All students on this degree are required to do a dissertation but it can be in either subject.
University Park Campus, Nottingham, UK
Qualification | Entry Requirements | Start Date | UCAS code | Duration | Fees |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
BA Jt Hons | AAB | September 2025 | VV51 | 3 years full-time or 4-6 years part-time | £9,250 per year |
Qualification | Entry Requirements | Start Date | UCAS code | Duration | Fees |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
BA Jt Hons | AAB | September 2025 | VV51 | 3 years full-time or 4-6 years part-time | £9,250 per year |
5 in Higher Level History
6.5 (with no less than 6.0 in any element)
As well as IELTS (listed above), we also accept other English language qualifications. This includes TOEFL iBT, Pearson PTE, GCSE, IB and O level English. Check our English language policies and equivalencies for further details.
For presessional English or one-year foundation courses, you must take IELTS for UKVI to meet visa regulations.
If you need support to meet the required level, you may be able to attend a Presessional English for Academic Purposes (PEAP) course. Our Centre for English Language Education is accredited by the British Council for the teaching of English in the UK.
If you successfully complete your presessional course to the required level, you can then progress to your degree course. This means that you won't need to retake IELTS or equivalent.
Check our country-specific information for guidance on qualifications from your country
B in History
Please note: we do not accept critical thinking or general studies
All candidates are considered on an individual basis and we accept a broad range of qualifications. The entrance requirements below apply to 2023 entry.
Please note: Applicants whose backgrounds or personal circumstances have impacted their academic performance may receive a reduced offer. Please see our contextual admissions policy for more information.
Alternative qualifications
We recognise that applicants have a wealth of different experiences and follow a variety of pathways into higher education.
Consequently we treat all applicants with alternative qualifications (besides A-levels and the International Baccalaureate) on an individual basis, and we gladly accept students with a whole range of less conventional qualifications including:
This list is not exhaustive. The entry requirements for alternative qualifications can be quite specific; for example you may need to take certain modules and achieve a specified grade in those modules. Please contact us to discuss the transferability of your qualification. Please see the alternative qualifications page for more information.
RQF BTEC Nationals
RQF Level 3 BTEC National Extended Diploma - unfortunately we are unable to accept this qualification on its own due to the subject specific requirements at A Level.
RQF Level 3 BTEC National Extended Diploma DDD + B at History
RQF Level 3 BTEC National Diploma DD plus 1 A Level grade B at History
RQF Level 3 BTEC National Extended Certificate D plus 2 A Levels grades AB including History
Access to HE Diploma
Pass the Access to HE Diploma with 45 credits at level 3,
distinction in 30 credits at Level 3 and 15 credits at Merit.
Mature Students
At the University of Nottingham, we have a valuable community of mature students and we appreciate their contribution to the wider student population. You can find lots of useful information on the mature students webpage.
Visa restrictions
International students must have valid UK immigration permissions for any courses or study period where teaching takes place in the UK. Student route visas can be issued for eligible students studying full-time courses. The University of Nottingham does not sponsor a student visa for students studying part-time courses. The Standard Visitor visa route is not appropriate in all cases. Please contact the university’s Visa and Immigration team if you need advice about your visa options.
N/A
NA
B in History
Please note: we do not accept critical thinking or general studies
5 in Higher Level History
All candidates are considered on an individual basis and we accept a broad range of qualifications. The entrance requirements below apply to 2023 entry.
Please note: Applicants whose backgrounds or personal circumstances have impacted their academic performance may receive a reduced offer. Please see our contextual admissions policy for more information.
We recognise that applicants have a wealth of different experiences and follow a variety of pathways into higher education.
Consequently we treat all applicants with alternative qualifications (besides A-levels and the International Baccalaureate) on an individual basis, and we gladly accept students with a whole range of less conventional qualifications including:
This list is not exhaustive. The entry requirements for alternative qualifications can be quite specific; for example you may need to take certain modules and achieve a specified grade in those modules. Please contact us to discuss the transferability of your qualification. Please see the alternative qualifications page for more information.
RQF BTEC Nationals
RQF Level 3 BTEC National Extended Diploma - unfortunately we are unable to accept this qualification on its own due to the subject specific requirements at A Level.
RQF Level 3 BTEC National Extended Diploma DDD + B at History
RQF Level 3 BTEC National Diploma DD plus 1 A Level grade B at History
RQF Level 3 BTEC National Extended Certificate D plus 2 A Levels grades AB including History
Access to HE Diploma
Pass the Access to HE Diploma with 45 credits at level 3,
distinction in 30 credits at Level 3 and 15 credits at Merit.
We make contextual offers to students who may have experienced barriers that have restricted progress at school or college. Our standard contextual offer is usually one grade lower than the advertised entry requirements, and our enhanced contextual offer is usually two grades lower than the advertised entry requirements. To qualify for a contextual offer, you must have Home/UK fee status and meet specific criteria – check if you’re eligible.
You can also access this course through a Foundation Year. This may be suitable if you have faced educational barriers and are predicted BCC at A Level.
At the University of Nottingham, we have a valuable community of mature students and we appreciate their contribution to the wider student population. You can find lots of useful information on the mature students webpage.
N/A
NA
See our study abroad pages for full information
In your departments
Work experience gives you the skills and experience that will enable you to prepare for the workplace and stand out to potential employers. One way to do this is by taking the Humanities work placement module, which is open to all students on philosophy degree programmes.
The History Society runs a schools volunteering project, which delivers school lessons and after-school clubs in primary and secondary schools around the Nottingham area.
In philosophy, our successful and long-running Philosophy in Schools project takes your skills into the classroom. You’ll help young children with the big questions that we all ask from a very young age.
Internships, placements and other work experience
Our reputation means we can work with top employers to offer high quality opportunities to gain experience and build employment skills. Check out our Careers and Employability Service for what’s on offer.
Students on this course are eligible for the Humanities work placement module.
This course is also eligible for an optional placement year.
Nottingham Advantage Award
Boost your employability with a range of employer-led projects and career development opportunities. See the Nottingham Advantage Award website for what’s available.
Study Abroad and the Year in Industry are subject to students meeting minimum academic requirements. Opportunities may change at any time for a number of reasons, including curriculum developments, changes to arrangements with partner universities, travel restrictions or other circumstances outside of the university’s control. Every effort will be made to update information as quickly as possible should a change occur.
See our study abroad pages for full information
In your departments
Work experience gives you the skills and experience that will enable you to prepare for the workplace and stand out to potential employers. One way to do this is by taking the Humanities work placement module, which is open to all students on philosophy degree programmes.
The History Society runs a schools volunteering project, which delivers school lessons and after-school clubs in primary and secondary schools around the Nottingham area.
In philosophy, our successful and long-running Philosophy in Schools project takes your skills into the classroom. You’ll help young children with the big questions that we all ask from a very young age.
Internships, placements and other work experience
Our reputation means we can work with top employers to offer high quality opportunities to gain experience and build employment skills. Check out our Careers and Employability Service for what’s on offer.
Students on this course are eligible for the Humanities work placement module.
This course is also eligible for an optional placement year.
Nottingham Advantage Award
Boost your employability with a range of employer-led projects and career development opportunities. See the Nottingham Advantage Award website for what’s available.
Study Abroad and the Year in Industry are subject to students meeting minimum academic requirements. Opportunities may change at any time for a number of reasons, including curriculum developments, changes to arrangements with partner universities, travel restrictions or other circumstances outside of the university’s control. Every effort will be made to update information as quickly as possible should a change occur.
All students will need at least one device to approve security access requests via Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). We also recommend students have a suitable laptop to work both on and off-campus. For more information, please check the equipment advice.
Essential course materials are supplied.
You'll be able to access most of the books you’ll need through our libraries, though you may wish to buy your own copies of core texts. A limited number of modules have compulsory texts which you are required to buy.
We recommend that you budget £100 per year for books, but this figure will vary according to which modules you take. The Blackwell's bookshop on campus offers a year-round price match against any of the main retailers (e.g. Amazon, Waterstones, WH Smith). They also offer second-hand books, as students from previous years sell their copies back to the bookshop.
For volunteering and placements e.g. work experience and teaching in schools, you will need to pay for transport and refreshments.
International students
We offer a range of international undergraduate scholarships for high-achieving international scholars who can put their Nottingham degree to great use in their careers.
*For full details including fees for part-time students and reduced fees during your time studying abroad or on placement (where applicable), see our fees page.
If you are a student from the EU, EEA or Switzerland, you may be asked to complete a fee status questionnaire and your answers will be assessed using guidance issued by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) .
All students will need at least one device to approve security access requests via Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). We also recommend students have a suitable laptop to work both on and off-campus. For more information, please check the equipment advice.
Essential course materials are supplied.
You'll be able to access most of the books you’ll need through our libraries, though you may wish to buy your own copies of core texts. A limited number of modules have compulsory texts which you are required to buy.
We recommend that you budget £100 per year for books, but this figure will vary according to which modules you take. The Blackwell's bookshop on campus offers a year-round price match against any of the main retailers (e.g. Amazon, Waterstones, WH Smith). They also offer second-hand books, as students from previous years sell their copies back to the bookshop.
For volunteering and placements e.g. work experience and teaching in schools, you will need to pay for transport and refreshments.
Home students*
Over one third of our UK students receive our means-tested core bursary, worth up to £1,000 a year. Full details can be found on our financial support pages.
* A 'home' student is one who meets certain UK residence criteria. These are the same criteria as apply to eligibility for home funding from Student Finance.
History and philosophy are both concerned with the ideas, events, and people that have shaped human life. This degree lets you explore human history and thought from its most ancient periods to the present day.
