HS3SGA: Gender in Africa

Module code: HS3SGA

Module provider: History; School of Humanities

Credits: 40

Level: Level 3 (Honours)

When you'll be taught: Semester 1 / 2

Module convenor: Dr Heike Schmidt, email: h.i.schmidt@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 11 November 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

Special Subject modules provide 'hands-on' experience of the historian's task through the close examination and evaluation of primary sources and the light they shed on issues and problems.  

This module will: 

• Survey the history of gender in Africa south of the Sahara from circa 1700 to the present through case studies in West, East, and Southern Africa; 
• Reflect on the range of approaches within Gender History and on methodologies applied to recover gendered voices from the past; 
• Consider gender in Africa against the relevant historiographic debates that shaped African Studies relating to politics and culture.  

The purpose of the module is to allow students to further develop and demonstrate the skills they have gained working with primary sources throughout their degree programme. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Achieve a detailed command of varying historical interpretations of the primary materials and subject as a whole
2. Recognise and interpret in detail a wide range of different primary materials
3. Locate and assemble information on the subject by independent research
4. Deploy primary materials to shed light on the issues and problems being studied

Module content

This module explores gender in the African past. While there is a focus on girls’ and women’s experiences, it takes the broader approaches of Gender and gendered History and in some sessions also of the History of Sexuality and Queer Studies. Some of the questions raised are: how do gender relations relate to wider power relations, for example in African slave owning and trading societies? How did the onset of colonialism transform gender identities? How do religions, such as Islam and spirit cults, intersect with gender? How does the gender division of labour reflect and inform gender identities? What are African masculinities? More broadly, this module asks: is gender a useful category of historical analysis, as Joan Scott postulated in 1986? If so, is it universal or culturally specific? After some introductory readings on concepts, methodology, and historiography, we will trace these questions through case studies across time and space from the women warriors of Dahomey and a teenage prophetess in the Kingdom of Kongo in the eighteenth century to the phenomenon of child soldiers in the twentieth century to today. Given the nature of the subject, some explicit imagery and language may be found among the course material relating to sexuality and violence.  

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

• The teaching for this module involves weekly two-hour discussion seminars
• Students will gain ‘hands-on’ experience of the historian’s task through the detailed evaluations of key texts, objects, and images, and the light they shed on the issues and problems being investigated
• Students will be required to prepare for seminars through reading from both the primary sources and the secondary literature

Study hours

At least 44 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Formative work, for instance essay plans, seminar presentations, book reviews, posters, practice source commentaries, will be required for this Special Subject over the two semesters. Practice commentaries on the sources will be required for formative assessment. 

Reassessment

Additional costs