BA Art History & Visual Culture and History

AHV1011: Questions and Methods in Art History and Visual Culture

This module introduces you to the key methods used to analyse works of art and visual culture and, in doing so, raises critical questions about the disciplines of Art History and Visual Culture and their relationship to one another. While Art History is a long-established field of study, Visual Culture can be viewed as an interdisciplinary mode of enquiry that has emerged in more recent times, which is both attuned to a history of visual culture as much as a definition of contemporary culture. Together, both fields of study continue to evolve in line with a series of common intellectual debates. You will be introduced to the appropriate terminology used in academic literature and to the foundational texts upon which both fields rely. You will also learn about a range of historical and contemporary theoretical approaches that inform the study of Art History & Visual Culture.

Art History & Visual Culture will be a new subject for almost all students at University level, and this module aims to:

View an example full module specification

HIH1137: Becoming a Historian: Core

Studying history at university is not only about increasing your knowledge of the past, but mastering particular ways of researching, processing information, and communicating arguments effectively. This module introduces you to the essential skills that will enable you to become a historian, and familiarises you with the innovative ways we teach and assess these skills at Exeter.

Part of the module will facilitate your transition to studying history at university by covering key practical skills, from conducting independent research to reading critically. The other part will introduce the key intellectual tools you will need, surveying the evolution of history writing over time and the important approaches and ideas that historians use to study the past. By the end of the module, you will acquire skills that will be developed further across your degree and in future careers, and that will enhance your development as an open-minded and internationally-engaged individual.

View an example full module specification

HIH1421: Understanding Medieval and Early Modern History

This module is designed to introduce you to histories of the world from antiquity, through the Middle Ages, and into what we traditionally the early modern period. Taking a thematic approach, it seeks to develop your understanding of politics, society, economy, and religion across different regions during these years. Key themes include rulership and government, power and resistance, religion, cultures of knowledge, trade and the environment, and encountering the 'other'. This is an introductory module and no prior knowledge is required.

View an example full module specification

HIH1422: Understanding Modern History

This is a module that introduces you to the key processes, ideas, and connections in modern history from the eighteenth century to the present. It covers themes such as colonialism and postcolonialism; states, ideologies and nationalism; gender, sexuality and the body; science and technology; race, class, religion, and disability; violence and conflict; and development and humanitarianism. The module traces these themes across multiple countries and regions around the world, highlighting connections and differences between them, and exploring the multiplicity of experiences and ideas that have produced numerous, and at times competing, conceptualisations of 'modernity'. This is an introductory module and no prior knowledge is required.

This module explores some of the most important historical developments from around the world from the eighteenth century to the present. It provides a taster of topics you can explore in greater detail in future years of study. The module is global in its scope, focusing on exploring a range of regions and nations whose histories have been foundational to the formation of the 'modern' world as we know it today. While introducing you to the key features that have led to the development of 'modern' states, societies, and cultures, it simultaneously challenges Eurocentric ideas of 'modernity', accepted historical chronologies, and dominant historical narratives.

View an example full module specification

AHV1005: Inside the Museum

This module is a conceptual introduction to the artistic, social, aesthetic, and political implications of the museum from roughly the 17th century to the present. It will involve specific case studies and theoretical writings that will challenge you to think about the museum as not merely a repository and exhibition space for objects, but rather as a complex technology for ordering and classifying material objects to create forms of knowledge; for constructing narratives of material and cultural history, aesthetics, and civic ideals; and for providing us with experiments in seeing patterns of meaning emerge in physical and virtual spaces.

View an example full module specification

AHV1006: Visual Media

This module offers an introduction to the history of specific media and the materials, techniques and processes used by artists to produce works of various types. The module is organised in a broadly chronological way, beginning with 'traditional' media, such as drawing and painting (egg tempera and oil), with a focus on late Medieval and Early Modern artists and their techniques, before then moving through innovations in modern art up to and including the nineteenth century (e.g. French Impressionism), and culminating with contemporary art and practice. Each week addresses a specific media or 'type' of artwork, and you will be introduced to the different properties and capabilities of each media and learn to examine and understand the visual effects achieved.

