STUDY

This module introduces you to the complexity and multiplicity of medieval peoples and their histories. It does so by situating early medieval Britain in a shifting socio-cultural landscape over a broad chronological period. Looking at themes like migration, intercultural interactions, religious and secular diplomacy, economic change, and sex and gender.

This module will introduce you to history as an academic subject and professional activity.  It will explore how and why history is practiced and what kinds of methods and sources are used by historians to construct knowledge about the past. 

This module focuses on the radical changes to society and culture between the periods we often describe as medieval and (early-) modern. By considering the interconnections between these periods, so often treated as distinct, we will have a better appreciation of continuity and change, as well as the dramatic ways that the lives of people across the social spectrum were shaped and reshaped in light of contemporary challenges and pressures.

The module introduces you to early modern European colonialism. It spans the beginnings of colonial rule in the fifteenth century to the eve of the age revolutions in the late eighteenth century. The primary focus is on colonial encounters, the expansion and interaction of people and empires, as well as the networks and exchanges that sustained or disrupted key developments in the early modern age in a global arena spanning the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific ocean worlds.

This module builds on the knowledge and skills you've gained in earlier modules and continues the introductory British history strand at Level 4 moving the chronological focus towards the beginnings of modernity. It takes the self-imaginings, representations, and activities of Britons across the period 1603 to 1832 as its key themes and situates them within the wider European and world context to explore themes such as monarchy, war, revolution, the enlightenment, and globalisation.

This module will provide a broad introduction to the social, cultural, and political history of modern Britain over the period 1830-1985. It will adopt a thematic approach, focusing on experiences such as the impact of industrialization, the growth of mass democracy, relations with Ireland, shifts in social relationships and the influence and meaning of class, gender, racial and ethnic identities, the rise and fall of Britain as an imperial power and the impact of total war.

This module is designed to develop practical research skills and increase your understanding of the methodological and historiographical underpinnings of historical research in preparation for the Independent Research Project next year. You will develop skills in the location and interpretation of a wide range of primary source materials such as the census, newspapers and published discourse, local authority records, parliamentary papers, cabinet records, visual images, diaries and letters, interviews and oral history transcripts and material culture.

The story of the British empire is one of wealth and plenty. It is also one of destitution and struggle. From the early network of trade and settlement that stretched from the Indian Ocean to North America through to the lust for power and influence in the scramble for Africa and Asia in the nineteenth century: throughout Britain’s empire brought freedom and opportunity to some.

The module offers you the opportunity to study the role of sex and gender in the lives of British men and women over the past five hundred years, and to question the extent to which both informed the lives of Britons. You will explore how and why ideas about appropriate gender roles and sexual mores were formed, contested, and adapted across the centuries, and the consequences this had for the social, material and cultural lives of women and men.

The Group Project offers you a unique and exciting chance to go beyond the normal lecture and seminar-based framework of university history teaching and to explore creative ways with which to connect academic study with the wider public domain. This module will extend your appreciation of public history and the application of subject specific knowledge and skills. You will work together to develop and complete a work-related project with a historical theme.

How did ideological conflict and total war shape European history in the climactic first five decades of the twentieth century? Building on first year teaching and learning connected to European politics, society and historiography, this module seeks to develop understanding and awareness of key concepts and events in modern European history.

Characterised by development, diversity, and change, the period popularly called the Viking Age (c. 750-1100 CE) is the focus of this interdisciplinary module. You will work together to explore this dynamic world by using a variety of evidence from the Viking Age and beyond (including historical sources, literature, and material culture) to better understand the people who lived in this time, what that life was like, what they believed, what stories they told, their complex interactions with the wider world around them, and their enduring impacts on the present day.

This module will explore a period in which rural and agrarian societies across Britain were transformed and restructured by processes associated with population growth, structural economic change, market forces, and ideologies of improvement. The ‘modernization’ of Britain’s agricultural economy and society, although often widely understood as progressive and essential, was accompanied nonetheless by significant disruption and trauma. Traditional agrarian communities, and the distinctive regional and local cultures often associated with them, were in all parts of Britain routed by the forces of change, compounded in some areas by ecological disaster.

This module examines the origins, course, and consequences of the Cold War, from the end of the Second World War until 1991 (and beyond). Through a focus on the ‘global Cold War’ concept, the course will provide you with the opportunity to move beyond the traditional emphasis on superpower relations. The ideological and political nature of the Cold War will be analysed alongside a consideration of the conflict’s social and cultural dimensions across the world.

The independent research project should either be an investigation into a particular topic based upon the evaluation of primary sources, positioned, and contextualised within their historiographical field, or an extensive and detailed review and analysis of the historiography of a specific historical topic, resulting in a dissertation of approximately 10,000 words in length.

In studying genocide, the attempt to annihilate people because of their membership of a real or perceived group, you are forced to confront core disciplinary issues. The module also tackles crucial questions connected to memory and memorialization of genocides, and the politicization of these issues.

This module will examine popular protest in the British countryside between 1780-1850, a period when overt and covert expressions of social discontent became more significant in frequency and scale. Explanations for this apparent upsurge in popular protest are complex, but as this module will seek to explain the causes are largely located in both a sustained deterioration in the material condition and prospects of the rural working poor and deeper tensions associated with threats to what were understood as traditional norms, rights, and customs, the ‘moral economy’ of the poor.

This module explores the history of the witch hunt in England, Scotland, continental Europe, and New England between 1450 and 1750, and its subsequent legacy. In each regional case study typical topics will include: the rise and decline of the hunt, the profile of the accused and accusers, the legal, social, religious, economic, political and cultural backdrops, the role of gender, age and rank, unique features and characteristics, and the persistence and evolution of witchcraft belief after the era of prosecution.

This module is designed to give you an insight into working in the heritage centre. It will introduce you to the concept of heritage and how it relates to history as an academic subject. It will provide you with an opportunity to meet and work alongside heritage professionals in order to gain an understanding of the possibilities and constraints of working in the sector.

The military histories of the major global conflicts of the ‘short twentieth century’ are well documented at international level. But the military contribution to the First World War, Second World War and the Cold War also had significant social, cultural, and domestic political effect across the United Kingdom. This module explores the domestic national experience of warfare by examining the evolving relationship between the military, state, and society during periods of conflict during the twentieth century.

This module leads you through a detailed exploration of the literary history of medieval Iceland by focusing on the rich and varied tradition of Old Norse literature, which begins to flourish there around the year 1100.