Across each subject, you can explore the moral, social, political, religious, and scientific developments that have made human life possible, and which continue to challenge humanity today. Our geographic scope is wide and diverse, from Britain and Europe to Asia, North America and Africa.
You will gain the skills, understanding, and knowledge to describe and make sense of these ideas and events, and to argue for your own interpretations of them. These are the transferrable skills needed for a wide range of exciting careers.
For more information on what it's like to study with us, see your department websites, below:
Important Information
This online prospectus has been drafted in advance of the academic year to which it applies. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate at the time of publishing, but changes (for example to course content) are likely to occur given the interval between publishing and commencement of the course. It is therefore very important to check this website for any updates before you apply for the course where there has been an interval between you reading this website and applying.
Mandatory
Year 1
Learning History
Mandatory
Year 1
Mind, Knowledge, and Ethics
Mandatory
Year 1
Reasoning, Argument, and Logic
Optional
Year 1
Making the Middle Ages 500-1500
Optional
Year 1
Themes in Early Modern European History c.1500-1789
Optional
Year 1
Roads to Modernity: An Introduction to Modern History 1750-1945
Optional
Year 1
The Contemporary World since 1945
Optional
Year 1
Philosophy and the Contemporary World
Optional
Year 1
Gender, Justice, and Society
Optional
Year 1
Metaphysics, Science, and Language
Optional
Year 1
Philosophy of Religions
Optional
Year 1
History of Philosophy: Ancient to Modern
Mandatory
Year 2
Philosophy of History
Optional
Year 2
An Introduction to Metaethics
Optional
Year 2
Being, Becoming and Reality
Optional
Year 2
Continental Philosophy
Optional
Year 2
Freedom and Obligation
Optional
Year 2
Intermediate Logic
Optional
Year 2
Knowledge and Justification
Optional
Year 2
Normative Ethics
Optional
Year 2
Philosophy of Art
Optional
Year 2
Social Philosophy
Optional
Year 2
The Nature of Meaning
Optional
Year 2
Topics in Asian Philosophy
Optional
Year 2
Space, Time, and Motion
Optional
Year 2
Mind and Consciousness
Optional
Year 2
Buddhism and the World
Optional
Year 2
Islamic Theology and Philosophy
Optional
Year 2
A Tale of Seven Kingdoms: Anglo-Saxon and Viking-Age England from Bede to Alfred the Great
Optional
Year 2
British Foreign Policy and the Origins of the World Wars, 1895-1939
Optional
Year 2
Central European History: From Revolution to War, 1848-1914
Optional
Year 2
Consumers & Citizens: Society & Culture in 18th Century England
Optional
Year 2
De-industrialisation: A Social and Cultural History, c.1970-1990
Optional
Year 2
Environmental History: Nature and the Western World, 1800-2000
Optional
Year 2
European Fascisms, 1900-1945
Optional
Year 2
Heroes and Villains in the Middle Ages
Optional
Year 2
Imagining 'Britain': Decolonising Tolkien et al
Optional
Year 2
International History of the Middle East and North Africa 1918-1995
Optional
Year 2
Kingship in Crisis: Politics, People and Power in Late-medieval England
Optional
Year 2
Liberating Africa: Decolonisation, Development and the Cold War, 1919-1994
Optional
Year 2
Poverty, Disease and Disability: Britain, 1795-1930
Optional
Year 2
Rule and Resistance in Colonial India, c.1757-1857
Optional
Year 2
Sex, Lies and Gossip? Women of Medieval England
Optional
Year 2
Sexuality in Early Medieval Europe
Optional
Year 2
'Slaves of the Devil' and Other Witches: A History of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
Optional
Year 2
Soviet State and Society
Optional
Year 2
The British Empire from Emancipation to the Boer War
Optional
Year 2
The Rise of Modern China
Optional
Year 2
The Second World War and Social Change in Britain, 1939-1951: Went The Day Well?
Optional
Year 2
The Venetian Republic, 1450-1575
Optional
Year 2
The Victorians: Life, Thought and Culture
Optional
Year 2
Travel and Adventure in the Medieval World
Optional
Year 2
A Protestant Nation? Politics, Religion and Society in England, 1558-1640
Optional
Year 2
Communities, Crime and Punishment in England 1500-1700
Optional
Year 2
The Early Modern Global Spanish Empire (1450-1850)
Optional
Year 2
Rethinking the Tudors: Monarchy, Society and Religion in England, 1485-1603
Optional
Year 2
In the Heart of Europe: Histories of Modern Poland
Optional
Year 2
History and Politics: A Problem or a Solution?
Optional
Year 2
Villains or Victims: White Women and the British Empire c.1840-1980
Optional
Year 2
Gender, Empire, Selfhood: Transgender History in Global Context
Optional
Year 2
Commodities, Consumption and Connections the Global World of Things 1500-1800
Optional
Year 2
France and its Empire(s) 1815-1914
Optional
Year 2
From Imperial Downfall to Republican Crisis: Themes in Modern German History, 1888-1933
Optional
Year 2
The politics of memory in postwar Western Europe
Optional
Year 2
Exile and Homeland: Jewish Culture, Thought and Politics in Modern Europe and Mandatory Palestine between 1890 and 1950
Optional
Year 2
The Tokugawa World: 1600-1868
Optional
Year 2
Conquerors, Caliphs, and Converts: The Making of the Islamic World, c.600-800
Optional
Year 2
A Tale of Seven Kingdoms: Anglo-Saxon and Viking-Age England from Bede to Alfred the Great
Optional
Year 2
Employing the Arts
Optional
Year 2
Arts Work Placement Module
Optional
Year 3
Dissertation in History
Optional
Year 3
Dissertation in Philosophy
Optional
Year 3
Advanced Logic
Optional
Year 3
Advanced Topics in Aesthetics
Optional
Year 3
Buddhist Philosophy
Optional
Year 3
Communicating Philosophy
Optional
Year 3
Environmental Ethics
Optional
Year 3
Knowledge, Ignorance and Democracy
Optional
Year 3
Marx
Optional
Year 3
Philosophy and Mortality
Optional
Year 3
Play, Games and Recreation
Optional
Year 3
Dirty Talk: Feminist Philosophy of Language
Optional
Year 3
Buddhism in the world
Optional
Year 3
Mind, Psychology and Mental Health
Optional
Year 3
Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
Optional
Year 3
Authenticity and Existentialism
Optional
Year 3
Equality
Optional
Year 3
The British Civil Wars c.1639-1652
Optional
Year 3
Sexuality and Society in Britain Since 1900
Optional
Year 3
Alternatives to War: Articulating Peace since 1815
Optional
Year 3
Windrush and the (Re)Making of a Nation: Myth and Memory
Optional
Year 3
British Culture in the Age of Mass Production, 1920-1950
Optional
Year 3
Overseas Exploration, European Diplomacy, and the Rise of Tudor England
Optional
Year 3
'Slaves of the Devil' and Other Witches: A History of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
Optional
Year 3
The Celtic Fringe: Scotland and Ireland, c.1066-1603
Optional
Year 3
European colonialism and the boundary of the human in the long eighteenth century
Optional
Year 3
The 1960s and the West, 1958-1974
Optional
Year 3
Russia in Revolution 1905-21
Optional
Year 3
The Reign of Richard II
Optional
Year 3
'World wasting itself in blood': Europe and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)
Optional
Year 3
Rebels Against Empire: Anticolonialism and British Imperialism in the mid 20th Century
Optional
Year 3
From serf to proletarian?: Imperial Russia’s rural population, 1825-1932
Optional
Year 3
The Hundred Years War
Optional
Year 3
Cultures of Power and the Power of Culture in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany
Optional
Year 3
The Agony and the Ecstasy: Drugs for Pleasure and Pain in the History of Medicine
Optional
Year 3
Saving Europe: Atrocity and Humanitarianism across twentieth century Europe
Optional
Year 3
Zero Hour: Germany, Poland, and post-war reconstruction in Europe, 1945-1955
Optional
Year 3
Britain in the Age of the French Revolution: 1789-1803
Optional
Year 3
Victorians in Italy: Travelling South in the Nineteenth Century
Optional
Year 3
Samurai Revolution: Reinventing Japan, 1853–78
Optional
Year 3
Faith and Fire: Popular Religion in Late Medieval England
Optional
Year 3
The Black Death
Optional
Year 3
The Chimera: British Imperialism and Its Discontents, 1834-1919
Optional
Year 3
Disease and Domination: The History of Medicine and the Colonial Encounter
Optional
Year 3
The past that won’t go away: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
Optional
Year 3
Plague, Fire and the Reimagining of the Capital 1600-1720: The Making of Modern London
Optional
Year 3
Slavery, Caste and Capitalism: Labouring Lives in Global History, 1750-2000
Optional
Year 3
Napoleonic Europe and its Aftermath, 1799-1848
Optional
Year 3
The three faces of Eve: Jewish Christian and Muslim women in Medieval Iberia
Optional
Year 3
Crisis, What Crisis? The West, c. 1970 to 2000
Optional
Year 3
A historical journey through Italy's links with the wider world
Optional
Year 3
Politics, culture, and sexuality in Renaissance and baroque Rome
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 Wednesday 4 September 2024. Due to timetabling availability, there may be restrictions on some module combinations.
All students on this degree are required to do a dissertation but it can be in either subject.
Learn the skills you need to make the most of studying history.
This module aims to bridge the transition from school to university study, preparing you for more advanced work in your second year.
We will:
This module is worth 20 credits.
"It’s very much a skills-based module. It was so useful. I had a long break from finishing sixth form in May, to starting uni in September – I thought 'how on Earth do I write an essay? What is this thing called referencing?!' The module took those worries away." – Emily Oxbury, History and Politics BA
This is your main starting point to explore philosophical thinking about understanding ourselves and relationship with the world.
