HI6010 - Women, Crime and Subversion in Early Modern Europe

You will learn on this module by attending lecturers and seminars that present core concepts of female criminality and subversion, a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the history of female criminality, and the historiographical debates in the field. You will be expected to prepare for the weekly seminars by undertaking essential and recommended reading, and will build upon your independent reading by presenting your ideas and arguments in seminar discussions with your peers. All learning materials, tasks and readings will be posted on the eLearning Portal (Blackboard) to enable participation within the seminar programme. You will participate in formative assessment activities and receive feedback, and will be responsible for your own guided and independent learning. Summative assessment matches your learning against the learning outcomes for the module.

Your academic development will be supported through engagement with your academic tutors, your peers, and programme leaders. Academic support is provided through group/individual tutorials which allow specific issues to be addressed and to promote progress in academic development. The module tutor will be accessible within publicised office hours and via email. Your peers will provide you with a collaborative learning environment, and your programme leader will guide you through the requirements and expectations of your course. You will also be supported through individual engagement with the academic literature, lectures, and resources available on the eLearning Portal. Formative feedback will be on-going throughout seminar activities and through assessment tasks.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Critically analyse the way in which scholars understand key issues of female criminal history, such as the rise in legal definitions of female crime, and the move towards increasingly punitive treatments of women across Europe, as well as the agency of women within the legal systems across Europe.

2. Critically discuss and consider the position of women in studies of criminality in the early modern period, along with the conceptual debates over female behaviour labelled criminal and deviant.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
3. Critically engage with historical theories and methodologies to investigate and analyse women’s relationship to the courts and law.

4. Apply knowledge and communicate your informed opinions about early modern female criminality to challenge historical claims and arguments.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
5. Demonstrate an awareness of historical treatment of criminal and subversive women, and how these legal changes have shaped perceptions of female behaviour over time, including our own perceptions.

Your knowledge and understanding of women, crime and subversion in early modern Europe, your ability to analyse and critically discuss historiographical theories, their assumptions and application, and present a variety of primary evidence will be tested in two 3,000 word essays, set by the tutor, which will span the breadth of the modules’ coverage. MLOs 1-5

You will have the opportunity to present your work in seminars in student led discussion of the modules central themes. You will receive formative feedback from your lecturer in classroom discussions, debates and tutorial sessions. Formative assessment through your lecturer will be written and verbal. You will also receive feedback through your engagement with your peers who will enable you to test your explanations about the nature of changes in female criminality and its treatment throughout Europe, allowing you to form your own understanding of the diversity of women’s criminal behaviour across Europe c. 1400-1800. Feedback on your first summative assessment will allow you to improve on later ones.

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Please find details of this module in the other sections provided.