View an example full module specification

AHV1008: Topics in Art History and Visual Culture I

This module introduces you to one of the most influential and enduring traditions in Western culture. Classicism has its roots in the material cultures of the ancient Greeks and Romans (c. 500 BCE to c. 476 CE) but its uses and meanings have evolved over centuries. As a phenomenon, it is remarkably wide-spread and persistent in European history and as a canon of qualities and ideals—for example proportional systems, formal language, restraint, balance, clarity and harmony—it appears repeatedly in a series of deliberate revivals. Classicism is inherently retrospective in nature but its traditions have also served as dynamic sites of cultural negotiation that continue to inform thought and practice in many spheres from art to political theory. This module considers the reception of ancient Greece and Rome from the 16^th C to the present day in painting, prints, architecture, art theoretical texts, gardens and photography. We will consider the uses and functions of classical forms and concepts as well as the problematic nature of its relationship to canon-formation and canonicity.

View an example full module specification

AHV1009: Topics in Art History and Visual Culture II

This module offers a critical introduction to the history of Modernism in Europe and North America. Taking its lead from the work of Manet and his contemporaries, it will explore the key developments in art, design and photography during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Beginning with an investigation into the various ways in which the term Modernism has been used, the course will address both the origins of the term and its relationship to notions of modernity. Building upon this foundation, it will then explore the various '-isms' which constituted the European avant-garde and the rise of their American counterparts. Possible topics for discussion include Cubism, Pictorialism and the New York School. The course will conclude by considering the various ways in which the modernist paradigm has been called into question, from the changing status of the art institution to the rise of Postmodernism.

View an example full module specification

AHV1012: Approaches to Art History and Visual Culture

Building on AHV1011, this module offers a critical introduction to the key terms and concepts that have shaped the study of Art History and Visual Culture (e.g. beauty, skill, heritage, power). Through a combination of lectures, seminars and practical workshops, it traces the emergence and development of these keywords, locating them within their broader socio-political histories and accompanying theoretical frameworks. Each week will focus on a single term, exploring its connection to artworks, cultural artefacts and institutions to help you expand your critical and visual vocabulary. The module will also introduce you to a range of University resources, such as the Creative Quadrant and the collections of the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, equipping you with the skills to undertake creative assessments both in this module and throughout your degree.

View an example full module specification

HAS1003: Climate Emergency! An Introduction to Environmental Arts and Humanities

This module is an introduction to cultures, histories, and politics of environmental and climate change. Science has proven beyond doubt the global scale of human-natural engineering leading to the present climate emergency and environmental crisis; so what is the role of the arts and umanities in effecting positive change through understanding, interpreting, and finding meaning?In this module, you will learn about the specific issues facing the Earth today, about the implications of these global challenges facing all of us, and about the ways in which studying this can help us address problems in the present and the future. By placing current debates and dilemmas in cultural and historical contexts, the module allows you to explore how different disciplinary perspectives, and the different kinds of source material they use as evidence, enable us to understand more clearly why the world is facing an environmental and climate crisis, as well as how we might create a more just and equitable world. This module will provoke you to think with and through the relevant literary, historical, socio-cultural, philosophical, and political contexts, providing relevant skills for a wide range of arts, humanities and social sciences courses.

View an example full module specification

HIH1423: Sources and Skills: Modern

The module Modern Sources & Skills introduces source genres, themes, and approaches that are important in the study of modern history. The focus of the module is on exploring the possibilities and limitations of our extant sources in a wide variety of genres – from personal letters and diaries, political treatises and state papers, plays, novels, and creative arts, to scientific texts, social surveys, material culture, oral histories and more. Through these, you will learn about forms of knowledge, culture, and politics in modern societies. You will also become acquainted with the ways in which these sources and societies have been understood by scholars.

