Ancient History and History BA

This module involves the in-depth study of a historical subject from which you will create a 10,000 word dissertation. You will have regular meetings with your supervisor and a weekly one hour lecture to guide you through this task.

Recent dissertation topics have included:

• Richard II, William Shakespeare and the Revolution of 1399
• The Image of the Male Witch in Early Modern Iceland
• Lord Salisbury and the Mediterranean Agreements: Revisiting Anglo-German Relations, 1886-1896
• A Re-evaluation of Prince Lichnowsky's Role as the German Ambassador in London in the July 1914 Crisis
• Interwar British Fascist Movements and Race, 1922-1940
• 'No Country, No Home': The Abandonment of the South Vietnamese by the United States after the Vietnam War
• Visions of Loathing and Desire: Representations of Masculinity in Late Soviet Posters

This module offers what may well prove a unique opportunity: the opportunity to engage in prolonged, intensive and productive study of a topic which you have chosen for yourself and on which you will be working very much on your own terms with access to advice and subject to criticism and, on completion, assessment.

This module is built on skills acquired and/or developed in your first and second years (notably in Extended Source Study, Studying Classical Scholarship or Communicating the Past).

This module is primarily dependent on your personal research: it involves a few plenary sessions of formal teaching, and each student is allotted an individual supervisor to guide them through the process.

This module will focus on the histories of labour and capital and will explain how these two histories have shaped the modern world, particularly South Asia. It will approach a given topic from a global angle and then will illustrate it through specific western and non-western examples. It covers the following themes: 

• Industrialization: Time, Discipline, and Work
• Capital and Labour Alienation
• Capitalism & the History of the Night Work and Sleep 
• Welfare Capitalism
• Machines, Artisans, and Industrialization
• Craft Cultures and Skills
• Child Labour and Working-Class families
• Working-Class Childhoods and Schooling
• Domestic Servants and the Colonial Master

This module surveys and analyses political, religious, social, cultural and military changes during the civil wars fought across the British Isles and the British Atlantic between 1639 and 1652. The major topics to be explored include:

• the causes of the civil wars
• the mobilisation of civilian communities
• the course of the civil wars
• the impact of war on individuals and communities
• religious and political change
• the growth of religious and political radicalism
• print culture and propaganda
• the changing roles of women
• the issues surrounding the public trial and execution of the king
• the abolition of the British monarchy and the House of Lords
• the ‘Celtic dimension’ of the conflict
• the Civil Wars in the British Atlantic

This module is an examination of the links between sexuality, intimate life, identity, politics, society, power and the state in Britain since 1900. It will also examine theoretical approaches to the study of sexuality and analyse sexuality as a category of historical analysis. Key themes:

• Theorising Sexuality in History
• Free Love and Eugenics
• Sexology
• Psychoanalysis and the Therapeutic Revolution
• Sapphic Modernity
• Birth Control and Sexual Knowledge
• Marriage and Society
• Queer London: Male Homosexuality 1918-1957
• Wolfenden
• Transsexuality and Gender
• Permissive Society and Counter Culture
• The AIDs Crisis

To provide students with an understanding of the principal trends in sexuality and gender in Britain since 1900. To introduce students to competing interpretations of British history through understanding changes in sexuality and gender and to encourage awareness of the relevant historiographical debates in the field in order to assist in the development of the key skills listed below.

International history is dominated by wars; historians and international relations scholars focus with an almost obsessive zeal on the causes and consequences of conflict. The intermittent periods of peace are rarely scrutinised, other than to assess the imperfections of peace treaties and thus extrapolate the seeds of future wars. This module offers a corrective to this tendency, taking as its focus the multifarious efforts that have been made since 1815 to substitute peace for war. These include diplomatic efforts (e.g. post-war conferences, legalistic mechanisms such as the UN, arms control protocols, etc.), and those advanced by non-state actors (e.g. national and transnational peace movements, anti-war protests, etc.). Taking a broad definition of the term peace , and focusing predominantly (though not exclusively) on Britain, this module revisits some of the pivotal episodes of the 19th and 20th centuries, exposing and interrogating the often complex relationship between war and peace that emerged, and thus arriving at an alternative history of the period.

In a series of weekly seminars this module takes a critical look at the historical construction and ascendance of the Empire Windrush, and the Windrush Generation, to national prominence in the UK, deconstructing the largely mythological narrative that currently persists around this symbolic historical epoch of Black arrival in Britain in 1948. Focused largely on four significant moments of invention from 1948 to the present, the aim of the module is to equip students with a much broader view of the British Empire that brings into focus a complex and long historical picture of encounter, inbound and outbound migration preceding and in this postwar moment, as well as the conflict and civil disobedience that is obscured by the somewhat quaint story of arrival captured in the Windrush narrative.

Students will interrogate and evaluate a range of primary historical sources from the archive, including a range of oral histories, as well as the historiographical debates surrounding the Windrush in order to understand how national histories are constructed and the purposes they serve. A range of digital assets and digital history skills and methodologies will be embedded across the module – giving students the opportunity to develop their own digital archive related to the historical themes of the module.

The discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard forced historians to re-evaluate Early Medieval England and ask new questions about this crucial formative stage of history. The items discovered are almost exclusively connected to warfare, yet many show evidence of very high levels of craftsmanship, reflecting the fact that this period was one characterised by brutal and relentless fighting whilst at the same time maintaining an extraordinarily rich culture.

The history of this era of conversions, conflicts and cultural renaissances is documented primarily by Bede (c. 673-735), whose career at the monastery at Wearmouth and Jarrow culminated with the production of the first synthetic history of the English (the Ecclesiastical History of the English People). Bede’s writings are complemented by copious archaeological evidence, most famously through artefacts such as the Franks Casket and Sutton Hoo Helmet, monumental stone crosses at Ruthwell and Bewcastle, and fabulous manuscripts like the Lindisfarne, and Lichfield Gospels. Students will utilise these sources, plus a wide variety of other items of textual and non-textual evidence to explore the cultures of the early English kingdoms.