It introduces several different areas of philosophy, and the links between them. These include:
Some of the key issues we'll look at include:
We know our students come with a wide range of philosophical knowledge and skills so this core first-year module helps develop a common level of:
This gives you the building blocks for successful study and philosophising in the rest of your degree.
This module is worth 20 credits.
Ideas are at the heart of philosophy. Creating them, arguing your case and defending your thinking is a core skill. Equally, being able to interrogate other people's arguments is essential.
The knowledge, skills and tools to do this can be learnt. And that's what we'll do together in this module. We'll help you to:
Philosophy isn't just about opinions and arguments. It's also about clear proof. So we'll also develop some knowledge of logic and its technical vocabulary.
As a core first year module it will help you develop some of the key skills you need to philosophise with confidence.
Discover medieval European history from 500-1500.
We explore the major forces which were instrumental in shaping the politics, society and culture in Europe, considering the last currents in historical research.
Through a series of thematically linked lectures and seminars, you will be introduced to key factors determining changes in the European experience, as well as important continuities linking the period as a whole.
We will consider:
You will spend three hours in lectures and seminars each week.
This module is worth 20 credits.
This module introduces students to the major developments in early modern European history, which resulted from social, economic, political and cultural changes that took place between c.1500 and 1789. Students will examine the tensions produced by warfare, religious conflict, the changing relationship between rulers, subjects and political elites, development of trade, and the discovery of the New World.
Explore a chronology of modern history, from 1750 to 1945.
We concentrate on:
This module is worth 20 credits.
Analyse the key developments in world affairs after the Second World War.
We will consider:
This module is worth 20 credits.
Philosophy can teach us to ask hard questions and help change the world for the better.
We'll help you develop the skills to critically understand and constructively engage with a wide range of contemporary issues. Together we'll tackle topics relevant to university life and wider society. You should finish the module with a greater understanding of:
Possible topics we'll look at
This module is worth 20 credits.
These are just some of the questions you'll think about on this module.
We'll take a critical look at some of the answers given by thinkers across the political spectrum, from right-wing libertarians like Robert Nozick to socialist anarchists like Emma Goldman.
We'll also look at some of the political contexts in which these questions have been asked and answered. This might include the:
This module is worth 20 credits.
Come and explore some fundamental thinking about the world around us and our knowledge of it.
You'll look at questions such as:
An ideal introduction to metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of language.
This module is worth 10 credits.
All religions have a distinctive philosophical framework. Together we'll look at some of the common concerns such as:
As there is such a range of beliefs we'll also look at the problems of religious diversity.
Some of the sources we draw on might include (but is not limited to):
More contemporary thinkers might also be included.
With such a wide range of issues and traditions the exact mix will vary - each year will focus on a few key thinkers and themes.
This module is worth 10 credits.
Philosophy develops, confronts and destroys previous thinking. It reinforces the status quo and acts as a foundation for revolution. It's a product of its time and helps to shape the future.
Together we'll become familiar with some of the main philosophical ideas and thinkers that have shaped philosophy. And you'll come to understand how and why these ideas arose and developed in response to wider contexts and movements.
Influential thinkers might include:
Particular topics might include:
You won't be taught whether any of these thinkers and thoughts were right. But by the end of the module you'll be able to recognise and judge for yourself the strengths and weaknesses of arguments on both sides of each philosophical issue.
This module is worth 20 credits.
Since the nineteenth century, history (much like natural science) has become a subject for specialists, and professional historians are frequently located in universities. But what makes the increasingly sophisticated methods of modern historians appropriate? And what can we reasonably expect the practice of modern historical methods to deliver? How should historians choose the right methods given the wide remit of their enquiries into the human past?
This unique interdisciplinary module introduces you to these and a range of other tough questions in the philosophy of history that, broadly construed, critically examine the ways in which historians seek to link past and present in a discipline designed to deliver genuine historical knowledge.
Additional topics may include, but not be limited to:
This module is worth 20 credits.
Metaethics is about how ethics works. It's not about judging whether something is morally good or bad in any particular instance but critiquing the foundations used to make the judgements. Some of the questions we might ask are:
Like many areas of philosophy metaethics has several branches and by the end of this module you'll be able to:
This module is worth 20 credits.
For a good pre-module introduction to the subject have a read of chapter six of Ethics for A level by Mark Dimmock and Andrew Fisher. It's an open-source resource so free to access.
We look at some fundamental metaphysical questions about the cosmos. A selection of the following topics will be studied:
Can we understand the world as an integrated whole? Is modern society ultimately a prison? Is philosophy, history, language, or life in general is established on masculine values? This module aims to provide in-depth and critical understanding of the important themes that surrounds Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophical pessimism, Michel Foucault’s political anthropology, and Luce Irigaray’s feminine project.
In this module we will approach these classic questions of political philosophy by examining the work of a number of important past political philosophers. This might include Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau but this isn't a fixed list - it may vary according to particular issues and student input.
We will look at both:
This module is worth 20 credits.
This module takes formal logic beyond the basics (as covered in first year Reasoning, Argument, and Logic). We’ll cover Propositional Logic, First-Order Logic, and Modal Logic (going into more detail where these were covered in first year).
We’ll learn about existence, identity, possibility, and necessity, and we’ll learn formal techniques for testing the validity of arguments. We’ll apply these logical techniques to help us make sense of challenging concepts and arguments in metaphysics and philosophy of language.
Aristotle declared that “All men by nature desire to know”. But we apparently live in a ‘post-truth’ era characterized by fake news, alternative facts, and scorn for expertise. These are major dangers to our way of life and dealing with them requires epistemology—the study of such topics as knowledge, evidence, justification, and reliability.
In this module, we will explore issues such as: the nature and value of knowledge, the relationship between knowledge and justification, the threat of skepticism, the role of testimony in acquiring knowledge, and various intellectual virtues and vices. Some questions we will tackle include: What is knowledge? Why should we care about it? What is our justification for believing things? Do we know that we’re not brains in vats? Do we know anything at all?
We all have opinions about moral matters. But for most of us, our moral opinions are not very well-organised. Indeed, upon reflection we may discover that some of our beliefs about morality are inconsistent.
Normative ethics is the branch of moral philosophy that attempts to systematize everyday judgements about the rightness and wrongness of actions.
It's a wide area of study and we'll focus on two traditions within it:
By the end you'll have a clear understanding of:
You'll also be able to:
This module is worth 20 credits.
Together we'll explore these philosophical issues and more. By the end of the module you'll:
This module is worth 20 credits.
This module addresses issues in social metaphysics and social epistemology. We will examine the metaphysics of social kinds and explore different accounts of social kinds that have been offered. We will also examine how the fact that we are situated in a social world can affect what we can or cannot know or understand about ourselves, each other, and the social world itself. We will also address ethical and/or political issues that arise once we take account of social metaphysics and social epistemology.
In particular, we might consider whether there are special kinds of injustices that arise due to our social reality. What is epistemic injustice and how does it relate to social injustice? How do certain privileged groups structure the social world that create and maintain privilege and patterns of ignorance that perpetuate that privilege? What are some obligations that we have, given metaphysical and epistemological concerns we have explored?
The module begins with an exploration of various theories of naming, paying particular attention to the works of Frege, Russell (including the theory of descriptions), and Kripke. We then turn our attention to various puzzles concerning the nature of meaning, including the distinction between analytic and synthetic sentences.
In the final part of the module, we move on to a discussion of some of the mainstream theories of meaning; particularly, a truth-conditional semantics, and we explore how this might be developed to take into account indexical terms such as 'I', 'now', and 'here'. Some of the skills acquired in Elementary Logic will be applied in this module.
We'll examine the Asian philosophical traditions, especially those of India, China, and Japan.
These Asian traditions address familiar philosophical themes - in ethics, epistemology, and aesthetics - but often approach them in ways that seem unfamiliar.
You may well find your culturally inherited presuppositions challenged. This is good! As global power relationships change understanding culture is vital to meaningful communication.
Topics we may cover include:
This module is worth 20 credits.
What is the nature of space, time and motion? Is space/time/motion relative or absolute? How can we come to know? These are some central questions in the philosophy of space and time which this module explores.
This module will discuss how thinkers such as Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Du Chatelet, Mach and Einstein have used philosophical arguments to try to answer the question about the nature of space, time and motion.
Where does the mind meet the world? In sensory perception.
By perceiving, we become conscious of a reality beyond our minds. Or do we?
Mind and Consciousness explores perception and perceptual consciousness.
It asks question such as:
By the end of this module, you'll be able to:
This module is worth 20 credits.
This module brings together philosophical, historical and sociological approaches to Buddhism. Students will learn about Buddhism as a philosophical and religious tradition – or set of traditions – with particular attention to the relation of Buddhist doctrines and teachings to the contemporary world. They will also learn about Buddhism as a living community, with particular attention to Buddhist life and practice.
This module examines how Muslims have addressed fundamental theological and philosophical questions relating to their faith. These questions concern the foundations of religious knowledge and authority, God's unity and attributes, God's relationship to the world, divine determinism and human freedom, prophecy, and human destiny beyond death.
Key figures will include the Mu'tazili and Ash'ari philosophical theologians, the philosophers Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Isma'ili esotericism, and the influential medieval intellectuals al-Ghazali, Ibn al-'Arabi, and Ibn Taymiyya. Selections from primary sources will be read in translation, and special attention will be given to the integration of late antique philosophical traditions into Islamic thought about God, God's relation to the world, and human destiny.
The discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, has forced historians to re-evaluate the Anglo-Saxon period and ask new questions about this crucial formative stage of English history.