View an example full module specification

HIH1424: Sources and Skills: Early Modern

The module Early Modern Sources & Skills introduces source genres, themes, and approaches that are important in the study of early modern history. The focus of the module is on exploring the possibilities and limitations of our extant sources in a wide variety of genres – from personal letters and diaries, political treatises and travelogues, plays, ballads, and satirical prints to scientific texts, art and material culture. Through these, you will learn about forms of knowledge, culture, and politics in early modern societies. You will also become acquainted with the ways in which these sources and societies have been understood by later scholars. The content of your module will vary depending on which stand you will take within Early Modern Sources & Skills. Strands may vary year by year; examples are ‘Early Modern Venice: Representations and Myths’ and ‘The Body in Eighteenth Century Britain’.

MODULE AIMS – INTENTIONS OF THE MODULE
The primary aim of the module is to:
• Introduce you to a range of source genres available to historians of the early modern period and reflect on their uses
• Help you gain an understanding of key aspects of early modern societies
• Provide you with an insight into the various approaches scholars have brought to the study of early modern sources and societies
• Hone your critical reading skills and prepare you for academic writing, and allow you to practice presenting your ideas orally in a formative setting

View an example full module specification

HIH1619: Sources and Skills: Medieval

View an example full module specification

AHV2015: Art History and Visual Culture Field Study for Blended Learning

The Art History and Visual Culture field study module is an essential part of your degree programme at Exeter. It culminates in an intensive one-week field trip in a location in continental Europe. During the visit you will participate in a range of staff-guided and self-managed visit options, including architectural/urban studies, visits to permanent galleries/museums and temporary exhibitions.

The module provides an opportunity to develop and apply research skills in virtual and real-world environments and to view and interrogate a variety of museums, objects and spaces in a single urban environment. The module also develops digital literacy and skills development using app software. The module consists of three main parts:

1) Firstly, it addresses a range of thematic and methodological approaches to Field Study, introducing you to a range of ways of approaching and thinking about culture, broadly conceived, and the urban environment, exploring relationships between places, people and objects;

2) Secondly, through applied group work and project development (involving digital project), you will develop key skills and knowledge identified in term 1 work;

2) Finally, the trip itself, which lasts 5-6 days and consists of a series of staff-led visits and individual/group project exercises.

View an example full module specification

AHV2002: Debates and Contestations in Art History

This module explores the possibility of adopting an object-centred approach to Art History & Visual Culture. Spanning across a range of historical and geopolitical contexts, each week offers a close reading of an artwork, cultural artefact or everyday object. Rather than attempting to provide an overview of key moments in the discipline or create an alternative canon, the module will introduce you to a range of critical frameworks for engaging with object and the broader issues - or debates - they provoke, from the role of cultural heritage to questions of censorship. It will also invite you to consider how these ways of reading can be used in your written assignments.

This module will introduce you to the benefits of adopting an object-centred approach to Art History & Visual Culture. Through a series of lectures, workshops and practical sessions, you will examine a series of cultural artefacts and their accompanying literature. As part of this process, both object and scholarship will be subject to critical analysis, resulting in a well-informed, independent position on the object in question. You will also consider the extent to which the meaning of works of art and visual culture is open to revision.

View an example full module specification

AHV2007: Contemporary Visual Practices

In this module you will be introduced to a diverse spectrum of critical issues in contemporary visual culture. You will explore the links between the historical and the contemporary, and learn how to apply critical theory in visual and discursive analysis. You will engage with a wide range of visual practices in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, drawing on examples of high art, popular culture and new media, as well as experiences of urbanism and the environment. Topics may include curation, heritage, migration, performance, gender, and race.

This module aims to allow you to:

View an example full module specification

HAS2011: Adventures in Environmental Arts and Humanities

View an example full module specification

HIH2002: Uses of the Past

In this module you will explore how people in the past used history to explain their present, and how people today use history. You will look at the ways in which the past has been constructed, including the roles people have played, the impact of different cultures, and how things have changed over time. You will explore the authority that different cultures have given to the past, what makes a past 'authentic' and 'powerful', how notions of good or bad history have changed over time, and you will assess why people have turned to the past in order to make sense of their worlds. You will compare past and present uses of history across different cultures, and the way in which history is used by different states and rulers, and in education, entertainment, and public commemoration. You will also look at how groups have attempted to make sense of their past using a range of sources: for example, chronicles, paintings, films, genealogies, statues, and memorials.

