What is a nation? Can nations exist without a state? Are nations created only in the imaginations of citizens? The purpose of this module is to explore how nations are shaped by economic, social, political and cultural forces. It will examine how national identities can be shaped by political parties, popular movements, historians and the heritage industry. People’s own attachment to place will be crucial in understanding how imagined histories, and historical processes, shaped protest and political movements. This module explores the identity and the social and political struggles of a minority people – members of a stateless nation, living within a multi-national state. It will explore how economic factors, language, religion, culture, education, philosophical values and politics played a role in shaping their consciousness and their history. It will ask how the ideas of oppression or suppression as well as difference could themselves be invented. An important component of the module will focus upon the heritage industry to ask how popular history plays a role in shaping and defining identity. You will be challenged to critically consider how you might present national histories to the public. The nation which forms the module’s subject matter is the nation in which you are currently living: Wales. The module will provide a case study for exploring questions of national identity and nation making, which will enable you to think more widely about the crucial theme of nations and nationalism in the modern world. No prior knowledge of Wales is necessary; all you need is an imagination and a willingness to engage in the immediate world around you.

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of how nations and national identities are shaped
• Evaluate and analyse the role of historians in presenting national histories
• Critically consider how history is both used and made in areas beyond that of academic historical practice
• Outline and critically discuss the major social and economic changes within Welsh society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
• Understand and interpret key concepts including identity, gender, class and popular culture in relation to modern Wales
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the development of political and social movements in modern Welsh society
• Analyse and interpret primary source materials

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of how nations and national identities are shaped
• Evaluate and analyse the role of historians in presenting national histories
• Critically consider how history is both used and made in areas beyond that of academic historical practice
• Outline and critically discuss the major social and economic changes within Welsh society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
• Understand and interpret key concepts including identity, gender, class and popular culture in relation to modern Wales
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the development of political and social movements in modern Welsh society
• Analyse and interpret primary source materials

While studying this module, students will communicate ideas and arguments in a variety of forms, including oral presentations, group work, and in written form. They will develop critical reading and writing skills as they engage with historical literature, placing this in a historiographical and methodological framework and coming to their own conclusion as to the validity of evidence and material on topics studied. They will, as a consequence, engage with theoretical arguments and apply this in their own work. During seminars students will analyse primary materials, collaborate with their peers to present ideas and arguments, offer presentations, and engage in plenary class discussions. The module will also focus on key employability and transferable skills through the heritage portfolio element. 

Students will be assessed by means of a combination of one 2000 word assessed essay [50%] and one 2000 word (or equivalent) portfolio [50%]. Students will also have the option to complete a 1,000 word unassessed primary source analysis.

Essay 1 is a formative piece of coursework designed to give students the opportunity to critically engage with and analyse a primary source on the topic they are studying. It must be no longer than 1,000 words (excluding appendices, references, and bibliography). Students will be expected to choose a primary source from the weeks studied, place it in its historical and historiographical context, consider its methodological uses and limitations, and to suggest the broader relevance of the source to historians. Students will be assessed on their understanding of the source chosen and their ability to critically engage with and analyse its broader uses and limitations.

Essay 2 will contribute 50% of the final mark for the module. It is designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. It must be no longer than 2,000 words (excluding appendices, references, and bibliography).

The Portfolio will contribute to 50% of the final module mark. The portfolio is designed to give students the opportunity to critically consider the presentation of history to the public through the heritage industry. Working in small groups, students will be required to choose a topic studied on the module and to consider how they might disseminate this topic to the wider public in an engaging and meaningful way. Each student will be required to submit their chosen form of presentation of a topic (e.g. panels for a museum, short documentary film, blog, heritage display) alongside a 1,000 word reflective commentary (including a critique of heritage and historiographical understanding of the topic). 

Syllabus content

Lecture plan:

• Introduction
• Nations, nationalism and stereotypes
• Economy and society in nineteenth century Wales
• Uprisings and riots: Protest movements, class and nation, 1830s-40s
• Welsh culture, popular culture and identity in nineteenth century Wales
• Politics in nineteenth century Wales
• Economy and society in twentieth century Wales
• Britishness and Welshness: Popular culture in the twentieth century
• National politics in twentieth century Wales
• Resisting change: Protest movements in twentieth century Wales
• Historians and Wales
• Assessment and the portfolio
• Case study: Cardiff in the nineteenth century
• Case study: Cardiff in the twentieth century
• Interpreting Cardiff’s history – guest lecture from someone from the museum sector
• Heritage: An introduction
• Heritage: A critique
• Images and imaginings of Wales: Film, art and novels
• Conclusion and revision

Seminar themes:

• Nations and nationalism
• Politics
• Protest
• Popular culture
• Heritage – critique
• Student-led seminar (group work for the portfolio)
• Heritage projects progression seminar
• Student-led seminar (group work for the portfolio)

Syllabus content

Lecture plan:

• Introduction
• Nations, nationalism and stereotypes
• Economy and society in nineteenth century Wales
• Uprisings and riots: Protest movements, class and nation, 1830s-40s
• Welsh culture, popular culture and identity in nineteenth century Wales
• Politics in nineteenth century Wales
• Economy and society in twentieth century Wales
• Britishness and Welshness: Popular culture in the twentieth century
• National politics in twentieth century Wales
• Resisting change: Protest movements in twentieth century Wales
• Historians and Wales
• Assessment and the portfolio
• Case study: Cardiff in the nineteenth century
• Case study: Cardiff in the twentieth century
• Interpreting Cardiff’s history – guest lecture from someone from the museum sector
• Heritage: An introduction
• Heritage: A critique
• Images and imaginings of Wales: Film, art and novels
• Conclusion and revision

Seminar themes:

• Nations and nationalism
• Politics
• Protest
• Popular culture
• Heritage – critique
• Student-led seminar (group work for the portfolio)
• Heritage projects progression seminar
• Student-led seminar (group work for the portfolio)

Stefan Berger and Chris Lorenz (eds), The Contested Nation: Ethnicity, Class, Religion and Gender in National Histories (Basingstoke, 2011)

Stefan Berger, M. Donavan and Kevin Passmore (eds), Writing National Histories: Western Europe Since 1800 (London, 1999)

John Davies, A History of Wales (London, 2007)

Martin Johnes, Wales Since 1939 (Manchester, 2012)

Tracey Loughran (ed.), A Practical Guide to Studying History (London, 2017) – Chapters by Mark Williams, Siobhan McGurk, Stephanie Ward, Jane Hamlett and David Wyatt.

Kenneth O. Morgan, Rebirth of a Nation: Wales 1880-1980 (Oxford, 1980)

Rhiannon Mason, Museums, Nations, Identities: Wales and its National Museums (Cardiff, 2007)