The history of much of this period of conversions, conflicts and cultural renaissances is documented by Bede, a monk from Wearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria (c. 673–735). In 793, the world described to us by Bede was thrown into chaos by a Viking raid on the island monastery of Lindisfarne, an event that some Anglo-Saxons interpreted in apocalyptic terms. The subsequent settlement of Vikings across Northern and Eastern England profoundly changed the social, cultural and economic structures of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
This course covers the period from the beginning of the seventh century to the end of the ninth, ending with the reign of Alfred, the only English king to ever achieve the moniker 'the Great'.
Discover British foreign policy, from the last years of the Victorian Era to the German invasion of Poland in 1939.
We focus on the policy of British governments, giving an historical analysis of the main developments in their relationship with the wider world. This includes:
We also discuss the wider background factors which influenced British policy, touching on Imperial defence, financial limitations and the influence of public opinion.
This module is worth 20 credits.
This module aims to encourage students to develop a detailed understanding of the major political, social and economic developments in Central Europe between 1848 and 1914. They should become aware of the main historiographical debates concerning the region and the Habsburg Monarchy in particular.
As a result of their historical studies and analytical thinking, students should enhance and develop a range of intellectual and transferable skills.
This thematic module examines the social and cultural world of eighteenth century England in the period when it enters the modern world. Areas for consideration include:
In the 1970s and 1980s, momentous economic changes swept through traditional industrial regions across the West, turning proud heartlands into rustbelts in less than a generation. As the lights went out in shipyards, steelworks, coal mines and manufacturing plants, a way of life was destroyed for millions of manual workers and their families, with profound repercussions on identities, communities and urban topographies. This module examines the social and cultural impact of de-industrialisation in the north of England, the German Ruhr basin, and the American Midwest, using a wealth of diverse primary sources, from government records to popular music, to tease out what it meant to live through a period of tumultuous socio-economic change. The module takes thematic approaches, exploring topics including:
Discover the environmental history of the Western World over the past two centuries. The great nature-people stories that have shaped who we are today.
You will examine the history of environmental ideas and our changing and complex attitudes to animals and nature, alongside the history of human impacts on the environment. We will use the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain as case studies. Ultimately, we ask, can environmental history save the world in the 21st century?
Topics include:
This module is a must for anyone wanting to pursue a career in the environmental sector.
This module is worth 20 credits
Examine the rise of fascist movements in interwar Europe, following the First World War.
We focus in particular on the cases of Italy and Germany and also look at other cases for comparison (i.e. Spain, Britain, France, and Romania). This in order to understand why certain movements were more popular than others and able to seize power.
We will examine:
We will also analyse the practice of the Fascist and National Socialist governments in power, comparing these with particular reference to repression and attempts to build ‘consent’, gendered policies on ‘race’, and expansion through conquest.
The module ends by considering the Axis and genocide during the Second World War.
This module is worth 20 credits.
The module compares and contrasts key historical, legendary and fictional figures to examine the development of western medieval values and ideologies such as monasticism, chivalry and kingship. It explores how individuals shaped ideal types and how they themselves strove to match medieval archetypes. The binary oppositions between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are explored through study of the ‘bad king’, and the creation of villains such as the Jew. You will spend four hours per week in lectures and seminars.
This module examines the myths and legends of the ‘British’ Isles as written about by twentieth-century authors such as JRR Tolkien in Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, and the Silmarillion, and by CS Lewis in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe Series.
You will explore the historiography of British myth-making and whether Tolkien and Lewis were retelling, reinventing or fabricating British mythology. Students will also be invited to explore the foundation of British myths known colloquially within the term ‘The Matter of Britain.’
The module will begin with defining the difference between myths, legends and history and explore issues of chivalry, nobility and ethnicity in Arthurian legends. Students will be encouraged to decolonise these myths, re-interpreting whether they are fantasies, or an exoticisation of something else, such as ethnic groups and gendered politics.
Later parts of this module will explore the myth-making and rituals detailed in the extensive works of antiquarian writers.
The module offers a knowledge of key developments in the Middle East and North Africa between the collapse of the Ottoman empire and the emergence of a politicised version of Islam. Students should familiarise themselves with the key historical debates surrounding, for example, the relative impact of regional and international factors and begin to work with some primary documentary material relating to political and diplomatic developments. They will also be encouraged to use primary source material from the region and to consider the role which historical events have played in framing current problems in the Middle East and North Africa.
Have you ever wondered what makes a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ king?
We investigate late medieval kingship, the dynamics of politics and power, and the reasons why royal authority was challenged.
You will examine the history of late-medieval England, from the mid-13th to late-15th century, when a series of political crises rocked the English monarchy.
We focus on the political events of the period, especially the times of crisis when the monarchy faced opposition or even usurpation. This includes:
England didn’t exist in isolation, however. You’ll also explore its relations with Scotland and Wales, considering how English power was imposed on subject populations, and how they resisted. Case studies include Robert Bruce and Own Glyn Dwr.
This module is worth 20 credits.
The purpose of this module is to examine current debates in the historiography about the end of the European empires in African and the emergence of a new political system of independent states. Topics which will feature particularly strongly are
This module explores the role of the poverty, disease and disability in shaping lives between 1795 and 1930, and how these intersected with ideas of and attitudes to health and welfare. It also examines representations of poverty, disease and disability in museums and on TV.
Themes include:
This module introduces the history of the British imperial expansion in India from the mid eighteenth century, through to the Rebellion in 1857. It covers:
Later medieval England was a patriarchal society. Women were considered of great importance because of their roles as mothers. However, medieval women were also considered to be more passionate and sexual than men; they were considered wile and guileful and it was thought that they spent much of their time gossiping. Using a wide range of translated medieval sources this course will pose questions about how English women overcame and operated within these stereotypical preconceptions. It will examine women in terms of progression through their life cycle from daughters under the protection of their fathers, to the work available to single women, to married women and the law – mothers under the ‘protection’ of their husbands – and then to widows and the increased opportunities available to these women. In doing so, it will examine a number of aspects of medieval women’s lives from female piety to women and work, medieval attitudes to women and sex and the gendered medieval understanding of power and authority. The course will allow students to recover much of the essence of medieval life. Were later medieval English women merely disadvantaged or were they actively downtrodden within a patriarchal society? Further, it considers the extent to which the foundations of modern gender inequalities were established in the middle ages.
This module deals with an important, but long neglected, aspect of life in the early medieval West - sexual behaviour and attitudes to human sexuality. Key issues include:
The module offers an overview of the history of witchcraft and covers a wide geographical area spreading from Scotland to the Italian peninsula and from Spain to Russia. Such breadth of reference is of vital importance because, in contrast to the uniform theology-based approach to witch persecution in Western and Central Europe, the world of Eastern Orthodox Christianity represented a very different system of beliefs that challenged western perceptions of witchcraft as a gendered crime and lacked their preoccupation with the diabolical aspect of sorcery. The module’s geographical breadth is complemented by thematic depth across a range of primary sources and case studies exploring the issues of religion, politics, and social structure.
This module examines political, social and economic transformations in the Soviet Union from the October Revolution of 1917 to Gorbachev’s attempted reforms and the collapse of the state in 1991. You will look at Russia both from the top down (state-building strategies; leadership and regime change; economic and social policy formulation and implementation) and from the bottom up (societal developments and the changing structures and practices of everyday life). You will usually spend three hours in lectures and seminars each week.
This module examines the history of the British Empire from the end of the slave trade in 1833-4 to the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1899-1902. The module is divided into three major geographic and chronological sections. In the first part of the course, we will discuss the British Caribbean, with a particular focus on the transition from slavery and the period of instability in the decades that followed. In the second part, we will focus on India and the changeover from East India Company rule to the direct administration by the British government in the wake of the Indian Mutiny (aka “the Sepoy Rebellion”). In the final section, we will discuss Britain’s participation in the “Scramble for Africa” and the rise of “popular imperialism” with the 2nd Anglo-Boer War. The final, pre-revision class meeting will also discuss the metropolitan aspects of empire, examining London’s status as “the Imperial Metropolis.
This module covers the history of China from the 1840s, through to the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949. It looks at social, cultural, political and economic developments in this period from a variety of angles and approaches.
The module focuses in particular on the ways in which Chinese society responded to the arrival of 'modernity' in the form of the Western powers and Japan throughout the period in question, but also how different groups in China tried to remould or redefine China as a 'modern' nation-state and society.
This module surveys and analyses social change in Britain during and after the Second World War, up to the end of the Attlee’s Labour government in 1951. Key issues include:
This module explores the nature of the Venetian Republic in the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It examines the constitution, and administrative and judicial system, its imperial and military organisation, but will above all focus on the city and its inhabitants. The module will examine the enormous cultural dynamism of the city (especially the visual arts from the Bellini to Tintoretto and Veronese), changing urban fabric, the role of ritual and ceremony, the position of the Church, and class and gender.
The module mixes intellectual, cultural and social history to produce an overview of cultural trends in Britain between c. 1830 and 1901. Key themes include:
The module looks at peoples and places in the period c.1150-c.1250 from the perspective of travel. It shifts the focus of Christian/Muslim/Jewish/Mongol interactions from the more traditional medieval narratives of conflict, crusade and conquest, to those of Trade, Pilgrimage, Exploration and Mission. The introductory classes look at medieval travel and what people in the world with the Mediterranean at its centre knew, and thought they knew, about the rest of the World, including far-flung places that only a few people had ever ‘seen’. The lecture and seminar topics include introduce Travel Writing, Monsters, Maps, Crusades, Merchants, Pilgrims, Explorers, Envoys, Missionaries, and Assassins. Examples are drawn from Jewish, Muslim and Christian experience.