The first semester will focus on the era of conversion documented in the Ecclesiastical History, and the second will consist of a detailed analysis of Bede’s wider body of work. Finally, students will critically evaluate the terminology attached to this period and familiarise themselves with recent debates about the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’.

In the historiography, the 1970s and 1980s are often referred to as a ‘landslide’ (E. Hobsbawm) or a ‘time of troubles’ (A. Marwick) for the West, which, it is argued, followed upon the ‘Golden Age’ of material affluence and cultural liberalisation that characterised the post-war period. At the same time, historical scholarship is only just beginning to make inroads into a field that has been extensively documented by cultural critics, the media and the social sciences. The module will engage critically with the dominant conceptualisation of the 1970s and 1980s as crisis decades and ask about the contribution that Contemporary History can make to our understanding of the period. It focuses on the UK and W-Germany as case studies, but will also look at developments in the West more broadly, exploring economic, social and cultural change as well as continuity. It takes thematic approaches, analysing topics including:

• Détente and the second Cold War;
• the crisis of industrialism and structural economic change;
• social change and continuity, with special emphasis on the class structure;
• the disintegration of consensus politics and the rise of the New Right;
• liberalisation, new social movements and cultural politics;
• domestic terrorism, the public and the state; heritage, memory and nostalgia.

The module explores the cultural transformations in Britain brought on by the shift to a Fordist economy (roughly covering the period 1920-50), and the social and cultural contestations that resulted. It takes chronological and thematic approaches, and topics may include:

• New experiences of factory work and the rationalisation of diverse areas of everyday life;
• New forms of advertising and commodity culture, and the anxieties and opportunities these produced;
• New forms of industrial urban leisure (e.g. the cinema and dance hall) and their role in promoting social change;
• Performances of self-hood and the contested politics of movement and habit;
• The perceived impact of Americanisation on national traditions, values and ways of life;
• The rise of the ‘expert’ across a range of fields to manage working-class behaviour;
• The development of social science and the problems of knowing ‘the masses’; Post-WW2 reconstruction and the early years of the Welfare State;

The need to infuse the present moment with apocalyptic meaning is an important theme in the history of ideas. Concerns about the day of judgement, Antichrist, the millennium and the end of time have a significant impact upon many different individuals and societies throughout history, finding expression in literature, architecture and a wide variety of artistic media. In some cases, apocalyptic anxiety directly influenced the actions of kings, emperors, ecclesiastical leaders and religious communities. Students will uncover systems of belief about the end of history and trace the impact of such traditions upon states, societies and religious institutions.

Once dismissed as the “Me Decade” (Tom Wolfe), or a time when “it seemed like nothing happened” (Peter Carroll), the 1970s have enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent American historical scholarship. This module introduces students to the narratives of crisis and decline that defined the 1970s and which helped make the decade such a transformative period in American life - recasting the United States and its society, politics and culture in significant and far-reaching ways - whilst encouraging students to think critically about those narratives and their utility for subsequent processes of political, socio-economic and cultural change. We will explore developments such as the growth of identity politics and the cult of the individual, debates over American foreign policy abroad and social policy at home, the rise of populist conservatism, the market and neo-liberalism, anxieties over the city, the environment and the political system, and a broader political and cultural power shift from Rustbelt to Sunbelt, as we seek to understand why the 1970s are now regarded as the decade “that brought us modern life - for better or worse” (David Frum).

This module evaluates the ways in which ideas during the Renaissance had an impact on both long-distance exploration and interstate relations. Also, of primary importance will be situating Tudor England in a pan-European context, thereby helping students better understand the rise of this island nation to become a global superpower. Topics covered will include:

• Renaissance attitudes to human potential
• Motivations for overseas exploration and travel
• Beginnings of European imperialism
• Continuities and changes in diplomacy
• Religion and foreign policy
• Travel literature and cultural diplomacy
• Xenophobia and cosmopolitanism

The module looks at the history of modern Italy (19th-21 century) from a transnational framework in order to illuminate different facets of the connections between Italy and the wider world. The module makes use of the methodological innovations of a transnational approach to put emphasis on movement, interaction, connections and exchange. It examines key moments and developments in the history of modern Italy by addressing the connections and circulations (of ideas, people, and goods) that cross borders. 

This module surveys the dramatic cultural encounter in the nineteenth century as the world of the samurai was confronted by Western expansion and the Age of Steam. It explores the forces at work in Japan’s rapid transformation from an ‘ancien régime’ under the rule of the Shogun into a ‘modern’ imperial power. Original documents examined in class draw on the growing range of Japanese primary sources available in English translation, together with the extensive works of Victorian diplomats, newspaper correspondents and other foreign residents in the treaty ports. You will have four hours of lectures and seminars each week for this module.

The module offers an overview of the history of witchcraft and covers a wide geographical area spreading from Scotland to the Italian peninsula and from Spain to Russia. Such breadth of reference is of vital importance because, in contrast to the uniform theology-based approach to witch persecution in Western and Central Europe, the world of Eastern Orthodox Christianity represented a very different system of beliefs that challenged western perceptions of witchcraft as a gendered crime and lacked their preoccupation with the diabolical aspect of sorcery. The module’s geographical breadth is complemented by thematic depth across a range of primary sources and case studies exploring the issues of religion, politics, and social structure.

Both Scotland and Ireland were neighbours to the medieval ‘superpower’ that was England, which throughout this period was not only economically more powerful than either Scotland or Ireland, but which was politically and militarily aggressive towards its neighbours.

This module will address how Scotland and Ireland fared with their troublesome neighbour. How Scotland and Ireland responded to English aggression will offer students the opportunity to explore and engage with the contrasting outcomes for both countries. 

