4000

This course explores the different relations that History has established with the social sciences from their professionalization during the second half of the 19th century. A particular emphasis is given to the positive and negative consequences that this dialogue has caused to this discipline. Similarly, the course intends to further clear specific aspects of history in relation with other social disciplines.

This course intends to analyze problems such as the reality in the past, the dichotomy narration-explanation, the types of realism and the relation between discourse and truth. It is also searched the understanding of discourse: from the rules that regulate writing, the models of understanding, the criteria of verification, the sources, the concept of objectivity, the understanding of historical time and even the sense, the function, and the necessity of history. In the present course, these elements will be analyzed in some cases of Middle Age writing, one of the most controversial periods of history.

This course intends to deal with the conceptual and methodological implications in the construction of historical knowledge. In recent decades the developments in the field of history show several contrasts in the way history is constructed, involving not only a variety of topics, but also different types of questions, variety in terms of the sources, and through them, new perspectives to understand the past. It will focus on the critical study of the historical knowledge that aims to become universal and hegemonic. With this purpose, work will be divided into two units, the first focused on the configuration of the forms of history with a universalist approach, and the second focused on the proposals that involve social groups so far excluded from historical analysis, highlighting the consideration of new sources.

The students work in an individual assignment along with a professor from the Department that encompasses the choice, reading and discussion of bibliography related to topics of particular interest for the students. At the end of the assignment, students are to write an essay based on the directed readings and the research. Through this scheme, it is expected to offer alternatives to graduate students when the seminars offered by the Department are deemed insufficient to meet their academic needs.

The words past, history, and historiography produce confusion, and with good reason. Historians must keep these three notions in play simultaneously: the past as an object, history as method, and histography as the sum of the works preceding our own. This course will examine the landscape of Colombian historiography, pausing at some of the main milestones of the last century. Each participating professor will approach a particular topic corresponding to a historiographic era.

The objective of this workshop is to provide students with a space to precise the topic and research problem of their graduation project and to elaborate their respective project, with the support of all the participants of the course.

During research workshop 2, there should be a first actual and concrete progress in the process of monograph writing and research. It implies a thorough revision and analysis of primary and secondary sources selected for the project. Furthermore, as minimum, the first chapter of the project should be written. Students must develop work with direct and punctual assistance by their director. In a complementary and parallel manner, collective sessions will be held for students to give oral presentations on their research works.

Research Workshop II represents the last stage of the research the students have developed throughout the program. This Workshop must conclude with the final version of the graduation monograph for the History Master’s Degree. The student works under the supervision of his/her director. In a parallel and complementary way, collective sessions where the students present the results of their research are held. The oral defense of the work determines the final evaluation and grading of the same.