The methodology of the empirical work in the humanities

The students will develop the ability to:
- formulate research questions, to collect archival sources and to perform independent research;
- classify, organize and analyze sources and literature;
- choose proper methodological approaches
- discussion, synthesis and presentation of research findings.

No prerequisits are required.

The course will discuss the advent and present the development of historiography as a scientific discipline and the approaches to the research of the mankind and the societies in a historical perspective from the 18th Century onwards. The students will be acquanted with the theoretical bases, methodological approaches, analitical cathegories and practical achievments of the Enlightenmet historiographic paradigm, the historicism, the Annales school and the following modern historiographical paradigms as the German and American social history, the historical anthropology, the »history from below«, the microhistory, the history of everyday life, the new cultural history and the oral history. The methodological and epistemological issues that have been the subject of in-depth discussions in scientific community and influenced the development of modern historiography will be presented. An important place in the implementation of the course will be devoted to the practical presentation of quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches, which students will then be using during seminars and individual research work. Quantitative methods will focus on the field of economic and social history with particular emphasys on demography and family history (types of resources, selection and analysis of data pre-modern and modern population statistics). The selection of qualitative methods will be made in accordance with the students’ propositions, ranging from classical archival sources, sources of oral history to other types of sources (illustrations, photographs, ego-documents). Attention will also be devoted to the digital humanities.

Students will acquire:
- an overview of the development of historiography and research approaches;
- an overview of the types of sources and gathering materials for the study of history;
- an overview of the organization of archives services in Slovenia and in the neighboring countries.
-basic knowledge of digital humanities
Students are able to:
- use qualitative and methodological approaches for independent work;
- search and analyze documentary and archival sources;
- formulate research questions;
- independently conduct a research, solve specific methodological and epistemological problems.

• Burke, Peter (1993), Revolucija v francoskem zgodovinopisju: Anali 1929–89. Ljubljana, Škuc, (izbrana poglavja) Catalogue
• Tilly, Charles Big (1989). Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons. New York, Russell Sage Foundation Catalogue E-version
• Hudson, Pat (2000), History by Numbers: An Introduction to Quantitative Approaches, Bloomsbury, Hodder Arnold Publication, (izbrana poglavja) Catalogue E-version
• Burke, Peter (2007), Kaj je kulturna zgodovina. Ljubljana: Založba Sophia. Catalogue
• Thompson, Paul (2000), The Voice of the Past. Oral History, Oxford University Press, (izbrana poglavja).Catalogue E-version
• Selected qualitative and and quantitative archival, newspaper and fieldwork sources, professional online publications.

Seminar paper (30 %) and oral exam (70 %).

1) Kalc A., Milharčič Hladnik M., Žitnik Serafin J., Doba velikih migracij na Slovenskem. Ljubljana, Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2020, 515 str..
2) KALC A. (Ed.), Nadzor migracij na Slovenskem od liberalizma do socializma. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2021, 335 str.
3) Kalc A., “In this way we can feel closer”: audio letters between Australia and Trieste/Trst, Studia Historica Slovenica, 2015, št. 1, str. 201–220.
4) Kalc A. (D. Žerjal), Il dovere della memoria: una testimonianza sull'antifascismo sloveno nella Venezia Giulia, (Collana Centro Gasparini). Gradisca d'Isonzo: Centro isontino di ricerca e documentazione storica e sociale "Leopoldo Gasparini"; Gorizia: Fondazione, Sklad Dorče Sardoč, 2011, 159 str..
5) Kalc A., Tržaško prebivalstvo v 18. stoletju: priseljevanje kot gibalo demografske rasti in družbenih sprememb, (Knjižnica Annales Majora). Koper: Univerza na Primorskem, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče, Založba Annales: Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko; Trst: Narodna in študijska knjižnica, 2008, 344 str.