This module explores the causes of political and religious instability in England in the century before the Civil War, with a particular focus on the problematic creation of a national identity. We begin by looking at the troubled political and religious legacy inherited by Queen Elizabeth. We then examine some of the forces that united and divided English men and women during the period:
Areas for consideration include:
This module will survey and analyse how perceptions of law and order, and attitudes to crime and punishment changed in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries – ostensibly in response to huge increase in criminal activity. The module will discuss the wider background factors behind these changes, as well as relevant historiographical debates about them. The major topics to be explored include:
This module provides an account of the main events and characteristics that defined the Spanish Empire from 1450 to 1850, when it was arguably the world’s leading political and economic power. Particularly, we will consider the different ways in which this far-flung polity was ruled and kept united for over three centuries and how myriad peoples were included and excluded from the imperial project. Thus, we will examine the nature and limits of imperial power to see how it was built, defended, expanded, and challenged.
Moreover, this module highlights the global connections and imaginings triggered by the establishment of Iberians in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Therefore, students will learn of the many linkages that took place in different places across the world—from Manila, to Naples, Mexico City, Goa, or Madrid. This perspective challenges the “center-periphery” paradigm and previous assumptions of one-way-only imperial dynamics. This early modern global empire was built upon the extensive movement of people, goods, and ideas worldwide.
The Tudor period was one of the most transformative in English history. It began on the battlefield, as Henry VII wrestled the crown from the hands of the much-maligned Richard III, and ended with the death of Elizabeth I, the first queen to successfully rule England without a male counterpart. The intervening period witnessed a break with the papacy that fundamentally altered the religious and political make-up of the realm, and saw royal authority become increasingly absolute under a monarchy who were now also the heads of the church. All this left England a fundamentally different place in 1603 than it had been in 1485. Given the attention the Tudors have received in popular culture, and in the school curriculum, there are few students of English history who know nothing of the period. Thus, this module aims to expand on and challenge this knowledge to bring to life a clearer picture of how monarchy, power and religion operated in sixteenth-century England. Topics include:
1. Introduction to the module and its themes.
2. Henry VII: Forging a Dynasty, 1485-1509.
3. Henry VIII (1): War and Peace, 1509-25.
4. Henry VIII (2): The ‘Great Cause’ and the Break from Rome, 1525-35.
5. Henry VIII (3): The Later years, 1535-47.
6. Edward VI: A Boy for a King, 1547-53.
7. Mary I: England’s Catholic Queen, 1553-58.
8. Elizabeth I (1): The Establishment of a (female) Regime.
9. Elizabeth I (2): A Warrior Queen.
10. Elizabeth I (3): The ‘Second Reign’.
11. Conclusions: Remembering the Tudors.
Across the twentieth century, Poland’s rulers, borders, and inhabitants have undergone significant changes. Poland was colonised by Empires, divided and occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, reconfigured by democracies, and fundamentally shaped by life behind the Iron Curtain under communist rule. Today, as right-wing populism surges, Poland is undergoing another dramatic change. Close to one million Polish-born citizens live in the UK today, the largest overseas-born group, yet few in Britain know anything about Poland and its rich, vibrant, and tumultuous history.
A history of Poland, and the people(s) inhabiting Polish lands, will help students to understand this rising economic power in the heart of Europe. Placing it in relation to its neighbours to the east and west will emphasise how Poland, in its current form, is a product of both sides and the long shadows of partition, independence, war, occupation, and communism.
What is the relationship between history and politics? Are historians concerned with day-to-day events, while political scientists are theorists with little interest in telling stories? Or, can we perhaps view them as collaborators in a common endeavour?
This module answers these questions by taking a particular historical context – post-war Britain – and exploring how historians and political scientists have understood it. Each week, we consider a concept that is central to both disciplines and show how it can be used to understand the politics of the post-war period.
You will build an understanding of various methodological approaches that have been applied to the study of past politics. In doing so, you will improve your ability to engage critically with arguments and gain an understanding of how the two parts of your degree fit together.
White women cut an ambivalent figure in the history of the British Empire. They tend to be remembered as malicious harridans personifying the worst excesses of colonialism, as vacuous fusspots, whose lives were punctuated by frivolous pastimes, or as casualties of patriarchy, constrained by male actions and gendered ideologies. As this course shows, however, the reality of the situation was much more intricate and complex. Taking inspiration from academic literature that has proliferated in the last thirty years or so, Villains or Victims? draws upon case studies from Britain, Canada, India, Australia and southern Africa to examine the lived reality of being a white woman in a colonial setting. Utilising the histories of white women as a prism through which to understood broader issues relating to religion, gender, race, class, domesticity, sexuality and suffrage, this course will also expose students to a range of primary source materials, including diaries, letters, novels and memoirs.
Discover the history of people whose lives, bodies and identities cannot be neatly fitted into the categories of ‘male’ or ‘female’ that are predominant in the world today.
The module explores how European imperial expansion impacted societies that were not structured around a binary model of gender. Examples of these societies include the ‘hijra’ in India, ‘fa'afāfine’ in Samoa, and ‘niizh manidoowag’, ‘winkt’ and ‘nàdleehé’ (often referred to collectively as ‘two spirit’) in North America, as well as European people who lived lives outside of the gender binary.
We will focus on the period between 1750 and 1870, offering a contextual overview of the regions under study, their interconnections, and the theoretical and methodological problems of thinking about gender history in global and imperial contexts and in relationship to ideas of sex, sexuality and gender.
The early modern period witnessed the birth of commodity culture and the transformation of the relationship between people and their material world.
Expanding global trade networks and early colonial encounters brought a range of exotic products into early modern homes, including spices, sugar, tea, tobacco, cotton, porcelain and mahogany, while the rise of capitalism and industrialisation revolutionised the manufacture and availability of necessities and luxuries across the social spectrum.
The richness of this ‘new world of goods’ had profound consequences, transforming patterns of consumption, introducing new understandings of scientific knowledge and cultural production, and reshaping social identities and relationships based on class, gender and race.
This module takes advantage of a sweep of new interdisciplinary perspectives across a range of subject areas, including social, economic and cultural history, archaeology, anthropology and art history, which have focused on the role and significance of early modern ‘things’.
You will gain a grounding of central themes in early modern history, as well as a deeper understanding of the importance of looking at early modern Europe as part of a globalising world. You will explore a range of textual sources including wills and inventories, account books, letters and diaries which tell us about expanding global connections, what people consumed and how they thought about their objects.
This module is worth 20 credits.
This module covers France and the French colonial Empire from the end of the Napoleonic era in 1814-15 through to the outbreak of the First World War: a century in which French society underwent a series of major upheavals, and during which French imperial control was dramatically and violently expanded to multiple parts of the globe.
It covers France’s struggle to find a form of government that could square the competing demands of radical democrats and conservative traditionalists, as monarchies, Republics and a further Napoleonic Empire came and went.
It looks at how industrialisation and cultural developments changed the face of France and enabled further phases of imperial expansion: from Algeria in 1830, to Mexico in the 1860s, and then Indochina and sub-Saharan Africa from the 1880s onwards.
Amongst all of this, France suffered a devastating defeat to Prussia/Germany in 1870-71, with profound social and political effects that shaped the period leading up to World War I.
Content to be confirmed.
Why has Germany undergone a process of Denazification while General Franco is still revered by large segments of Spanish society? Why do Portugal’s political elite refuse to engage with the country’s colonial past? Did General Franco single out Catalans for repression after winning the Spanish Civil War? And are Brexiteers (dis)honouring the recent past by establishing parallelisms between resistance to Nazism and Brexit?
This module aims to answer these questions by examining the politicisation of memory and the rise of far-right movements in Europe from a transnational perspective. Students will explore how the past has been manipulated to serve present political purposes by focusing on a number of case studies: the UK, Germany, Spain (including Catalonia), and Portugal. The first three lectures/seminars will familiarise students with relevant theoretical frameworks. Building on this body of knowledge, students will then explore how collective memories of the Second World War have been manipulated to influence the Brexit debate, how a recent narrative of victimhood has emerged in Germany, the reappraisal of General Franco’s regime by Catalan independence movements, the toxic political legacy of Portugal’s difficulty in dealing with its colonial heritage, and Spain’s painful coming to terms with its recent dictatorial past.
Module description to be confirmed.
This module covers two-and-a-half centuries in Japan during the early modern era when the land was governed by a dynasty of Tokugawa shogun rulers. Often characterized as a period of relative stability, it was also a time of profound social, cultural and intellectual change. Lectures and seminars address some of the historical forces that would combine to transform society and lay the foundations for Japan’s subsequent encounters with modernity. Key themes include: the premises of Tokugawa rule, control mechanisms and relations with daimyo lords; the self-imposed policy of seclusion, trade and external relations; transport networks, class mobility and urbanization; the emergence of ‘the Floating World’ and the growth of popular culture; natural disasters, famine and economic crises; the responses of competing schools of thought drawing on Japanese, Chinese and European texts to address problems within Japanese society; the ‘Opening of Japan’ and the collapse of the Tokugawa World.
Module description to be confirmed.
The discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, has forced historians to re-evaluate the Anglo-Saxon period and ask new questions about this crucial formative stage of English history.
The history of much of this period of conversions, conflicts and cultural renaissances is documented by Bede, a monk from Wearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria (c. 673–735). In 793, the world described to us by Bede was thrown into chaos by a Viking raid on the island monastery of Lindisfarne, an event that some Anglo-Saxons interpreted in apocalyptic terms. The subsequent settlement of Vikings across Northern and Eastern England profoundly changed the social, cultural and economic structures of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
This course covers the period from the beginning of the seventh century to the end of the ninth, ending with the reign of Alfred, the only English king to ever achieve the moniker 'the Great'.
