Student studying in the Humanities building atrium

History and Contemporary Chinese Studies BA

University Park Campus, Nottingham, UK

Course overview

If you’re passionate about history but also dream of spending time in China and becoming fluent in the language – how do you choose which degree to study? We say, choose both!

This joint honours course allows you to combine your curiosity for human experience with your love of communicating in another language.

On this course you will follow an intensive language course in Mandarin at an appropriate level designed to take you to advanced, proficiency or research level within four years, depending on your entry level.

Indicative modules

Mandatory

Year 1

Learning History

Mandatory

Year 1

Culture and Society of Contemporary China

Optional

Year 1

Mandarin Chinese for Beginners

Optional

Year 1

Mandarin Chinese for Intermediate Level

Optional

Year 1

Mandarin Chinese for the Advanced Level

Optional

Year 1

Making the Middle Ages 500-1500

Optional

Year 1

Roads to Modernity: An Introduction to Modern History 1750-1945

Optional

Year 1

The Contemporary World since 1945

Optional

Year 1

Themes in Early Modern History

Mandatory

Year 2

The Rise of Modern China

Mandatory

Year 2

China Beyond the Headlines

Optional

Year 2

Mandarin Chinese for Intermediate Level

Optional

Year 2

Mandarin Chinese for the Advanced Level

Optional

Year 2

Mandarin Chinese for Proficiency Level

Optional

Year 2

Kingship in Crisis: Politics, People and Power in Late-medieval England

Optional

Year 2

Sexuality in Early Medieval Europe

Optional

Year 2

Environmental History: Nature and the Western World, 1800-2000

Optional

Year 2

The Venetian Republic, 1450-1575

Optional

Year 2

European Fascisms, 1900-1945

Optional

Year 2

De-industrialisation: A Social and Cultural History, c.1970-1990

Optional

Year 2

The British Empire from Emancipation to the Boer War

Optional

Year 2

Rule and Resistance in Colonial India, c.1757-1857

Optional

Year 2

Poverty, Disease and Disability: Britain, 1795-1930

Optional

Year 2

A Tale of Seven Kingdoms: Anglo-Saxon and Viking-Age England from Bede to Alfred the Great

Optional

Year 2

Consumers and Citizens: Society and Culture in 18th Century England

Optional

Year 2

Gender, Empire, Selfhood: Transgender History in Global Context

Optional

Year 2

Villains or Victims: White Women and the British Empire c.1840-1980

Optional

Year 2

The Rise of Modern China

Optional

Year 2

France and its Empire(s) 1815-1914

Optional

Year 2

The Victorians: Life, Thought and Culture

Optional

Year 2

Conquerors, Caliphs, and Converts: The Making of the Islamic World, c.600-800

Optional

Year 2

Gender, Empire, Selfhood: Transgender History in Global Context

Mandatory

Year 3

Year abroad

Optional

Year 4

Mandarin Chinese for the Advanced Level

Optional

Year 4

Mandarin Chinese for Proficiency Level

Optional

Year 4

Mandarin Chinese for Research

Optional

Year 4

China in the Media: A Clash of Narratives

Optional

Year 4

Sexuality and Society in Britain Since 1900

Optional

Year 4

Life During Wartime: Crisis, Decline and Transformation in 1970s America

Optional

Year 4

After the Golden Age: The West in the 1970s & 1980s

Optional

Year 4

Overseas Exploration, European Diplomacy, and the Rise of Tudor England

Optional

Year 4

The British Civil Wars c.1639-1652

Optional

Year 4

Sexuality and Society in Britain Since 1900

Optional

Year 4

Alternatives to War: Articulating Peace since 1815

Optional

Year 4

Windrush and the (Re)Making of a Nation: Myth and Memory

Optional

Year 4

Early Medieval England in the Age of Bede

Optional

Year 4

From Revelation to ISIS: Apocalyptic Thought from the 1st to 21st Century

Optional

Year 4

Dissertation in History

Optional

Year 4

Transnationalising Italy: A History of Modern Italy in a Transnational Perspective

Optional

Year 4

European colonialism and the boundary of the human in the long eighteenth century

Optional

Year 4

China under socialism, 1949 – 1989: society, politics and culture

Optional

Year 4

The Mongols and the West

Optional

Year 4

The 1960s and the West, 1958-1974

Optional

Year 4

Russia in Revolution 1905-21

Optional

Year 4

The Reign of Richard II

Optional

Year 4

The African Atlantic and the British Slave Trade c.1600-1897

Optional

Year 4

European Politics and Society, 1848-1914

Optional

Year 4

'World wasting itself in blood': Europe and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)

Optional

Year 4

The Politics of Thatcherism, 1975-1992

Optional

Year 4

Rebels Against Empire: Anticolonialism and British Imperialism in the Mid-20th Century

Optional

Year 4

Voices from North Africa: Resistance, Decolonisation and State-Building in the Twentieth Century

Optional

Year 4

Zero Hour: Germany, Poland, and post-war reconstruction in Europe, 1945-1955

Optional

Year 4

Britain in the Age of the French Revolution: 1789-1803

Optional

Year 4

Victorians in Italy: Travelling South in the Nineteenth Century

Optional

Year 4

Faith and Fire: Popular Religion in Late Medieval England

Optional

Year 4

The Black Death

Optional

Year 4

The Chimera: British Imperialism and Its Discontents, 1834-1919

Optional

Year 4

Disease and Domination: The History of Medicine and the Colonial Encounter

Optional

Year 4

The past that won’t go away: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

Optional

Year 4

Plague, Fire and the Reimagining of the Capital 1600-1720: The Making of Modern London

Optional

Year 4

Slavery, Caste and Capitalism: Labouring Lives in Global History, 1750-2000

Optional

Year 4

The Silk Road: cultural interactions and perceptions

Information Icon

About modules

The above is a sample of the typical modules we offer, but is not intended to be construed or relied on as a definitive list of what might be available in any given year. This content was last updated on Thursday 23 January 2025. Due to timetabling availability, there may be restrictions on some module combinations.

University undergraduate student Cole Pearce studying in Nightingale Hall accommodation's library, University Park. November 5th 2021.

"These two subjects have complemented each other immensely, the best part about studying them is that they're so different from one another there's always something new and exciting to learn. Also, they allow me to study the history of China, the country I will be studying abroad in next year. "

Michelle Phan

History and Contemporary History BA

Course data

History and Contemporary Chinese Studies at University of Nottingham, the

To see official information about this course and others visit Discover Uni.

Make an informed choice.

See course info

link opens in new tab
Open Day June 2022