History and Modern Languages & Cultures

Develop your language skills and historical awareness while deepening your understanding of cultures and societies in Europe and beyond. Both disciplines involve imagination and empathy - interpreting the past, or other languages, requires us to appreciate and understand many points of view.

Gain the historical perspective and language skills you need to navigate an interconnected world—and build a versatile skillset to shape a successful future.

Investigate past societies, from the ancient world through to the modern period, addressing political and social themes. When combined with your study of one or two languages, this will be the lens through which you examine the cultures and societies of Europe and beyond.

The freedom and choice in this dual honours degree means you can design your course according to your growing interests.

Choose from cultural modules that cover topics such as visual cultures, literary studies, gender studies, post-colonialism and multilingualism .

As you progress, you'll learn to exercise independent judgement, to be critical of accepted opinion and to present your arguments effectively - all while developing your chosen language or languages to a high level.

Why study this course?

• Combine the study of history with a language of your choice - Choose a specialist language from a diverse range which includes Catalan, Czech, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian to enhance your understanding of world history with the option to add a second language.

• History special subject - In your final year, you’ll take a full-year, research-led special subject in History. There, you’ll work directly with a leading specialist on your chosen area, interrogating original sources and engaging with cutting-edge historical analysis as part of a process of becoming an expert yourself.

• Year abroad - The year abroad in your third year enables you to immerse yourself in the language, culture and society of the language or languages you study.