Doing an arts and humanities degree means you’ll gain the skills which are essential for changing the world we live in. Not only that, you are uniquely positioned to understand people, processes and culture.
This module lets you apply that knowledge to solve a real-life problem. The aim is for you to develop your understanding of your degree, and the range of careers open to you.
You will work in an interdisciplinary team on a real project connected to impact, which we define as our ability to ‘make change happen’. These projects have been designed by individuals, groups and organisations that are looking to make a difference to our world. This might be about sustainability, business, equality, culture, politics or society.
Teams will be given a project brief. You will then be guided through how to shape a project, and how to work as a team and deliver results. This will give you the employment skills and experience to show how you can make an impact as an arts and humanities graduate.
This module is worth 20 credits.
This module involves employability skills training in the Autumn semester followed by a part-time placement (one day a week, or equivalent, up to eight weeks) in an external organisation in the spring semester. The module is aimed at developing hands-on work experience and enhancing employability skills in a workplace relevant to arts graduates. Skills developed during the placement will be intrinsically relevant to various work environments.
Students will apply for placements in relevant local organisations from an established list created by the faculty placement team, but may also use personal contacts to arrange their own placement, subject to approval. Placements will be provided across a range of sectors relevant to the arts including the creative and cultural industries, media, marketing, heritage and museums, the music industry, education, charitable and third-sector organisations, but are subject to change each year. In the autumn term lectures and workshops will be organised across the faculty, with input by the Careers and Employability Service to provide learning support on professional development and skills assessment, networking, successful applications and interviews, self-presentation and self-reflection.
Assessment will comprise an online portfolio of materials, including application materials, reflective writing and a research report situating the work and function of the placement organisation in the context of the wider sector of which it is a part. Throughout, students will be encouraged to reflect individually and in groups on their own employability, and plan for their ongoing professional development.
This module involves the in-depth study of a historical subject from which you will create a 10,000 word dissertation. You will have regular meetings with your supervisor and a weekly one hour lecture to guide you through this task.
Recent dissertation topics have included:
The aim of this module is to provide you with an opportunity to write an 8,000-word dissertation on a philosophical topic, the precise subject of which is by agreement with the supervisor. At the completion of the module, you will have had an opportunity to work independently, though with the advice of a supervisor.
This module investigates different kinds of contemporary logic, as well as their uses in philosophy. We will investigate the syntax and semantics of various logics, including first order logic, modal logics, and three-valued logics, as well as ways to apply formal techniques from these logics to philosophical topics such as possibility and necessity, vagueness, and the Liar paradox.
We’ll cover ways to reason and construct proofs using the logics we study, and also ways to reason about them. We’ll look at proofs regarding the limits of formal logic, including proofs of soundness, completeness, and decidability.
This module is a discussion of some philosophical problems pertaining to art. Topics could include definitions of art, the objectivity versus the subjectivity of aesthetic evaluations, emotional response to art, the ontological status of artworks, and Walton's theory of make-believe.
This module aims to promote a deeper understanding of philosophical issues pertaining to art. By the end of the module, you should be able to discuss and evaluate different views of the expressive power of art, to explain certain current views on the status of aesthetic evaluations, and to present the main contemporary viewpoints pertaining to the nature of artworks.
This module will focus on a critical examination of core aspects of Buddhist thinking, with emphasis on some of its basic psychological, spiritual, and metaphysical conceptions.
These include, in particular: the origin and nature of suffering; the no-self thesis; enlightenment; consciousness; experiential knowing; and the doctrine of Emptiness (the lack of inherent nature in all things and impermanence).
This module will teach you how to communicate philosophy through a variety of different mediums, assessing them in each. We will look at how philosophy can be communicated through legal documentation, press releases, handouts, lesson plans, webpages, funding bids and posters (with optional presentations).
A number of the sessions will be delivered by professionals from outside the university, with support from the module convener. Seminars will be used to develop each of the items for assessment. You will be invited to draw upon your prior philosophical learning to generate your assessments, except in the case of handout where you will be set a specific philosophical task and asked to complete some (very basic) independent research.
In this module we'll ask questions like:
As part of this we'll cover topics such as:
This module is worth 20 credits.
Politics and truth have always had a complicated relationship. Lies, bullshit, spin, and propaganda are nothing new.
Polarization is on the rise in many democracies and political disagreements have spread to disputes about obvious matters of fact.
But have we really entered the era of 'post-truth' politics? Is debate now framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the facts?
In this module, we'll explore questions such as:
This module is worth 20 credits.
Karl Marx's thoughts and words have had an enormous impact on history. Revolutions have been fought, economic policies pursued and artistic movements established by followers (and opponents) of Marxism.
Together we'll examine some of Mark's original writing and explore his thinking. Specific themes we'll cover include:
By the end of the module you should have a good overview of Marx's attempt to synthesise German philosophy, French political theory, and British economics.
This module is worth 20 credits.
Illness, ageing, death and dying are universal experiences. Yet discussion about them often only happens in times of emotional distress.
Together we'll explore philosophical issues related to human mortality in an open, supportive and compassionate way.
As well as a deeper understanding of the issues you will also build capacity to think sensitively and humanely about the human experience of ageing, illness, and dying.
Typical topics might include:
This module is worth 20 credits.
Much of our life is filled with compulsory work but when free of obligation, when at leisure, we play in many different ways. We voluntarily chose to engage with the arbitrary rules and restrictions of games. We roll dice and push the pieces round a board. We twiddle thumbs and shoot fictional computer game zombies. We get involved in organised physical activities, sports such as football or athletics. We seek to escape our everyday lives by hiking up mountains in the wild, or by drinking and dancing in nightclubs. We may play with others, seeking friendship, intimacy or sex. We may relax alone, reading literature or practising art. We may mix these different activities together.
In society we do things with words. We can use language to lie, to praise, to convince, and to insult. This course will consider the ethical and political ramifications of speech and language. We will use methods from the philosophy of language to investigate these issues.
Representative topics include how we should define and use certain terms (For example: 'sex', 'gender', 'woman', 'disability', 'race', 'class', 'queer'), accounts of what it is to lie, accounts of the social effects of language (for example: slurs, dogwhistles and propaganda), how terms can be “claimed”, the harms of speech and how to balance those with the right to speech, silencing, epistemic injustice.
This module brings together philosophical, historical and sociological approaches to Buddhism. Students will learn about Buddhism as a philosophical and religious tradition – or set of traditions – with particular attention to the relation of Buddhist doctrines and teachings to the contemporary world. They will also learn about Buddhism as a living community, with particular attention to Buddhist life and practice.
This module will consider mind, psychology, and mental health from a philosophical angle. The module will cover a range of exciting and fundamental topics in the philosophy of mind and psychology (chosen from topics such as, the social mind, animal minds, the nature of consciousness, the mind-body problem, the emotions, imagination, pain, will and action, belief, perception, mind as machine, and artificial intelligence - selected topics will vary from year to year). We will always ask how these relate to mental health.
But the module will also have a more specific focus on mental health as we will take the tools of philosophy of mind and psychology to mental health: we will consider how philosophy of mind and psychology can help us better understand mental health, but also how reflection on mental health can impact work in philosophy of mind and psychology.
So the module will also cover content chosen from topics and areas such as the nature of mental health (and mental illness), delusion, thought-insertion, therapy, self-deception and the philosophy of specific mental disorders (for example., addiction, schizophrenia, depression) - specific topics varying from year to year.
So, in sum the module will combine focus on specific topics in:
This module covers questions such as:
This module is about the ideal of authenticity, roughly: The ideal of being true to oneself.
We will be asking questions like:
We will explore such questions a-historically, but we will also look at how they have been handled by certain historical thinkers and schools of thought, especially the 19th and 20th century Existentialists.
Philosophers liable to be on the agenda include:
What are the proper concerns of an egalitarian society? If we’re concerned about equality, what kind of world should we be working towards? What does it mean to treat one another as equals? Should we treat each other that way? If so, why? And what are the political implications of such obligations?
In this module we will be exploring these and other questions at the heart of the egalitarian project. Subjects will include equality of condition, relational equality, moral equality and political equality. We will also touch on issues around welfare, luck, rights, dignity, status and democracy. Writers covered may include Dworkin, Sen, Parfit, Anderson, Kant, Rousseau, Scanlon, Christiano and Rawls.
This module surveys and analyses political, religious, social, cultural and military changes during the civil wars fought across the British Isles and the British Atlantic between 1639 and 1652. The major topics to be explored include:
This module is an examination of the links between sexuality, intimate life, identity, politics, society, power and the state in Britain since 1900. It will also examine theoretical approaches to the study of sexuality and analyse sexuality as a category of historical analysis. Key themes:
To provide students with an understanding of the principal trends in sexuality and gender in Britain since 1900. To introduce students to competing interpretations of British history through understanding changes in sexuality and gender and to encourage awareness of the relevant historiographical debates in the field in order to assist in the development of the key skills listed below.
International history is dominated by wars; historians and international relations scholars focus with an almost obsessive zeal on the causes and consequences of conflict. The intermittent periods of peace are rarely scrutinised, other than to assess the imperfections of peace treaties and thus extrapolate the seeds of future wars. This module offers a corrective to this tendency, taking as its focus the multifarious efforts that have been made since 1815 to substitute peace for war. These include diplomatic efforts (e.g. post-war conferences, legalistic mechanisms such as the UN, arms control protocols, etc.), and those advanced by non-state actors (e.g. national and transnational peace movements, anti-war protests, etc.). Taking a broad definition of the term peace , and focusing predominantly (though not exclusively) on Britain, this module revisits some of the pivotal episodes of the 19th and 20th centuries, exposing and interrogating the often complex relationship between war and peace that emerged, and thus arriving at an alternative history of the period.