What is a human? What characteristics and qualities divide human and non-human animal? What accounts for human variation? Is the orang-utan a human or an animal? Do mermaids exist? Can humans possess both sexes in one body? To what extent do parrots possess intelligence?

During the eighteenth century, these kinds of questions were at the forefront of the minds of Enlightenment philosophers, natural historians, and physicians across Europe. They also played a role in popular interest in ‘curiosities’ and ‘wonders’ that were served by freak shows and reports of the monstrous and aberrant. Although societies across the world have posed similar questions for centuries, in eighteenth-century Europe the answers were directly informed by colonial conquest. European imperial encounter with non-European peoples, animals and environments opened-up new questions and ideas about what it meant to be human and where the boundary between human and non-human lay. 

This special subject explores European-imperial debates over the meaning of ‘the human’ and the relationship between humans and their environments in the period of the Enlightenment. The focus is largely on Britain but integrates study of networks of ideas that spanned European and imperial geographies. The module is based on a series of case studies including (but not limited to): mermaids, rhinos, troglodytes, ‘wild’ children, orangutans, intersex people who were displayed as ‘hermaphrodites’, dwarves, and parrots. In many instances, these and other human and non-human spectacles of difference were enslaved, transported, exhibited in freak shows, examined by physicians, and dissected after death. As a history of the entanglement between colonialism and science, this module is as much about violence and power as it is about ideas. By exploring how ideas of the ‘human’ were constituted through colonial encounter, this module draws on studies of race and racism, gender, sexuality and disability. The aim is to consider how the reframing of the boundaries of human during this period of European imperial expansion has impacted our modern relationships to each other, as humans, to non-human animals, and to the environment. 

In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party took control of mainland China, banishing the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan, and starting a period of massive social, political and cultural upheaval. Covering the period from the communist take-over of 1949 to the start of reforms in the 1980s – but focusing primarily on the period of Chairman Mao Zedong’s rule (1949 to 1976) – this module charts the massive changes to Chinese society, politics, culture and economics that were experienced in this time. The module introduces students to the key debates about this period from a variety of perspectives (social, history, cultural history, gender history, international relations, etc) and encourages students to engage with the lively field that is now referred to as ‘PRC History’. It does this by encouraging students to work primary sources from the period, from propaganda posters to audio-visual material and accounts of life under Mao available in translation.

Weekly topics which may be covered include:

• The 1949 divide: What really changed with the Communist revolution?
• Land Reform: an economic or social programme?
• The emergence of China on the world stage: Korea and Bandung
• 'Holding up half the sky’: Communist policies on women
• The Anti-Rightist campaign: Communism and the intellectuals
• The Great Leap Forward: what caused the Great Famine?
• The roots of the Cultural Revolution: a political purge or a social experiment?
• How cultural was the Cultural Revolution?
• ‘Global Maoism’: a Chinese ideological export?
• Was the post-Mao turn to reform inevitable?

The module looks at the Eurasian continent in the period of the Mongol expansions, so, c.1200 to c.1300. It considers the Mongols themselves through the lens of the anonymous Secret History of the Mongols and the writings of numerous people who both encountered them or wrote about them at second hand, including:

• Rashid al-Dīn: a Jew in Mongol Central Asia
• John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck and the Papal missions to the Mongols
• Roger Bacon and Matthew Paris, English chroniclers
• Marco Polo: merchant and envoy
• Ibn Battuta: a pilgrim’s adventures
• ‘Sir John Mandeville’: an invented travel book.

Topics include:

• Mongols; Mongol warfare and conquests, court life and culture, Mongol queens, Mongol economy, law and approach to religions
• their impact on Eurasia; the four Mongol khanates and relations with peoples they conquered and neighboured, and the European, Islamic and South/South East Asian response; the Silk Roads.
• the concept of ‘races’ and ‘peoples’ in the Middle Ages and how they encountered each other.
• sources and historiography.

Typically this special subject module surveys and analyses social and cultural change in the West during the `long Sixties' from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s.

Key issues include:

• The origins and nature of changes in norms of behaviour in the 1960s such as the sexual revolution, attitudes to authority, and the role of youth in society.
• The impact of wider historical developments such as post-war economic prosperity and the Cold War (the Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis took place in 1962, for instance).
• An emphasis on looking at the experiences of ordinary people while acknowledging the role of major leaders.
• The origins of a counterculture in the United States and Britain.
• The Vietnam War.
• The development of protest movements such as the civil rights campaign in the United States; the anti-nuclear movement (CND was founded in 1958); student protest movements; the anti-Vietnam War campaign.
• The movement of protest campaigns toward the use of violence, and ultimately the development of terrorist campaigns in the 1970s (Baader- Meinhof, the Weathermen, the Red Brigades).
• The `second wave' of feminism from the late 1960s.
• The representation of the decade in popular culture, both in the 1960s and in subsequent decades, and in particular the politicisation of debates about this controversial period.

This module surveys and analyses Russia’s development between the 1905 revolution and the end of the civil war in 1921.

The module focuses on key features of this period, including:

• the causes for and impact of the 1905 revolution
• Russia’s economic and industrial development
• challenges to rural life
• the development of civil society
• the impact of World War One on Russian society.

Themes include:

• the importance of social identity in revolution
• the importance of symbolism and imagery in understanding revolution
• the role of violence and the language of hatred
• the roles of individuals and key political groups within the revolutionary process.

Module convener: Dr Sarah Badcock

The first half of the module is an in-depth chronological survey of the domestic history of England from the Good Parliament of 1376 to the deposition of Richard II in 1399. We will investigate how the royal family and their friends - a colourful and sometimes scandalous group - struggled to rule the country with the aid of such government instruments as show trials, intimidation, legal advice, murder and poll-taxes. The remaining part of the module considers England's relations with its neighbours and the impact of Lollardy on society and the Church in this period.

