History BA (Hons)

Making History

We have one core module in Year 1: Making History. But our students do not all study the same thing on this module: we teach it through multiple strands. You will choose a ‘strand’, focused on a particular topic. With the other students on that strand you will meet regularly in a seminar group, following a course of reading and discussion that gives you a grounding in the key skills you will need at later stages of the course to interpret and explain historical information.

In recent years optional modules have included:  Decline and Crisis? Europe 1300–1500Transformations in the Late Antique Mediterranean, c.300–c.700 CEConnected Histories: Early Modern Europe, c.1450–1750The Atlantic Archipelago, c.1500–c.1750Modern Times: A Cultural History of Europe, c.1860–1960Power in AfricaImagining East Asia in the Modern WorldWars and Welfare: c. 1900–1945The Rise and Fall of American Slavery, 1607–1865.

Conversations in History

As in Year 1, this is actually taught through multiple strands in seminar groups – so students do not all study the same thing. But whatever the focus of your strand, the core module will encourage you think about how history is written, and to identify and define your own questions. You will develop effective strategies for handling contrasting approaches as you plan and write an in-depth, independent project, and you will discuss and explain your ideas in a small-group context.

In recent years optional modules have included: The Book of Hours in Medieval Life and ArtMedieval Islamic WorldInventing France, 1300–1500: Kings and Communities of the RealmLaw and Order in the Barbarian Kingdoms c.500–800 ADThe Court: Art and Power in Early Modern EuropeA ‘Pure’ Land? Gender, Caste and Community in South Asia, c.1750–1950The “Vast” Early Modern AmericasEarly Modern Hospitality in Global Comparative PerspectiveHard Times: British Society, 1815–1902

Dissertation

In your final year, you will choose your own dissertation topic, through consultation with a supervisor. The potential range of topics is very wide – in recent years, varying from representation of bandits in twentieth-century Hollywood films to ceremonial in medieval France. Guided by your supervisor, you will undertake independent research – and you will write your dissertation.

Final year History students take a 'special subject', which is seminar-based and focussed on a body of primary and secondary material selected by a specialist in the field. Some examples from recent years are: The cult of saints in late antiquityFamily, linage and dynasty in the late medieval cityRe-writing Queen ElizabethJapan in the global history of public opinionFrom war to Cold War: US foreign policy c. 1944-48Sexual revolutions: the politics of gender and sexuality in Britain and beyond, 1920s to 1970s