In a series of weekly seminars this module takes a critical look at the historical construction and ascendance of the Empire Windrush, and the Windrush Generation, to national prominence in the UK, deconstructing the largely mythological narrative that currently persists around this symbolic historical epoch of Black arrival in Britain in 1948. Focused largely on four significant moments of invention from 1948 to the present, the aim of the module is to equip students with a much broader view of the British Empire that brings into focus a complex and long historical picture of encounter, inbound and outbound migration preceding and in this postwar moment, as well as the conflict and civil disobedience that is obscured by the somewhat quaint story of arrival captured in the Windrush narrative.
Students will interrogate and evaluate a range of primary historical sources from the archive, including a range of oral histories, as well as the historiographical debates surrounding the Windrush in order to understand how national histories are constructed and the purposes they serve. A range of digital assets and digital history skills and methodologies will be embedded across the module – giving students the opportunity to develop their own digital archive related to the historical themes of the module.
The module explores the cultural transformations in Britain brought on by the shift to a Fordist economy (roughly covering the period 1920-50), and the social and cultural contestations that resulted. It takes chronological and thematic approaches, and topics may include:
This module evaluates the ways in which ideas during the Renaissance had an impact on both long-distance exploration and interstate relations. Also, of primary importance will be situating Tudor England in a pan-European context, thereby helping students better understand the rise of this island nation to become a global superpower. Topics covered will include:
The module offers an overview of the history of witchcraft and covers a wide geographical area spreading from Scotland to the Italian peninsula and from Spain to Russia. Such breadth of reference is of vital importance because, in contrast to the uniform theology-based approach to witch persecution in Western and Central Europe, the world of Eastern Orthodox Christianity represented a very different system of beliefs that challenged western perceptions of witchcraft as a gendered crime and lacked their preoccupation with the diabolical aspect of sorcery. The module’s geographical breadth is complemented by thematic depth across a range of primary sources and case studies exploring the issues of religion, politics, and social structure.
Both Scotland and Ireland were neighbours to the medieval ‘superpower’ that was England, which throughout this period was not only economically more powerful than either Scotland or Ireland, but which was politically and militarily aggressive towards its neighbours.
This module will address how Scotland and Ireland fared with their troublesome neighbour. How Scotland and Ireland responded to English aggression will offer students the opportunity to explore and engage with the contrasting outcomes for both countries.
What is a human? What characteristics and qualities divide human and non-human animal? What accounts for human variation? Is the orang-utan a human or an animal? Do mermaids exist? Can humans possess both sexes in one body? To what extent do parrots possess intelligence?
During the eighteenth century, these kinds of questions were at the forefront of the minds of Enlightenment philosophers, natural historians, and physicians across Europe. They also played a role in popular interest in ‘curiosities’ and ‘wonders’ that were served by freak shows and reports of the monstrous and aberrant. Although societies across the world have posed similar questions for centuries, in eighteenth-century Europe the answers were directly informed by colonial conquest. European imperial encounter with non-European peoples, animals and environments opened-up new questions and ideas about what it meant to be human and where the boundary between human and non-human lay.
This special subject explores European-imperial debates over the meaning of ‘the human’ and the relationship between humans and their environments in the period of the Enlightenment. The focus is largely on Britain but integrates study of networks of ideas that spanned European and imperial geographies. The module is based on a series of case studies including (but not limited to): mermaids, rhinos, troglodytes, ‘wild’ children, orangutans, intersex people who were displayed as ‘hermaphrodites’, dwarves, and parrots. In many instances, these and other human and non-human spectacles of difference were enslaved, transported, exhibited in freak shows, examined by physicians, and dissected after death. As a history of the entanglement between colonialism and science, this module is as much about violence and power as it is about ideas. By exploring how ideas of the ‘human’ were constituted through colonial encounter, this module draws on studies of race and racism, gender, sexuality and disability. The aim is to consider how the reframing of the boundaries of human during this period of European imperial expansion has impacted our modern relationships to each other, as humans, to non-human animals, and to the environment.
Typically this special subject module surveys and analyses social and cultural change in the West during the `long Sixties' from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s.
Key issues include:
This module surveys and analyses Russia’s development between the 1905 revolution and the end of the civil war in 1921.
The module focuses on key features of this period, including:
Themes include:
Module convener: Dr Sarah Badcock
The first half of the module is an in-depth chronological survey of the domestic history of England from the Good Parliament of 1376 to the deposition of Richard II in 1399. We will investigate how the royal family and their friends - a colourful and sometimes scandalous group - struggled to rule the country with the aid of such government instruments as show trials, intimidation, legal advice, murder and poll-taxes. The remaining part of the module considers England's relations with its neighbours and the impact of Lollardy on society and the Church in this period.
The purpose of this module is to encourage students to develop a detailed knowledge of primary evidence and recent historical debates in the Thirty- Years’War addressed at three levels: as a war of religion, as a clash of interests between the imperial crown and German territorial princes, and as a human catastrophe of monumental proportions. Although its drama unfolded primarily in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire, the war drew in such diverse participants as Britain, France, Denmark, Sweden and Spain. In pursuit of self-seeking political goals, they formed unlikely alliances and created obstacles to the conflict’s resolution. However, the outcome of the war was to ensure the survival of Protestantism in Central Europe as well as to provide a stable political and religious status quo that lasted into the modern age. The module discusses the Thirty Years’War by drawing on various historiographical traditions that represent the views of major international players.
This module will investigate the lives and ideas of early to mid-20th century critics of British imperialism. The emphasis will be on critiques that emerged from outside the British isles, with a focus on four regions in particular: the Caribbean, East Africa, the Middle East and India. However, there will also be some investigation of the connections between anti-colonial activism in the British Isles and beyond.
More specific topics include:
With regard to methodology, particular priority will be accorded to primary source material, including philosophical writings, articles, campaigning pamphlets, letters, diaries and memoirs of anticolonial activists.
Module content to be confirmed.
Many see medieval Europe as a violent and dangerous place, one in which there was little by way of law and order. A war that lasted over a hundred years (c. 1337-1453) might well be taken as evidence of this. However, this war, which was at its heart about who should sit on the French throne, was far more complex (and interesting) than this would suggest. Indeed, in studying the Hundred Years War, we are able to learn a great deal about the people who lived and died in late-medieval England, France, Germany and Spain:
These are some of the core questions that underpin this module. While this is, then, a module about a war, it is also a module about the society who fought in and experienced this prolonged conflict.
In the two decades after the First World War, two modern western European countries, Italy and Germany, were transformed from liberal, parliamentary democracies into fascist dictatorships. Historians have offered detailed accounts of the political machinations that made this transition possible. Yet recent historical research has been led by different questions: what reconciled so many ‘ordinary people’ to the anti-democratic, illiberal and increasingly murderous policies upon which these regimes embarked? This course explores how fascism transformed ordinary life, and how culture was employed to translate fascist ideas into lived experience.
This module introduces students to the social and cultural history of drugs, principally in terms of how they were promoted and received within the West, referring mostly to the period since 1900.
It examines not only certain key developments within the history of mainstream pharmacology, but also at the way (now) illegal narcotics originally entered the market place, often as medicines. It focuses upon the way polarised cultural opinions about drugs evolved, with attention particularly paid to the contingencies of geographical location and historical period.
Seminars introduce drug therapies and the controversies surrounding them, with the aim of highlighting wider social interests— including the power of the state, drug companies, religious organisations and the influence of public opinion
Module content to be confirmed.
Module description to be confirmed.
This module is an in-depth study of the impact of the French Revolution on British politics, society and culture between the fall of the Bastille in 1789 and the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803. Through an exploration of primary documents and secondary texts, students will investigate the events of the period and consider the wide range of interpretations that have been applied to these years by contemporaries and historians. Subjects for consideration include:-
This module examines the history of travel to and within Italy in accounts written by British travellers in the period c.1780-c.1914, especially these key topics:
This module surveys the dramatic cultural encounter in the nineteenth century as the world of the samurai was confronted by Western expansion and the Age of Steam. It explores the forces at work in Japan’s rapid transformation from an ‘ancien régime’ under the rule of the Shogun into a ‘modern’ imperial power. Original documents examined in class draw on the growing range of Japanese primary sources available in English translation, together with the extensive works of Victorian diplomats, newspaper correspondents and other foreign residents in the treaty ports. You will have four hours of lectures and seminars each week for this module.
This module explores religious ‘faith’ in England from c. 1215 to the beginning of the Reformation in 1534.
The English church made great efforts in this period to consolidate Christianity amongst the masses through wide-reaching programmes of instruction, regulation and devotion. However, historians disagree as to how successful the church was in its efforts.
The module investigates the relationship between ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ religion and examines how the church sought to maintain its authority in matters of faith. It asks how people responded and the degree to which they fashioned their own religious practices and beliefs. It also considers the violent repression by church and crown of those deemed ‘heretics’.
It looks at the condemned teachings of the Oxford academic John Wycliffe and the significance of those who followed his ideas, known as Lollards.
Module convener: Dr Rob Lutton
In 1348 the Black Death arrived in England. By 1350 the disease had killed half of the English population. The module concentrates upon the stories of the epidemics' survivors and what they did to adapt to a world turned upside down by plague. It examines the impact of this unprecedented human disaster upon the society and culture of England between 1348 and 1520. It examines four particular groups of survivors:
The module explores English society through translated medieval sources. Themes include:
By the mid-nineteenth century, Britain controlled one of the largest and most populous empires in history. This module examine some of the major events and dynamics that shaped the character of British imperialism, and the historical debates over them.