Students will be introduced to the role and functioning of the British in the Atlantic slave trade in the early-modern period. The module will cover aspects such as the importance of the slave trade to the British economy, the functioning of the slave trade in Africa itself and around the Atlantic, the 'West India Interest', abolition of the slave trade in 1807, and memorialisation of the trade today. Please note that this module does not deal with slavery.

This module charts the development of the British slave trade throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to its official end in 1807. Students should have some understanding of the key historiographical debates surrounding the slave trade and abolition and some of its long-term consequences, and through this to develop the intellectual and transferable skills outlined below.

This module investigates the development of politics and society in the crucial period leading up to WWI. In general, it was an era of liberal dominance in Europe s political landscape, though this can be disputed. The main focus will be the rise and fall of liberal politics across Europe in the period 1848-1914. A major theme will be the interaction between ideas and actions. Particular attention will be devoted to the intellectual foundations of European politics, the legacy of the 1848 revolutions, the drafting of constitutions, bills of rights and a suitable legal framework, the difficulty in building a liberal nation-state, the place of religion in society, the rising power of nationalism and the concrete reforms introduced throughout the period. The emphasis will be on how politics functioned in practice, within its own context, taking into account the possibilities and strictures of the time. Extensive use will be made of original source materials and comparative analysis will also be encouraged.

The purpose of this module is to encourage students to develop a detailed knowledge of primary evidence and recent historical debates in the Thirty- Years’War addressed at three levels: as a war of religion, as a clash of interests between the imperial crown and German territorial princes, and as a human catastrophe of monumental proportions. Although its drama unfolded primarily in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire, the war drew in such diverse participants as Britain, France, Denmark, Sweden and Spain. In pursuit of self-seeking political goals, they formed unlikely alliances and created obstacles to the conflict’s resolution. However, the outcome of the war was to ensure the survival of Protestantism in Central Europe as well as to provide a stable political and religious status quo that lasted into the modern age. The module discusses the Thirty Years’War by drawing on various historiographical traditions that represent the views of major international players.

The module will engage with the social and political changes that took place in 1980s Britain. It will be concerned with the following themes:

• The ideology of Thatcherism
• The relationship between social change and political change
• The political significance of Margaret Thatcher
• Margaret Thatcher’s rhetoric
• The political legacies of Thatcherism.

This module will investigate the lives and ideas of early to mid-20th century critics of British imperialism. The emphasis will be on critiques that emerged from outside the British isles, with a focus on four regions in particular: the Caribbean, East Africa, the Middle East and India. However, there will also be some investigation of the connections between anti-colonial activism in the British Isles and beyond.

More specific topics include:

• The influence of Marxist ideas on colonial critique, with a particular focus on the Caribbean, including the roles of Eric Williams in Trinidad and Cheddi and Janet Jagan in Guiana.
• The contrast between collaborative reformers, such as Eridadi Mulira, and radical revolutionaries, such as Dedan Kimathi, in Anglophone East Africa.
• Metropolitan critiques of empire with a particular emphasis on the role of activist women such as Barbara Castle and Doris Lessing.
• The significance of culture and cultural critique as an aspect of anti-colonial thinking, as explored in the writings of Mohandas Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu.
• The power politics of nationalism after independence, focusing especially on the relationship between Nasser and his critics in the Middle East.

With regard to methodology, particular priority will be accorded to primary source material, including philosophical writings, articles, campaigning pamphlets, letters, diaries and memoirs of anticolonial activists.

This module focuses on the impact of colonialism and its aftermath on North Africa, identifying how the societies from the region were affected by and how they reacted to European control and what sort of states and societies they sought to establish in the aftermath of colonialism. Emphasis will be given to political developments, but the cultural, economic and social dimensions of the period will also be examined.

The module will begin with an exploration of the theme of resistance. Here, key ideas in the colonial politics of the region will be examined, typically including topics such as nationalism, economic exploitation, conflict, and the impact of external actors.

The second theme to investigate is that of decolonisation. Two case studies will be highlighted: the Suez Crisis and the Algerian War of Independence. Key ideas to explore are British and French policy in North Africa in the post-war period, Anglo-Egyptian/ French-Algerian negotiations, the growth of Arab nationalism, nationalisation and the impact of American policy. The broader impact of Suez and the Algerian War in the West and the wider world will also be considered.

The module will conclude with a discussion of the theme of state-building and its implication for analysis of the politics of the region. The focus will be on the question of what sort of states and societies the new independent countries of North Africa sought to establish in the aftermath of colonialism.

The aim of the module is to explore key events that have shaped the colonial and post-colonial history of North Africa in the 20th century, such as the Suez Crisis, but the module will also offer an opportunity to analyse how narratives of foreign policy and international history are constructed from primary source material. It will make use of memoirs, autobiographies, diaries and government records, as well as some cultural items such as novels, poetry, films, songs, posters, newsreels and cartoons, to achieve this objective. Additionally, students will be encouraged to consider the wider historiographical debates and develop their own based on their reading of primary and secondary material. The broad aim is to offer a rich sense of the specific context in which resistance, decolonisation, and state-building took place at particular times and in particular locations in North Africa.

In this module we will make use of this recent work to study such issues as:

• how to use gender as an analytical tool with which to investigate early medieval evidence
• gender ideology
• codes of male honour
• men's life cycles
• relations between the sexes
• rituals of violence
• military and clerical ideals of masculinity.

The focus throughout is on the interpretation of the material which survives from the period, through the close reading of texts with gender issues in mind. We will focus on different social and political contexts – post-Roman kingdoms, Carolingian and Ottonian Europe, Pre-Conquest Britain – to understand and compare how masculine identities were understood and negotiated in these societies.

In seminars we will focus on primary sources which are available in good English translations and which are the subject of interesting modern commentary.

