History BA (Hons) module details
Year one | Year two | Year three
Year one
Block 1: Modern Britain since 1800
This module will introduce students to the social, cultural, economic, and political history of Britain from the mid-eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. Through close reading of primary source material and the assessment of historiographical debates and trends, students will develop key analytical skills and become confident in identifying change and continuity across the time period. Topics covered may include industrialisation and decline, poverty and the rise of the welfare state, political and electoral change, culture and leisure, social class and social change, and multi-ethnic Britain.
Assessment: Primary Source Analysis (30%) and Portfolio (70%).
Block 2: Journeys and Places
You will attend interactive lectures with students from across the School of Humanities and Performing Arts. You will have opportunities to apply the concepts addressed in these lectures to History within subject specific workshops, and through History writing assessments.
The themes covered during the module may include journeys, spaces and the concept of welcome; (im)mobilities and journeys through time and space; representation and imaginative geographies; gender and placemaking; belonging and place attachment; journeys, places and identities; as well as themes related to sustainability and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Assessment: Subject-specific Coursework: 1 (30%) and 2 (70%).
Block 3: Nationalism and Revolutions in the Nineteenth Century
This module will introduce students to the rise of nationalism, the significance of the nation-state as a unit of political organisation, the development and expansion of empires (both European and non-European), and the impact of revolutions throughout the nineteenth century from a global perspective. Through thematic lectures, seminars, workshops, and independent reading, students will explore a range of case studies and develop an understanding of these fundamental building blocks of modern history. Students will additionally learn to identify different historiographical approaches that historians have utilised to study these important historical themes.
Assessment: Secondary Source Analysis (35%) and Essay (65%).
Block 4: Ideology, War and Society in the 20th century
This module introduces students to the way the world has evolved throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. It does so by focusing upon specific events such as the First and Second World Wars, the collapse of European empires, and revolutions in Europe. The module will also explore key ideologies and themes related to rise of extremism and terrorism, socialism, capitalism, genocide, and the development of new world order through the spread and clash of civilisations and globalisation. Students will also be introduced to the key historiographical approaches which have shaped historical writing over the past two centuries, such as empiricism, Marxism, postmodernism, and history from below.
Assessment: e.g., Essay (40%) and Exam (60%).
Year two
Block 1: Global Cold War
This module introduces students to the history of the Cold War in a global context. It explores the roots of the Cold War and how it played out in specific theatres such as Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. The course deals with a variety of historical topics, which aside from global geopolitics might include sport and diplomacy, the nuclear arms race, the space race, and culture and society in the Cold War era. It also explores the ideological underpinnings of the Cold War, the role of propaganda as a weapon of the conflict and how these ideologies functioned in practice in different societies. The module will also address historiography and the competing interpretations of the Cold War by scholars and practitioners and assess the global legacy of the conflict. Students will study a broad range of themes, issues and controversies related to the Cold War and its legacies and gain an understanding of the parameters of it.
Assessment: e.g., Essay (50%) and Digital Presentation (50%).
Block 2: Exploring Work and Society.
This module is designed to prepare and support you towards the pursuit of post-degree pathways. It will focus on the specific skills, capabilities and knowledge needed to adapt and flourish in professional environments and contexts. There will be an emphasis on enhancement of core attributes, competencies and transferable skills as well as developing familiarity with the world and politics of work. The module will prepare you for diverse and dynamic working environments beyond university by introducing reflective practices to support your long-term professional development.
You will be introduced to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and invited to engage critically around themes including race, gender, identity, and geopolitical issues, to conceptualize a more equitable society, and environmentally sustainable world, as relevant to your career aspirations.
You will engage with History workshops to gain greater understanding of worlds of work connected to History and related fields. You will take part in lectures, seminars, group discussion, independent learning, tutorial support and engagement with your peers.
Supported independent learning activities may include responding to real-world briefs, placements/shadowing, engagement with community projects or initiatives, creating proposals for projects or initiatives in a professional setting. These activities will be tailored to your History programme.
