English and History Studies

The BA (Hons) English and History Studies degree aims to give students a thorough grounding in the knowledge and skills developed by undergraduate programmes in English and History. Both subjects are incredibly important for understanding the world around us, our place within the world, and the intersections between past, present, and future. Students with backgrounds in English and History are often articulate communicators, confident writers, able to present well-reasoned and evidenced arguments, and in the current political climate, they are well-placed to cut through the masses of disinformation we are bombarded with each day.

Over the course of the degree, students will be introduced to a range of literature from the medieval period to the present, covering a variety of genres and approaches, and will also learn about a range of historical events from the ancient world to the present, studying them in thematic and innovative ways. Students will develop the ability to deal with primary sources (both literary and historical) and to undertake analysis of areas of personal interest.

Our graduates have gone on to a range of careers, including teaching, public sector work, advertising, and the heritage industry. A number have also gone on to postgraduate study.

A mature approach with reasonably sized seminar groups encourages the students to put forward their own ideas and thus increase self-confidence and communication skills.

The subject content of this degree makes it ideal for those wishing to train for a career in school teaching. There are, however, many other graduate careers such as the Civil Service, local government, librarianship, retail management, public relations, community development, advertising, publishing, and banking. These graduate roles all require the transferable skills you will be supported to develop on this traditionally respected degree that develops the student’s ability to communicate, organise, analyse and work well with others. Some students go on to undertake Master’s or alternative postgraduate study.

Level Four (Year 1)

• Emperors, Princes, Pharaohs, and Queens: A History of Monarchy
• Problems of Historical Interpretation: The English Revolution
• The Social History of Medicine
• Texts in Time: Medieval to Romantic
• Texts in Time: Victorian to Contemporary
• Urban Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain
• Vampires, Fairies, Swords, and Spaceships: Speculative Fiction

Level Five (Year 2)

• Children’s Literature
• Early Modern England: Literature, History, and Culture
• Postcolonialism
• Queenship in Britain: Gender, Politics, and Power
• Research in the Humanities: Dissertations and Beyond
• Revolt and Revolution
• Traditions and Modernities: British Society, Culture, and Politics since 1945

Level 6 (Year 3)*

• Adaptation: Generic Transformation
• Contemporary Fiction and Film
• Gothic in Literature and Film
• Mary I and Elizabeth I: Myth and Memory
• Plagues, Pills, and Physicians: Medical Humanities
• Single Author Study
• The Enemy Within: Class Conflict and the Media in Post War Britain
• The Middle Class in Urban Britain, 1780–1900

• To be awarded an Honours degree, students must undertake a research project as part of their final year: either a year-long Independent Study or a semester-long Advanced Guided Study. Offering varies from year to year and is subject to availability.

Full-time students study four modules per semester: each semester comprises 12 weeks plus an assessment period and there are 2 semesters each academic year. The degree is available by full or part-time study. Please contact for more information about the flexibility of part time study.

Individual essay writing is the primary form of assessment across the programme, although students are assessed by a range of assignment forms including digital artefacts, group projects, presentations, primary source analyses, reflective reports, and take away tests.