In 1665, London suffered the worst plague epidemic since the Black Death, killing over 97,000 people. The following year, the Great Fire destroyed four-fifths of the ancient City of London within three days.

This course will seek to study the impact of these events and to place them within the context of the 1660s capital—a city left deeply divided after the civil war era and yet a vibrant commercial and cultural centre enlivened by the recent restoration of the monarchy.

Module content to be confirmed.

This module challenges students to think differently about history by considering how human memory shapes the ways in which the past is represented in the present. Specifically, it explores the wide variety of ways and means by which the past was remembered in late medieval England from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. It begins by asking what human memory is and how it was understood by medieval people. It examines the relationships between techniques and conventions of remembering, the spoken word, and the growing importance of a variety of literate practices and how these changed over time in a variety of social and institutional settings. It also attends to the powerful roles played by images, artefacts and the landscape in remembering the past.

Topics covered include:

• memory past and present
• technologies of remembering
• learned and unlearned techniques of remembering
• forgery
• the deposition of Richard II and the manipulation of social memory
• custom, contested memory and conflict
• remembering the dead
• memory and religion
• landscape and memory
• myths and legends

Reassessments will be in the form of an essay or coursework.

The module examines the roles and perceptions of women of medieval Christian, Jewish, Islamic identities in Medieval Iberia in the period 1000-1500. It considers different types of evidence, including literary, art and archaeology. It transcends the traditional Christian-western European focus on Medieval Studies and makes a stand against hegemonic narratives.

We will study how medieval women expressed themselves and how they understood their role in diverse societies and at the same time how their respective societies viewed them. We will evaluate how beliefs and patriarchal traditions shaped gender roles and how women expressed themselves under constrictive situations and how they demonstrated agency, conforming to or protesting against these restrictions. In the case of Medieval Iberia, the topic will consider broad debates about co-existence and discourses of identity and segregation.

We will focus on case studies of women, considering social status, economic occupations and engagement in the religious and intellectual life in their context. We will consider aristocratic women, queens, artisans, peasants, writers, nuns, saints and prostitutes, women going about their everyday business and women that had exceptional lives in an attempt to demonstrate the diversity of voices and expressions of female agency.

The analysis of evidence will pay special attention to the female voices as expressed in primary sources; on court cases, treatises, literature and we will contrast with legislation and misogynistic literature. The module will engage with feminist scholarship and gender studies historiography and consider the development of new theories and methodological approaches to the discipline.

Many see medieval Europe as a violent and dangerous place, one in which there was little by way of law and order. A war that lasted over a hundred years (c. 1337-1453) might well be taken as evidence of this. However, this war, which was at its heart about who should sit on the French throne, was far more complex (and interesting) than this would suggest. Indeed, in studying the Hundred Years War, we are able to learn a great deal about the people who lived and died in late-medieval England, France, Germany and Spain:

• Why did people fight?
• How did people fight?
• Were there laws dictating how war should be conducted?
• What role did chivalry play in all of this?
• How did war impact on women and non-combatants?
• Were there medieval pacificists?
• Do the sources of this period really allow us to understand war fully?
• Did this lengthy war lead to a new sense of national identity?

These are some of the core questions that underpin this module. While this is, then, a module about a war, it is also a module about the society who fought in and experienced this prolonged conflict. 

This module examines the final decades of slavery, the period of Abolition and Emancipation, and the many legacies of these institutions in the nineteenth-century British Empire. 

The module begins with the end of the campaign to abolish slavery and the final decades of the institution in the early nineteenth century, focusing on the British Caribbean and the attempts to reform slavery through the programme of “amelioration.” 

The second part of the module looks at the processes of emancipation and apprenticeship, by which the formerly enslaved workforce transitioned into a “free” labor system. 

Next, students will study the evolution of society, politics, and economics in the former slave colonies, paying particular attention to the changing roles of African-Caribbean men and women. 

The final section of the module examines what came to be known as “the new slavery,” the global system of indentured Indian and Chinese labor that was implemented throughout the southern hemisphere colonies of the British Empire in the 2^nd half of the nineteenth century.  

The Black Death wiped out nearly half the population of Europe in little over a year. The impact on English society was profound and lasted for the next century and a half. Historians have long debated the extent to which the plague was the principal cause of historical change between the medieval and modern periods.

The module does not dwell on death. Instead, it explores the effect of this extreme mortality upon later medieval English society by analysing the lives and opportunities of the plague’s survivors between its arrival in 1348 and end of the middle ages in c.1520. The module studies three key sectors within that society in detail: peasants, merchants and the gentry.

As a social history module, the starting point for all discussion will be the surprisingly rich contemporary sources in translation. The course will present students with the opportunity, through essays and seminars, to tackle such issues as historical causality, and attention will be given to the different explanations which historians have offered in attempting to accommodate the devastating impact of plague within their own models of change or continuity in late medieval England.

In the two decades after the First World War, two modern western European countries, Italy and Germany, were transformed from liberal, parliamentary democracies into fascist dictatorships. Historians have offered detailed accounts of the political machinations that made this transition possible. Yet recent historical research has been led by different questions: what reconciled so many ‘ordinary people’ to the anti-democratic, illiberal and increasingly murderous policies upon which these regimes embarked? This course explores how fascism transformed ordinary life, and how culture was employed to translate fascist ideas into lived experience.

In this module, you’ll explore the basic narrative of Italy’s involvement in international relations and military conflict from 1922, but especially during the Second World War.

Using a range of sources, you will understand, assess and evaluate competing historical interpretations of the experiences of Italians during the Second World War. You will use this critical analysis to form your own independent judgement of this period.

We also look at how popular culture, such as novels and films, has impacted engagement with history and shaped our view of the past.

Module content to be confirmed.