Assessment: Written Portfolio or Recorded Presentation (100%).
Block 3: Migration, Multiculturalism, and Racism
This module will examine the centrality of migration, multiculturalism and racism in the development of the modern world. Focusing mainly on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the module will tackle themes that might include theories and criticisms of the concept of multiculturalism, histories and experiences of migration, theories of diaspora, the social and economic status of minorities, the ways in which ethnic, racial, migrant, religious or other types of minorities interact with the dominant society and culture, and the representation of these experiences in sports and visual culture. Case studies that might be examined in this module include the Jewish community in Britain, the global African diaspora, the origins of multicultural Britain, among others.
Assessment: Primary Source Analysis (40%) and Essay (60%).
Block 4: Investigating the Past
The module will introduce students to a range of historical sources and research methods used in project work. The module will examine core themes in history and the sources/methods associated with them. The methodologies studied will then be adapted to a personal research project, which will lead to the Level 6 dissertation. Study of sources may include maps; economic data; census; national and local government records; diplomatic and military records; press and media; records of education, health, poverty/charity and criminality; church and religious history; oral history; visual sources. There will be visits to archives and relevant research depositories.
Assessment: Primary Source Analysis (40%) and Project Portfolio (60%).
Year three
Block 1: Special Subject
This module will introduce students to cutting-edge research drawn from the expertise available in the History team. Two subjects will be drawn from the following: Photography and Medicine in the Nineteenth Century; the Disintegration of Yugoslavia; the Olympic Games; the United States Empire; the United States and the First World War; the Zimbabwean Diaspora in the UK; the Partition of India/Pakistan; History and Memory in Post-colonial Africa; The Ottoman Empire in Europe: Disintegration and Legacies; Sport in Britain, 1850-1945. The module will be led by members of the teaching team on a rotating basis and will provide students with the opportunity to discuss specialised research topics with leading experts on those topics. Students will acquire in-depth knowledge of those topics, as well as first-hand experience on the research process, including the identification of suitable archives, the interpretation of the archival evidence and the current historiographical debates and controversies related to the subject. Students will study two topics and will specialise on one of them through to the final assignment.
Assessment: Portfolio (50%) and Essay (50%).
Block 2: Empire and its Aftermath
This module introduces students to the history of anti-imperialist independence movements and the creation of new nation-states through case studies drawn from South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central and South America. It will explore different case studies in the decolonization processes across time and space. The module also explores the relationships between ideologies and resistance against imperial rule, as well as post-colonial conflicts in nation-building and the social and economic legacies of imperial rule in the post-colonial world. Students will study these processes in a broad and theoretical way in lectures, seminars, and workshops, as they deepen their understanding of specific case studies. Students will develop an understanding of the key factors instrumental in developing post-independence relations of neo-colonialism in post-colonial nation-states as a historical unit of analysis in the context of global politics The module will further introduce students to relevant historiographical approaches such as post-colonialism and Subaltern Studies.
Assessment: Essay (40%) and Portfolio (60%).
Block 3: The War at Home: 1939-1945
This module explores the economic, social, political, and cultural aspects of the home front during the Second World War focusing upon case studies such as Britain and Germany. The module will examine primary sources on the individual case studies and also offer students the opportunity to engage with different historiographical traditions and interpretations during this time frame. The case studies covered will also be placed into wider international context.
Assessment: Primary Source Analysis (50%) and Podcast/Video (50%)
Block 4: Dissertation
The dissertation provides an opportunity for sustained work of an independent nature in an area of personal interest, allowing the exploration a particular issue, topic or problem in considerable depth. Students will define and analyse a question or problem, or test a hypothesis, arising from their historical interest. The dissertation provides an opportunity to look beyond the textbooks and other secondary sources and to get to grips with primary evidence including textual, material or visual sources. The dissertation will draw out research, critical and writing skills in several ways.
Assessment: Presentation (10%) and Dissertation (90%).