University undergraduates studying in the Monica Partridge building. Friday November 5th 2021.

History and Philosophy BA

University Park Campus, Nottingham, UK

Course overview

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.

 

Indicative modules

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 Philosophy and Theology

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

Information Icon

About modules

The above is a sample of the typical modules we offer, but is not intended to be construed or relied on as a definitive list of what might be available in any given year. This content was last updated on Wednesday 4 September 2024. Due to timetabling availability, there may be restrictions on some module combinations.

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.

Peer mentoring

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.

Teaching quality

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.

Teaching methods

  • Lectures
  • Seminars
  • Tutorials
  • Supervision

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:

  • individual or group presentations
  • student-led seminars
  • interpretation of documents, sources or images
  • poster presentations
  • reviews and reflections on the process of study, including weekly reading summaries
  • in-class tests and quizzes
  • independently-researched dissertation

Assessment methods

  • Examinations
  • Essay
  • Presentation
  • Reflective review
  • In-class test
  • Dissertation

 

You’ll have at least the following hours of timetabled contact a week through lectures, seminars and workshops, tutorials and supervisions.

  • Year one: minimum of 12 hours
  • Year two: minimum of 9 hours
  • Final year: minimum of 7 hours

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:

  • problem-solving and analysis
  • planning and researching written work
  • objective and critical thinking
  • communication, both oral and written
  • presenting ideas and information, including collaboratively
  • analytical reasoning
  • persuasive argumentation
  • constructive criticism and discussion
  • presenting and persuading

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.

 

Average starting salary and career progression

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

Course data

Open Day June 2022