This module will challenge students to critically engage with the period that Henry Luce referred to as the “American Century”. It will cover a range of case studies between Luce’s injunction and the subsequent US entry into World War Two in 1941 and the recent twin-crises marked by the 2008 Great Recession and the Covid-19 global pandemic. In doing so, it will prompt students to consider both the projection of American power on a global scale after 1941 and the considerable challenges that this project faced. Incorporating a series of focused case studies and reflections on the wider contexts relating to them, it will give students first-hand experience of weighing up the practical challenges US policymakers faced and the way that historians have subsequently assessed their efforts and understood their actions. 

This module examines North American short stories and novels and their film adaptations, paying attention to the contexts in which both the literary and the cinematic texts are produced as well as to the analysis of the texts themselves. In particular, the module takes an interest in literary texts whose film adaptations have been produced in different national contexts to the source material.

This module will consider the development of ‘ethnic’ and new immigrant literature in the United States from the late 19th century to the contemporary era.  You will examine a range of texts from life-writing to short fiction and the novel by writers from a range of ethno-cultural backgrounds, including Irish, Jewish, Caribbean and Asian American. Issues for discussion will include the claiming of the United States by new immigrant and ‘ethnic’ writers; race and ethnicity; gender, class and sexuality; labour and economic status; the uses and re-writing of American history and ‘master narratives’; the impact of US regionalism; how writers engage with the American canon; multiculturalism and the ‘culture wars’; and the growth of ‘ethnic’ American writing and Ethnic Studies as academic fields.

This module will familiarise students with the major strands of feminist thought which have emerged in the United States since the 1970s: from liberal feminism through radical and materialist to post-structural and neoliberal feminism. Although the module will focus on key texts and thinkers for each strand, we will simultaneously challenge any neat categorisation by exploring the central issues and debates, such as the sex-gender distinction, female sexuality, and pornography, which have preoccupied as well as divided feminist thinkers over the past few decades. Finally, we will contextualise these issues and debates by looking at contemporaneous representations of women in fiction, the mass media, and other cultural sites.

The magazine has been one of the most accessible and influential cultural forms in America since the mid-18th century. From the wide-ranging political and literary magazines of this founding period through the emergence of specialised and mass-market periodicals in the 19th century to the counter-cultural and consumerist magazines of the 20th century, this distinctive mode of publication has reflected the tensions and ideals of a rapidly developing society.

Using a broad range of representative magazines from different eras, this module will encourage students to get to grips with how American culture has shaped, and been shaped by, the periodical, and it will also introduce them to some of the unique literary and institutional qualities of the magazine. Primary sources covered on this module are likely to include The Dial (est. 1840), Harper's (est. 1850), The New Yorker (est. 1925), Life (est. 1936) and Rolling Stone (est. 1967).

Looked at in the context of their times, such sources show us how Americans have long engaged with and debated their own identity through the prism of print, as well as the ways in which this self-definition has changed across time. Moreover, alongside the magazine's regular testing of new political and cultural concepts we will be able to see how the periodical form itself embraced other emerging media, including illustration, photography, and popular music.

The main content-spine through each week will be a focus on changes in the nature of American journalism, the rise of modern advertising, and the development of the short story as a form, as well as the interactions between these three elements. In addition to the standard lecture/seminar set-up, the module will also incorporate a series of workshops focusing on hands-on study of hard copies of particular publications.

What is a film, television or literary classic? How has this term come under pressure and fractured over the past half century or so? In this module you will consider the concept of the mid and late twentieth century American “classic” in a variety of contrasting and overlapping contexts. These contexts will be elaborated on the basis of their formal, generic, period and/or cultural designations that will cover university and exam curricula reading lists, popular opinion and widespread critical consensus (such as the currently prevalent view, for instance, that the early twenty-first century constitutes a ‘golden age’ of US television).

Religion was central to all aspects of Roman life, but did the Romans really 'believe'?

This module explores the traditions and rituals that operated in Roman society, from the earliest stages of archaic Rome, to the advent of Christianity. It will help you to make sense of customs and practices that could baffle even the Romans themselves, alongside showing how the religious system controlled Roman social, political and military activities.

You will examine evidence drawn from the late Republic and early Principate, and use literature and images from the Augustan period as a central hinge for studying the dynamics of religion in Rome.

Topics covered include:

• The definition of 'religion' and comparative studies
• Early Rome and the origins of religion
• The calendar temples and other religious buildings
• Priesthoods and politics
• Sacrifice
• The deification of the emperor
• Foreign cults in Rome
• The supposed 'decline of religion'
• Early Christianity

This module is worth 20 credits.

This is a discipline-bridging cross-campus module, involving colleagues from across the School of Humanities.

The Silk Road will be presented as a range of archaeological, historical and scientific themes. Broad cultural themes will be balanced with the presentation of specific case studies, such as:

• The definitions of the Silk Roads
• Byzantine, Islamic and later medieval Silk Roads
• Luxury production
• Trade and exchange from the Roman and later periods
• Ming Dynasty links with the West

Scientific techniques for the analysis of materials, and their role in the interpretation of trade and exchange along the Silk Roads, will also be considered. This could be between, for example, China, central Asia, Scandinavia and the Middle East.

This module is worth 20 credits.

From the bloodshed of the gladiatorial arena to civil wars and the assassinations of emperors, violence was ubiquitous in ancient Rome. This module will consider the various forms of violence in the Roman world and examine how they featured in daily life, literature, and art. The module will introduce students to a wide range of interpretative frameworks, drawn from fields such as film theory and social psychology, and will apply these theories to various aspects of Roman violence including, but not limited to, gladiatorial combat, criminal violence, and warfare. The focus throughout will be on issues surrounding the spectatorship of violence, its central role in Roman society, and its interpretation in the modern world.

This module will:

Develop student understanding of the various forms and ways of viewing violence in the Roman world

Introduce students to a range of theoretical approaches to violence in ancient Rome

Enable students to apply these theories to a wide variety of ancient evidence

Develop skills in oral communication, academic writing, and the critical analysis of sources

This module examines the rise and fall of ancient empires in the late Archaic and Classical periods, especially the Persian Empire, the Athenian Empire, and the Second Athenian Confederacy.

