History and Social Anthropology

History at SOAS offers students an immensely rich and challenging intellectual perspective that critically enhances knowledge of the fascinating histories of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East – from the Crusades to the contemporary Middle East; the Mughal Empire to Gandhi; slavery to Muslim societies in West Africa.

Our innovative BA History combined programme provides highly engaging treatments of not only historical events and historical periods in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, but also of the very practice of history as an academic discipline itself. The programme’s curriculum is embedded in a variety of powerful conceptual frameworks used by our academic experts and our students, such as postcoloniality and decoloniality. BA History combined at SOAS, therefore, fosters a critical, global perspective that expands and deepens the frontiers of historical knowledge.

Social Anthropology is an academic discipline that in many respects straddles the social sciences and humanities. It both draws from and contributes to such disciplines as philosophy, linguistics and literature, as well as sociology and history. The BA teaches the methods of social anthropological investigation, emphasising the detailed study of multiple, interwoven areas of social life, through long participation and linguistic familiarity. Students have scope to tailor their programme of study according to their own interests.