Aims and Assessment
Assessed Work (Summative Assessments)
Students will be evaluated as follows:
- 1 1500 word essay (10%) (First term)
- 1 3000 word essay (40%) (Second Term)
- 2-essay, seven-day take home exam (40%) (Third Term)
- 1 3000 word essay (40%) (Second Term)
- Class participation (10%) (Taken over the three terms)
You will find information about the deadlines for essays on Tabula. The 7-day, take home exam will take place during summer term and the deadline will be scheduled closer to the time.
Advice about essay writing can be found in the History Undergraduate Handbook and a more tailored handout by the module tutors here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/undergraduate/essaywriting
Information about take home exams can be found in the History Undergraduate Student Handbook here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/undergraduate/assess-exams
Information about marking assessed essays, take-home exams and class participation can be found in the Undergraduate Student Handbook here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/undergraduate/assessments-marking
Everything you need to know about this years' take-home exams is here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/ugexams/
Always be sure to footnote and reference according to the guidelines in the UG Student Handbook and on the University of Warwick's quick guide:
You can find guidance on referencing here https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/undergraduate/essaywriting/#referencing
You can find guidance on bibliographies here: https://www.mhra.org.uk/style/chapter8.html#section_8_3
The library's quick guide to referencing and bibliographies is here: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/students/referencing/referencing-styles/#mhra
You can find a seminar contribution reflection handout here:
Seminar Contribution Reflection
Non-Assessed Work (Optional Formative Assessments)
To practice, students can choose to do and of the following: a non-assessed essay for week 10 of term 1, a mock exam for week 10 of term 2, a 15 minute presentation in the relevant seminar.
Past Exam Paper
You can find past papers here under the current course code, HI2E7: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/exampapers?q=Mexico&department=HI&year=2021
Suggested essay questions for the 1500 word essay.
Why did Mexico become Independent from New Spain?
Why did Mexico suffer such civil turmoil in the period, 1821-1846?
How democratic was post-Independence Mexico?
How did the Mexican-American war affect Mexico?
Explain the causes of the Mexican-American war.
Why did Mexico undergo such rapid growth during the Porfiriato?
What were the changes in land ownership in Mexico, 1870 to 1940?
How did Mexican women's roles change, 1910-1940?
To what extent did the Porfiriato usher in a “land grab of massive proportions”?
How did different peasant groups negotiate the new land laws of the Porfiriato?
What were the cultural effects of modernity on Mexico?
How did Porfirian state culture envisage subaltern groups?
What were the causes of the Mexican Revolution?
What were the roles of women during the Mexican Revolution?
How popular was the Mexican Revolution?
The Revolution changed from a series of radical agrarian revolts to a project of modern state formation. How fair is this assessment of the Mexican Revolution?
How radical was the Mexican Revolution?
How, if at all, did the Revolution change cultural and social attitudes?
What were the effects of the state's education project?
“More a cultural than a socio-economic project”. Is this a fair assessment of the post-revolutionary state?
How did attitudes towards indigenous groups change after the Revolution? How did this affect the everyday lives of indigenous groups?
How authoritarian was the post-1940 Mexican state?
How did the Mexican state manage to maintain control of popular groups after 1940?
How important were the student protests of 1968?
What were the causes of Mexican democratization?
What was the significance of Mexico’s guerrilla groups?
How did the state control the Mexican media? How effective was this control?
What were the causes of Mexico's 1980s crisis?
How did the position of indigenous groups change during last three decades of the twentieth century?
Explain the rise of the Zapatistas.
Explain the influence of the drugs industry in Mexico.
How have policymakers proposed to end the Mexican drug trade? How viable are these suggestions?
Explain the rise of narcoculture.
Contact Hours
Student contact hours for this second-year option module will be comprised as follows:
| Lectures: | Twenty two one-hour lectures |
| Seminars: | Twenty two one-hour seminars |
| Tutorials: | Four hours of feedback and long essay preparation |
| Total: | Forty-eight hours |