Att kontextualisera som student

Learning to contextualize as a student

Linn Holmberg

Understanding the actions, world views, and conventions of past societies is not always an easy task. Many things may seem strange or outright appalling from a twenty-first century perspective. Historical disciplines typically strive to understand the past “on its own terms”, by means of contextualization. But how is the art of contextualizing taught and learned? Is there a manual for how to begin, proceed, and advance? In short, is there an ABC of contextualizing? In this chapter, these questions are explored using the undergraduate course in History of Ideas as an example. The chapter reflects on how students can learn the difference between analyzing, synthetizing, criticizing, and contextualizing. It also describes what kinds of historical contextualization students typically are introduced to, and why. Finally, it examines how listening to lectures, reading literature, discussing at seminars, and writing examinations can be seen as crucial steps in learning how to contextualize.