Life at the Margins: Sinners, Deviants and Outcasts in Early Modern Scotland, c.1550-c.1750 module (HY31041)

This module explores the experiences and treatment of individuals or groups perceived as different or outside the mainstream in early modern Scotland (from the mid-1500s to mid-1700s). We will look at a series of case studies of discrete marginal groups.

These groups of people include:

• those in poverty
• "vagrants" and "itinerants"
• criminals
• "witches"
• highlanders
• migrants and immigrants
• "sexual deviants"
• religious non-conformists
• women
• Jacobites and political non-conformists

What you will learn

In this module, you will:

• critically analyse different marginal groups in early modern Scotland

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• understand why early modern society regarded certain behaviours and backgrounds as abnormal or deviant
• demonstrate knowledge on how early modern society policed the boundaries of the mainstream

Assignments / assessment

• essay 3,500 words (45%)
• oral presentation (15%)
• research project 2,500 words (40%)

This module does not have a final exam.

Teaching methods / timetable

• lectures
• workshops
• seminars