How did the defeat of the Persians in the Persian Wars lead to the rise of Athenian imperialism? How similar or different were the Persians and Athenians in their strategies of control? Why did the Athenians lose their maritime empire to the Spartans so quickly? How can we account for the successes and failures of different experimentations of empires in this period?

Apart from the political and institutional aspects, the module will also explore the ideological and cultural aspects of empires and the relations between the internal and external success of imperial powers. Students will engage with a wide variety of sources from the literary texts of Herodotus and Thucydides, to Greek poetry and drama, inscriptions on stone, the archaeology of memory, and Greek art and artefacts.

This module will explore late Roman Republican political and oratorical culture through the lens of the enmity between Cicero and Milo on the one hand and Clodius on the other, which led to the death of Clodius and the subsequent trial of Milo in 52 BCE: a watershed year in the decline of the Roman Republic, when on-going political chaos briefly led to the concentration of power in the hands of one man, Pompey the Great.

Cicero’s speech for the defence was the culmination of a years-long oratorical competition between himself and Clodius for the political high ground: he failed to secure Milo’s acquittal, but the speech he published later was proclaimed a masterpiece.

We will consider the broad historical context of the trial, the evidence for the lives and characters of the protagonists, the rhetoric of Cicero’s renowned speech for the defence and the reception of that text in the ancient and modern worlds. 

Forming the political, cultural and religious heart of the Roman world, Rome has provided an incredible wealth of iconic monuments and buildings whose legacy is still felt today. Through a combination of lectures and seminars, we will follow the chronological development of this fascinating city and its immediate surroundings: with the main focus placed on the mid-Republic onwards, the entire period of Imperial rule, culminating with Constantine in the 4th century AD.

Detailed discussion and analysis of topography, including key monuments and buildings, will provide students with an informed understanding of the main periods of development within the urban landscape and the levels of architectural sophistication and innovation that were achieved: discussions will also be encouraged to investigate the social and political context of these developments and the impact made by specific regimes

This is a discipline-bridging cross-campus module, involving colleagues from across the School of Humanities.

The Silk Road will be presented as a range of archaeological, historical and scientific themes. Broad cultural themes will be balanced with the presentation of specific case studies, such as:

• The definitions of the Silk Roads
• Byzantine, Islamic and later medieval Silk Roads
• Luxury production
• Trade and exchange from the Roman and later periods
• Ming Dynasty links with the West

Scientific techniques for the analysis of materials, and their role in the interpretation of trade and exchange along the Silk Roads, will also be considered. This could be between, for example, China, central Asia, Scandinavia and the Middle East.

This module is worth 20 credits.

This module introduces map-making for the Arts and Humanities. You will be introduced to the field of spatial humanities and will learn how to carry out spatial analyses of humanities datasets and present their findings to a high standard.

You’ll be introduced to the key principles of spatial analysis and digital cartography using open-source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. We will also explore the broad and exciting applications of spatial analysis.

We will also work with you to help you understand the role of GIS in digital humanities, the role of this in research and practice more widely, and the employability value of GIS as a skill.

The Greeks are often credited with the invention of democracy, yet many Greek cities were ruled in antiquity by autocrats or elites.

This module studies the institution of tyranny in archaic and classical Greece (c. 550-324 BC) and aims to assess the impact of autocratic rule on the politics and culture of the Greek world.

You will examine the history of three major examples of tyrannies in this period: the Pisistratids of Athens, the Deinomenids in Sicily and the rule of Dionysius I of Syracuse. Through this, you will consider how the Greeks viewed and defined tyrants, the main characteristics and features of tyranny; and whether these altered in different periods and locations.

This module examines the reign of Justinian (527-565): the last great Roman Emperor.

Justinian ruled at a time of considerable upheaval including the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire, the growing power of Persia and a plague in Eurasia. But he was able to stamp his mark firmly during tumultuous times, from conquering Africa, Italy and much of Spain, to codifying Roman law.

This module approaches Justinian and his age in a thematic fashion, looking at developments in politics, culture, and society across the sixth century and placing those developments in a broader context.

We will use a broad range of evidence in the course of the module: historical texts, literary evidence, inscriptions, papyri, and art. We will also engage critically with modern assessments of this complex and controversial emperor.

This module covers the formative Hellenistic period of Roman culture.

You will explore the adoption of elements of Hellenistic culture in the art and archaeology of Italy between 330-30 BC. You will particularly focus on the varieties of interaction in the different regions of the Italian peninsula, and how these processes of Hellenisation paved the way for the iconic worlds of the Roman imperial period.

Topics include the general designs and stylistic changes of art in Hellenistic Italy. Within this, you will explore public, private, funerary and religious art in different mediums like sculpture, painting, architecture and urbanism.

You will also learn about the interdependencies of Hellenisation and Romanisation.

This module introduces students to aspects of ancient Greek medicine, with sources ranging from the earliest surviving medical texts of the ‘Hippocratic corpus’ (late 5th century BCE) to Galen and Soranus, who worked under the Roman Empire in the 2nd century CE.

We will consider topics including:

• ancient physiological theories including the theory of ‘four humours’ and methodism
• development of knowledge about anatomy and diet
• theories about psychology
• theories about sexual differentiation
• problem-based medical education
• ancient pharmaceuticals and surgery
• diagnostic techniques
• professionalisation
• patient experiences
• religious sanctuaries as healing centres.

Religion was central to all aspects of Roman life, but did the Romans really 'believe'?

This module explores the traditions and rituals that operated in Roman society, from the earliest stages of archaic Rome, to the advent of Christianity. It will help you to make sense of customs and practices that could baffle even the Romans themselves, alongside showing how the religious system controlled Roman social, political and military activities.

