Overview

Topics may include: - The advent of the Normans and the rule of Robert Guiscard and Roger the Great Count of Sicily, 1000-1112; - Roger II: from count to king: 1112-1154; - Roger II: The creation of an empire; - Reign of William I 'the Bad', 1154-1166; - Reign of William II 'the Good', 1166-1189; - Court culture and race relations; - Administration, law and kingship; - The Church; - The mosaics of the Norman kingdom: Cefalu, Palermo and Monreale.

Students taking the course will study these topics using both primary sources (including the art produced in the kingdom) and the modern historiography.

Assessment Strategy

-threshold -Threshold students (D- and D) will have done only a minimum of reading, and their work will often be based partly on lecture notes and/or basic text books. They will demonstrate in their written assessments some knowledge of at least parts of the relevant field, and will make at least partially-successful attempts to frame an argument which engages with historical controversies, but they will fail to discuss some large and vital aspects of a topic; and/or deploy only some relevant material but partly fail to combine it into a coherent whole; and/or deploy some evidence to support individual points but often fail to do so and/or show difficulty weighing evidence (thereby relying on unsuitable or irrelevant evidence when making a point).Alternatively or additionally, the presentation of the work might also be poor, with bad grammar and/or punctuation, careless typos and spelling errors, and a lack of effective and correct referencing.

-good -Good students (B- to B+) will demonstrate a solid level of achievement and depth of knowledge in all the criteria in the C- to C+ range, and will in addition exhibit constructive engagement with different types of historical writing and historiographical interpretation. Ideas will be communicated effectively and written work will include a good range of sources/reading and demonstrate a clear understanding of the issues and of the existing interpretations expressed in a well-structured, relevant, and focused argument. Students at the top end of this band will engage with and critique the ideas that they come across, and synthesise the various interpretations they find to reach their own considered conclusions. Written work will be correctly presented with references and bibliography where appropriate.

-excellent -Excellent students (A- and above) will show strong achievement across all the criteria combined with particularly impressive depths of knowledge and/or subtlety of analysis. In written work, they will support their arguments with a wealth of relevant detail/examples. They will also demonstrate an acute awareness of the relevant historiography and give an account of why the conclusions reached are important within a particular historical debate. They may show a particularly subtle approach to possible objections, nuancing their argument in the light of counter-examples, or producing an interesting synthesis of various contrasting positions. Overall, the standards of content, argument, and analysis expected will be consistently superior to top upper-second work. Standards of presentation will also be high.

-another level-Students in this band (C- to C+) will demonstrate a satisfactory range of achievement or depth of knowledge of most parts of the module, and will make successful, if occasionally inconsistent, attempts to develop those skills appropriate to the study of History at undergraduate level. In the case of the written assessments, the answers will attempt to focus on the question, although might drift into narrative, and will show some evidence of solid reading and research. The argument might lose direction and might not be adequately clear at the bottom of this category. Written work will be presented reasonably well with only limited errors in grammar, punctuation, and referencing, and not to the extent that they obscure meaning.

Learning Outcomes

• Compose precise, critical, and cogent arguments in essays and exams.

• Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the politics, society, and culture of the Norman kingdom of Sicily

• Demonstrate a familiarity with the primary sources for the topics taught over the course of the module

• Demonstrate an ability to reflect on personal performance in, and engagement with, the module by completing self-reflective comments in essays.

• Demonstrate an ability to use relevant software including Word and Power Point

• Demonstrate an engagement with the historiography (as listed in the module handbook) that relates to the topics covered by the module.

• Demonstrate and ability to judge between competing interpretations of events or developments.