Particular attention is paid to the relationship between London, the ‘Imperial Metropolis,’ and India, South Africa, and the British colonies in the Caribbean.
The module interrogates the idea of ‘imperialism’ itself and focuses on post-colonial theory and ‘New Imperial History’ in order to critically re-appraise the operation of imperial systems and to apply an interdisciplinary perspective to their study.
Module convener: Dr Sascha Auerbach
This special subject introduces students to key themes within the medical history of colonialism, particularly examining the implications of the inequitable power relations inherent in any colonial project and how these have specifically contributed to the development of health principles and policies. The module looks at the way in which western medical theories of disease and healing shaped ideas about colonial environments, populations, bodies, and racial differences in the imaginations of colonisers. Medicine is revealed not only as a vital tool of colonial domination, but also as fundamentally limited as a successful mechanism for colonial social control. At the same time, the paradox that some western medical interventions did improve the health of many sectors of the population is addressed.
Given the wide chronological and geographical breadth of the topic, a series of 'snapshots' are offered to give a flavour of important aspects of western medical colonialism. The module principally, but not exclusively, uses historical examples within the British experience in the Americas, Africa and India. Approaches to tackling the health of unfamiliar climates, as well as the way colonial medical polices were conceived and implemented are critically discussed via case studies. Finally, the module examines some of the legacies of these attitudes in the post-colonial world.
This module examines the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), its underlying causes and legacy for present-day Spain. Commencing with the establishment of the Second Republic in 1931, students will consider the principal historical forces and conditions that gave rise to the outbreak of war in 1936 in Spain. The module is delivered through a series of student-led seminars in which students present their understanding of a specific historical event, theme or ideas through their study of primary and secondary sources, and respective historiographical debates. Thus, students will develop an in-depth understanding of the war through propaganda, myth, revolutionary ideology, anti-clerical and gendered violence, as well as, for example, the significance of Badajoz and Guernica. The conflict is also considered in the wider context of the "European Civil War"; specifically, the role of military interventions on the part of regimes in Italy, Germany, Portugal, and the Soviet Union, and the influence of non-interventions by Britain and France.
In 1665, London suffered the worst plague epidemic since the Black Death, killing over 97,000 people. The following year, the Great Fire destroyed four-fifths of the ancient City of London within three days. This module explores the impact of these events and places them within the context of the 1660s and the city’s past and future history. We will investigate how Londoners across the social spectrum responded to natural disasters and crises, the challenges that these presented to community values and group identities and how the spread of news reflected fears over religious difference and terrorist plots. The course also examines the changing character of the city across the period including concerns over health, the environment and the use of green space.
We also investigate:
Primary sources include the lively diaries of Samuel Pepys, letters, England’s first newspapers, pamphlets, sermons, and the capital’s rich visual sources.
The modern world inherited and produced various free and unfree labour regimes—slavery, bonded labour, indentured labour, free-wage labour, child labour, ‘unskilled’ women labour. Race, caste, colonialism, and industrial capitalism shaped and continue to shape working lives, their work culture, and struggles. In this module, we will investigate the conditions of workers by exploring topics such as:
1. Enslaved labourers in the cotton plantations of America,
2. Docks workers at the Mombasa (in Africa) port,
3. Indian indentured labourers in Caribbean colonies,
4. Factory workers (male, female, children) in British and Indian factories,
5. Bonded caste labourers (agrarian slavery) in Indian fields.
The module touches upon key themes, such as free and coerced labour, night-time and sleep of workers, the social reproduction of labour, feminization of the workspace, the emergence of industrial time, etc.
The module aims to provide students with an understanding and critical analysis of how race, caste, colonialism, and capitalism shaped the lives of working people in the last 300 years. Conceptually, it touches on themes such as industrial time, forced and waged labour, child and women labour, sleep and the night-time of workers. In terms of learning resources, the module focusses on archival primary sources, documentaries, and the cutting-edge research on global labour history.
This module looks at the development of Europe from the rise of Napoleon until the 1848 Revolutions. The German historian Thomas Nipperdey once wrote that ‘in the beginning was Napoleon’. Napoleon broadened and reshaped the dynamics of the French Revolution, war and state reform. He was also a symbol of a new world where an individual from a lower noble family and an obscure island could dominate the continent.
The module takes a chronological view of politics, international affairs, war, personalities and ideas. Coverage will focus on France, the German states, Prussia, Austria, Russia and Northern Italy.
The general structure will be:
The module examines the roles and perceptions of women of medieval Christian, Jewish, Islamic identities in Medieval Iberia in the period 1000-1500. It considers different types of evidence, including literary, art and archaeology. It transcends the traditional Christian-western European focus on Medieval Studies and makes a stand against hegemonic narratives.
We will study how medieval women expressed themselves and how they understood their role in diverse societies and at the same time how their respective societies viewed them. We will evaluate how beliefs and patriarchal traditions shaped gender roles and how women expressed themselves under constrictive situations and how they demonstrated agency, conforming to or protesting against these restrictions. In the case of Medieval Iberia, the topic will consider broad debates about co-existence and discourses of identity and segregation.
We will focus on case studies of women, considering social status, economic occupations and engagement in the religious and intellectual life in their context. We will consider aristocratic women, queens, artisans, peasants, writers, nuns, saints and prostitutes, women going about their everyday business and women that had exceptional lives in an attempt to demonstrate the diversity of voices and expressions of female agency.
The analysis of evidence will pay special attention to the female voices as expressed in primary sources; on court cases, treatises, literature and we will contrast with legislation and misogynistic literature. The module will engage with feminist scholarship and gender studies historiography and consider the development of new theories and methodological approaches to the discipline.
Module description to be confirmed.
Module content to be confirmed.
Module content to be confrmed.
You will be taught via a mixture of large-group lectures and smaller, interactive seminars. You will also be taught through tutorials and supervisions. These are one-to-one meetings or discussions with an academic tutor.
All students are assigned a personal tutor at the start of each academic year. Your personal tutor oversees your academic development and personal welfare.
In the year one, your personal tutor will teach your weekly seminars on our 'Learning History' module. In year three, your personal tutor will teach your weekly special subject seminars. As a result, our students often develop highly supportive and collaborative relationships with their personal tutor.
All new undergraduate students are allocated a peer mentor, to help you settle into life at Nottingham. Find out more about the support on offer.
94% of our class of 2020 graduated with a 1st or 2:1 degree classification. Source: UoN student outcomes data, Annual Monitoring (QDS) Analyses 2020.
Tutor's contributions to high quality teaching and learning are recognised through our annual Lord Dearing Awards. View the full list of recipients.
Your assessments will vary according to the topic studied. The majority of assessment is by essays and, for some modules, exams. However, other forms of assessment may include:
You’ll have at least the following hours of timetabled contact a week through lectures, seminars and workshops, tutorials and supervisions.
Your tutors will also be available outside these times to discuss issues and develop your understanding.
We reduce your contact hours as you work your way through the course. As you progress, we expect you to assume greater responsibility for your studies and work more independently. Your tutors will all be qualified academics, many of whom are internationally recognised in their fields.
Outside of your contact hours, the rest of the time is yours to carry out independent work and self-directed study. This may mean time spent in the library, doing preparation work for seminars, reading books and journal articles from the reading list, and researching or writing your assignments. This may also involve working with other students on group tasks.
As a guide, 20 credits (a typical module) is approximately 200 hours of work (combined teaching and self-directed study).
As a history and philosophy graduate, you will have gained key skills including:
Read our history and philosophy graduate profiles for more about the range of skills you will gain as well as the careers our students move into.
78.8% of undergraduates from the Faculty of Arts secured graduate level employment or further study within 15 months of graduation. The average annual starting salary for these graduates was £23,974.
HESA Graduate Outcomes (2017 to 2021 cohorts). The Graduate Outcomes % is calculated using The Guardian University Guide methodology. The average annual salary is based on graduates working full-time within the UK.
Studying for a degree at the University of Nottingham will provide you with the type of skills and experiences that will prove invaluable in any career, whichever direction you decide to take.
Throughout your time with us, our Careers and Employability Service can work with you to improve your employability skills even further; assisting with job or course applications, searching for appropriate work experience placements and hosting events to bring you closer to a wide range of prospective employers.
Have a look at our careers page for an overview of all the employability support and opportunities that we provide to current students.
The University of Nottingham is consistently named as one of the most targeted universities by Britain’s leading graduate employers (Ranked in the top ten in The Graduate Market in 2013-2020, High Fliers Research).
University Park Campus covers 300 acres, with green spaces, wildlife, period buildings and modern facilities. It is one of the UK's most beautiful and sustainable campuses, winning a national Green Flag award every year since 2003.
University Park Campus covers 300 acres, with green spaces, wildlife, period buildings and modern facilities. It is one of the UK's most beautiful and sustainable campuses, winning a national Green Flag award every year since 2003.
Faculty of Arts
3 years full-time
Qualification
BA Hons
Entry requirements
AAB
UCAS code
V100
Faculty of Arts
3 years full-time
Qualification
BA Hons
Entry requirements
AAB
UCAS code
V500
Faculty of Arts
4 years full-time
Qualification
BA Hons
Entry requirements
BCC
UCAS code
Y14F
Faculty of Arts
3 or 4 years full-time depending on language or placement choices
Qualification
BA Hons
Entry requirements
AAA
UCAS code
Y002
If you’re looking for more information, please head to our help and support hub, where you can find frequently asked questions or details of how to make an enquiry.
If you’re looking for more information, please head to our help and support hub, where you can find frequently asked questions or details of how to make an enquiry.