You will examine evidence drawn from the late Republic and early Principate, and use literature and images from the Augustan period as a central hinge for studying the dynamics of religion in Rome.

Topics covered include:

• The definition of 'religion' and comparative studies
• Early Rome and the origins of religion
• The calendar temples and other religious buildings
• Priesthoods and politics
• Sacrifice
• The deification of the emperor
• Foreign cults in Rome
• The supposed 'decline of religion'
• Early Christianity

This module is worth 20 credits.

This module introduces the archaeology of the Mycenaean world. It will familiarise you with the achievements and material culture of one of the greatest European Bronze Age civilizations of the second millennium BC. This will be through discussing the historical, social, cultural and economic context of the period.

You will explore:

• The world of the Mycenaean palaces and citadels, their towns and trading ports
• Warfare
• Religion and cult activities
• Mortuary practices and ancestor worship

We also consider their wider connections across the Mediterranean world.

This module is worth 20 credits.

The aim of this module is to teach practical skills in media engagement and management through lectures and workshops, running in parallel with examining how archaeological data are used in media narratives through seminars.  

The seminars will use a case study approach and staff will draw on their own experience with different forms of media, such as TV, radio, podcasts, print and social media.  

In the media engagement sessions we will teach skills such as: identifying a story, writing press releases, the importance of meaningful images, running a press conference, interviewing/ being interviewed, and writing article copy. We will also consider the differences between print and social media, and the importance of being succinct – a key skill!

Students will be able to choose the topic that they work on for their assessment, but all will engage in the in-class exercises. These will include scenarios such as being journalists at a press conference, and needing to write up the story that comes out of it. They will then submit these as part of their portfolio.

These two modules are for complete beginners. They are also suitable if you have already done some study of Latin or Classical Greek (up to GCSE level). They cover the same material as ‘Beginners’ Latin or Greek 1’ and ‘Beginners’ Latin or Greek 2’. They just let you start your chosen language at a later point in your degree.

You’ll get an introduction to the grammar and vocabulary of your chosen language and you will be supported to analyse and understand basic sentences and to translate short passages.

There is no speaking and listening element - the main focus will be on reading text.

If you take these modules in your second year, you can continue onto the ‘Intermediate’ modules in your third year. Note: this is mandatory for Classics BA students.

This module is worth 20 credits.

Continue your study of Latin or Classical Greek, following on from the beginners’ level modules.

You will thoroughly consolidate the vocabulary and grammar of your chosen language and begin the detailed linguistic and literary study of an unadapted Latin or Greek text.

In Latin, you will typically read a text such as Cicero’s Pro Archia, or a book of Virgil or Ovid.

In Greek, the text might be a complete speech by Lysias or selections from a longer text such as the Odyssey or a Greek tragedy.

The assessment for these modules emphasises comprehension and analysis of grammatical structures over memorisation and translation.

Each module is worth 20 credits.

You will study prose and verse texts in your chosen language, building on the skills you learned in the Intermediate modules.

By this stage you will be at or above A-level standard, and will benefit from being taught together with first-year students who have an A-level in the language.

The modules may involve in-depth study of a single text, or may cover a group of texts representative of an author, genre, period, or theme. They will combine literary and linguistic discussion with consideration of the historical and social background.

The texts covered change each year. In Latin, recent modules have focused on the following topics:

• Flavian personal poetry (Martial and Statius)
• The emperor Claudius (Suetonius and Tacitus)
• The Cupid and Psyche story from Apuleius’ novel Metamorphoses
• Ethnicity and Empire in Latin Epic (Virgil and Silius Italicus)
• The Power of Love (Ovid and Propertius)

In Greek, recent topics have covered:

• Tragedy (Sophocles’ Antigone)
• Selections from Homer’s Iliad
• Longus’ novel Daphnis and Chloe
• Plutarch’s Life of Antony
• Paradoxography (a portfolio of texts exploring the weird and marvellous)

Each module is worth 20 credits.

This group of modules is for those who have already reached A-level standard. They allow you to explore the work of Latin or Greek authors in detail.

You will also:

• improve your reading fluency
• gain insight into language and literature
• build linguistic analysis and literacy skills that are valued by employers

We pay special attention to language and style. Analysis of linguistic detail will build both your literary appreciation and your language skills.

Some modules will involve in-depth study of a single text, while others may cover a group of texts representative of an author, genre, period, or theme of Latin literature. All modules combine literary discussion with consideration of the historical and social background.

Regardless of whether you take Latin or Greek, the below applies:

Levels 1 and 2 are for first-year students: they involve a systematic programme of grammar revision alongside support with reading and analysis of the set text.

Levels 3 and 4 are for second-year students: they build on the previous year’s work, allowing you to read a larger amount of text and to develop your skills further.

Levels 5 and 6 are for third-year students: you will by now be able to read texts more independently, and assessment for these modules typically allows you to discuss the set text at greater length and with a high level of literary sophistication.

The texts covered change each year, but recent modules have focused on the following topics:

In Latin:

• Flavian personal poetry (Martial and Statius)
• The emperor Claudius (Suetonius and Tacitus)
• The Cupid and Psyche story from Apuleius’ novel Metamorphoses
• Ethnicity and Empire in Latin Epic (Virgil and Silius Italicus)
• The Power of Love (Ovid and Propertius)

In Greek:

• Tragedy (Euripides’ Hecuba)
• Books from Homer’s Iliad
• Longus’ novel Daphnis and Chloe
• Plutarch’s Life of Antony
• Paradoxography (a portfolio of texts exploring the weird and marvellous)

These modules are mandatory for Classics BA students with an A-level in Latin or Classical Greek. Other students with A-level can choose to start with ‘Latin or Greek Texts’ at levels 1 and 2, but they may drop later modules if they wish.

Each module is worth 20 credits.