Sustainable Development and History

If you want to explore the past, present and future of our changing world, this BA (Hons) Sustainable Development and History is the course for you.

Sustainable Development, from the local to the global, is essential if society is to tackle the challenges we currently face. With the prospect of a global climate emergency, decision-makers are grappling with understanding and responding to the corresponding pressures on our environment and society. The necessary changes will impact on every facet of society, culture and the economy, making this a critical moment to study sustainability.

History involves the study of the past to create a better understanding of the present; this course will allow you to investigate the cultural, political, social and economic links between the Highlands and Islands, Scotland and the northern European and northern Atlantic regions.

You will develop a critical understanding of the three pillars of sustainability (social, environmental, economic), learn the facts about climate change, explore the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and consider potential and emerging solutions such as the Green New Deals, the concept of ‘degrowth’ and the transition to wellbeing economies. You will also be introduced to the general study of history, from the medieval to the modern period, before examining, in-depth, particular topics, places, periods and themes which utilise the research specialisms of your teaching team. Through the combination of both subjects, you will consider the role of people and communities and how they shape their surroundings.

Please see our FAQ sheet on our website for further information on this course.

Please note this course is delivered entirely online and available to study from anywhere in the world. Applicants outwith Scotland including International, should apply to the UHI North, West and Hebrides study location.

Module outline

Year 1 - CertHE

You will study the following core modules:

• Exploring economics in a changing world

• Understanding sustainable development

• What is history?

You will also choose one history option module, which may include:

• A Middle Age? Europe c.1100‐1500

• Empire, environment and identity: Scotland, 1600-2000

• People, protest and power: themes in modern British history, 1780-1918

You will also choose two further option modules from other humanities and social science subjects.

Year 2 - DipHE

You will study the following core modules:

• Approaches to economic development

• Empowering communities

• Historians and history

You will also choose one history option module, which may include:

• A curious age: European society and culture

• Court, kirk and burgh in medieval and early modern Scotland

• Themes in American history

You will also choose two further option modules from across the Humanities subject area, which includes our optional international field trip module, 'Sustainable development approaches in an international context'.

Year 3 - BA

You will choose at least two sustainable development option modules which may include:

• Climate science

• Community-based economic development

• Globalisation and sustainable development

• Sustainable tourism and the environment

You will also choose at least two history option modules, which may include:

• Conquerors, crusaders and churchmen: the world of the Normans, c.911-c.1204

• Dynastic decline and religious violence: Valois France, 1550-1610

• Jacobites: patriots, rebels or opportunists?

• Land as power: the making of the modern Scottish landscape from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries

• Scots in North America: experience and identity

• Study of things: material culture of medieval and early modern Europe

PLUS

• Advanced social research methods OR

• Public history

You will choose one further module from one of your two subject areas to ensure that you have a total of three modules from each half of your degree.

Year 4 - BA (Hons)

You will complete a dissertation in sustainable development OR history. You will also study one option module from your chosen dissertation subject, plus three option modules from the other subject.

Sustainable development option modules may include:

• Agroecology: regenerative food systems

• Consumerism and the circular economy

• Geo-political development issues

• Social enterprise and the social economy

History option modules may include:

• Death and destruction: the social impact of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)

• Deviants, rebels, outcasts and villains: history from the margins in medieval and early modern society

• Empire and ‘others’: the shaping of British imperialism in North America

• Reaching the ‘estate of manhood’ in medieval and early modern Europe

• The empire strikes back: how the British empire shaped Scotland

This outline reflects the modules as currently delivered and is subject to change.

For more information on what you’ll study on your degree, as well as our range of other degree options, please explore our Humanities subject area page on our website.