History?

Puppet

Hello. Can anyone give me any sort information about History at Trinity? Are the lecturers any good? Would Trinity be a good choice if I want to end up being a Historian myself?

Those are the questions that I'm most interested in, but any scrap of information would be appreciated.

andrew

Trinity's History department is ranked 39th in the world; it's one of Trinity's top preforming departments (I think maths is the best; 15th in the world). So yes, Trinity's a good choice if you want to study History.

I have a friend just in her last year of History now and she absolutely loves it. From what I can tell, there's a lot of reading involved, a good chance to delve into things that particularly interest you and there have been some weeks she only had 6 hours of lectures!

I hate history but even to me it sounds pretty good.

gutenberg

I did history. It is amazing.

Though be aware that if you want to be 'an historian', a degree is just the beginning of a long hard road!

If you have any more questions, ask away!

Puppet

Thanks for all the replies! Your answers reassured me that I am making a good choice, so I'm pretty happy now.

And I know becoming a historian isn't the easiest thing to do, but I love history a lot, so hopefully I'll be able for it.

Thanks again for the replies .

zam

Just to warn you there is very little choice in the freshmen years of history, so you may end up doing modules you really hate at the start. You have to do a certain amount of medieval, Irish, European, etc.
In first year I did two modules: Europe 1000-1250, and Ireland 1250-1500. Hated both subjects but I like history overall (reading, researching, writing essays, developing arguments etc)

gutenberg

zam wrote: »

Just to warn you there is very little choice in the freshmen years of history, so you may end up doing modules you really hate at the start. You have to do a certain amount of medieval, Irish, European, etc.
In first year I did two modules: Europe 1000-1250, and Ireland 1250-1500. Hated both subjects but I like history overall (reading, researching, writing essays, developing arguments etc)

Yes they've changed that haven't they? When I was in JF & SF we didn't have any compulsory modules (which meant I got to escape Ireland 1250-1500 ), so we could choose across the entire range. However, the modules were arranged differently so I don't think we got to take as many as you guys do now: for example, the Europe 1500-1700 course was a full year, and most people only got to take one or two other similarly year-long courses.

To the OP however, when you get to third and fourth year the range of options just explodes, many of them highly interesting and current in terms of ongoing research.

Denerick

A very worthy degree course with some fantastic staff (In particular try and get into anything that Ciarán Brady, Patrick Geoghegan, Robinson, or Conor Kostick teaches)

gutenberg

Denerick wrote: »

Ciarán Brady, Patrick Geoghegan

Really?

Robinson I completely agree with you on

Denerick

gutenberg wrote: »

Really?

Robinson I completely agree with you on

Geoghegan is a bit like Marmite I agree, but Ciaran Brády is without doubt Ireland's least appreciated national treasure.

gutenberg

Denerick wrote: »

Geoghegan is a bit like Marmite I agree, but Ciaran Brády is without doubt Ireland's least appreciated national treasure.

Marmite is a perfect description for Geoghegan.

Brady? Hmmm, he's a very engaging lecturer, and has produced some great stuff both on Tudor Ireland & on historiographical movements. But I don't think he has really produced anything of note for quite a while now- there are far more exciting historians of early modern Ireland working in the same department, nevermind elsewhere.

_Bella_

For TSM history are you able to choose any 3 of the modules available for first year?

Denerick

gutenberg wrote: »

Marmite is a perfect description for Geoghegan.

Brady? Hmmm, he's a very engaging lecturer, and has produced some great stuff both on Tudor Ireland & on historiographical movements. But I don't think he has really produced anything of note for quite a while now- there are far more exciting historians of early modern Ireland working in the same department, nevermind elsewhere.

He is at his most engaging with historiography and 19th century historians. Its not about his body of work, just his general character and the manner in which he expresses ideas. I am a bit of a fanboy though, I must admit.

gutenberg

_Bella_ wrote: »

For TSM history are you able to choose any 3 of the modules available for first year?

As far as I understand the system, if you are TSM you *have* to do the modules 'Doing History' and 'Europe 1000-1250' in the first term. In the second term you can choose a further two modules from the list available, but bear in mind that by the end of second year, you have to have done a certain amount of medieval, Irish, & European history. Have a look here, pp. 9-12: http://www.tcd.ie/history/assets/pdf/ug/Freshman%20Handbook%20(2011-12).pdf

Denerick wrote: »

He is at his most engaging with historiography and 19th century historians. Its not about his body of work, just his general character and the manner in which he expresses ideas. I am a bit of a fanboy though, I must admit.

I did enjoy his third year lectures I must admit (probably almost the only one in my year to enjoy historiography ) but apart from his corpus of work, I wasn't too impressed with how he handled supervision of undergraduate dissertations in recent years (including my fourth year, though he didn't supervise me): definitely not a case of being scatterbrained or disorganised, but outright favouritism and shirking of responsibility with some students. So I'm a bit torn really!

Lune

Sorry to resurrect this thread but just looking for more info on the actual course, like what kind of work does it involve? Curious about 'tutorials', don't really understand what they entail

gutenberg

Tutorials are small-group classes. Typically there will be 10-15 students per group (depending on the course). You will usually be asked to read a primary source or two, plus a selection of the secondary reading for each class. The tutorials tend to be focused on discussion, so there'll be some analysis and discussion of the sources, and you can bring in the secondary reading you've read to back up your points, etc. I always found tutorials to be the best part of a course. Lectures are helpful for the big picture, but tutorials let you get into some of the nitty gritty of historical analysis and evaluating sources etc.

endasmail

You will have written assignments to be done every week for your tutorials
These will be taken by the teaching assistant who will correct them and hand them back with any corrections to be made to your writing and/or analysis of the material you have covered.

Siobhan6

Lune wrote: »

Sorry to resurrect this thread but just looking for more info on the actual course, like what kind of work does it involve? Curious about 'tutorials', don't really understand what they entail

Tutorials are basically there to give you a chance to discuss the lectures in a bit more detail. There are about 10-15 in a tutorial group and six tutorials per term in your first and second years. Basically, you go away from the lecture and do some reading about the topic, then bring it to the discussion and everyone gives their views/ideas. Some teaching assistants also ask for you to put together a short piece (about 500 words) so they can assess your essay techniques and things like that. They're very useful.

I'm just finishing off my history degree this week (hurray!) and I loved it. But it is pretty much ALL reading. Don't be fooled when people say "only 6 lectures per week!" etc because you can be guaranteed you'll spend another 30 hours at least reading stuff for them. If you're going for top grades that is.

The syllabus has changed since I was in first year but I think they kept the same structure. So basically over the course of your first two years you have to to 2 Irish, 2 European and 2 Medieval modules. But one module can be both Irish and Medieval etc. if you know what I mean. It's a bit of a pain if you already want to focus on a certain area but there are plenty of module choices so you can normally find something you're really interested in.

Hope that helps! Any more questions just ask

Lune

Thanks for the responses everyone, feel like I have a much better idea of what the course is like now! The tutorials sound a bit daunting with the discussion aspect, I'm more of a listener, but I'll still definitely be applying for TSM History

Skcornnelg

Lune wrote: »

Thanks for the responses everyone, feel like I have a much better idea of what the course is like now! The tutorials sound a bit daunting with the discussion aspect, I'm more of a listener, but I'll still definitely be applying for TSM History

Im the majority of my tutorials there are usually 4-5 people that do most of the talking. Some TAs will be satisfied with that. However, if there is a lag in the conversation or they see some people not contributing week on week, they will often pick up on it and will ask them for their opinion or a specific question.