustic Turn (Cambridge, Mass., 2004); Lynn Hunt, ed., The New Cultural History (Berkeley, 1989); Russell Jacoby, "A New Intellectual History?", The American Historical Review 97 (1992), 405-424; Keith Jenkins, ed., The Postmodern History Reader (New York, 1997); Dominick Lacapra, "Intellectual History and Its Ways", The American Historical Review 97 (1992), 425-439; Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession (Cambridge, 1988) m.m.

Literature is announced within a month before the course starts.

Examination and completion

Grading scale

P, F

Examination

  • UPP1 - Essay, 7.5 credits, grading scale: P, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

If the course is discontinued, students may request to be examined during the following two academic years.

Other requirements for final grade

Active participation in seminars and independently written essays.

Examiner

Ethical approach

  • All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
  • In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
  • In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.

Further information

Course room in Canvas

Registered students find further information about the implementation of the course in the course room in Canvas. A link to the course room can be found under the tab Studies in the Personal menu at the start of the course.

Offered by

Education cycle

Third cycle

Supplementary information

The course is mandatory for licentiates as well as Ph.Ds in the graduate programme in History of Technology.

Postgraduate course

Postgraduate courses at ABE/History of Science, Technology and Environment