This module aims to:

View an example full module specification

HIH2011A: Forgetting Fascism, Remembering Communism: Memory in Modern Europe

This module will examine the ways in which European memory has been constructed since the Second World War. It will partly focus on countries, from Spain to Germany to Russia, which have attempted to 'come to terms' with their experience of Fascism and/ or Communism. It will examine the way in which histories are remembered, remoulded or forgotten when one regime collapses and another takes its place. It will address how the memory of the past is constructed at many levels: through transnational advocacy, state commemorations, trials and funerals; through novels, films, buildings, statues and everyday objects. It will also place European memory politics in global context, exploring both the differences from, but also connections to, other ways of remembering difficult or violent pasts across the world.

For the most part we will use focussed (and often national) case studies, to a) historicise this process: to understand how Europeans came to believe it necessary to remember their 'difficult pasts' and b) to explore the competition and contestation over which 'difficult pasts' were the most important, how these should be remembered, and - in some cases - whether these pasts should be remembered at all.

View an example full module specification

HIH2245: From Gallows to ASBOs: Crime, Punishment, and Society in Britain and Ireland

View an example full module specification

HIH2249: Vikings and Other Invaders: Europe under Siege in in the Tenth Century

View an example full module specification

HIH2251: Beyond Bridgerton: A Peoples' History of Britain, 1688-1834

The popular image of eighteenth-century Britain is one of high society and country houses, teeming with aristocrats and landed gentry, inspired by countless Jane Austen adaptations and Regency romances like Bridgerton. But who made up the bulk of Britain’s population, and what was the daily reality of life beyond the ballroom? This module challenges you to take a fresh look at this crucial phase of British history and consider the lived experience of diverse social communities during the tumultuous ‘long’ eighteenth century. This was an era marked by the shock of industrialisation, imperialist expansion, and near-constant warfare. Beyond Bridgerton: A Peoples’ History of Britain considers how ‘ordinary’ people both shaped, and were shaped by, these changes, and how we can recover these marginalised voices. It also invites you to reflect on our contemporary obsession with the eighteenth-century’s social elite: what does this tell us about Britain today?

The module aims to:-

• Develop your understanding of how diverse communities navigated, and shaped, the changing social, political, and economic structures of Britain in the ‘long’ eighteenth century.
• Develop your ability to critically evaluate the historiographical approaches, and primary sources, relating to the subject.
• Develop you critical awareness of how and why the history of Britain in the long eighteenth century has been portrayed in modern popular culture.

View an example full module specification

HIH2595: Hunger Games: Poverty, Famine, and Environment

This module isn’t just about famines in modern history. It’s about how the threat of famines and food poverty shaped the modern state, family size and sexuality, our eating habits, our food systems and our attitudes towards the environment and the climate crisis. Case studies will cover some topics from Ireland and the British Isles, the Indian sub-continent, and the Ottoman Empire, and will focus on the modern period (roughly 1750 onwards). The subject matter is serious but the seminars will have you playing survival games at subsistence farming and engaging with everything from economic theory to collective memory to try and understand how famine has—until now—evaded every human effort to eradicate it. This module reintroduces you to modernity—its hungry side. No prior knowledge of famine history or environmental history is required to take the module, but coming to the module with an openness to reading a variety of sources from testimonies and lived experiences to economic analyses is encouraged.

View an example full module specification

HIH2597: Beyond the Tudors: Europe’s Worldview Transformed c.1500-1600

Summary

The Tudor period is quite rightly seen as a crucial one in English history, but it wasn’t only England that was transformed at this time. Indeed, English history can only be fully understood in the context of great changes that swept across all of western Europe in the sixteenth century. Dismissing the medieval period as a ‘dark age’ full of ignorance and savagery, Europeans saw their own time as one of light and learning, when the errors of the past were rejected and knowledge, belief, art and culture were made anew. Rather than focusing narrowly on the better-known Tudors in isolation, this module therefore situates England within broader European society, charting how existing worldviews were challenged, reformed and reconstructed at this time.

This module introduces you to transformations in the ways that sixteenth-century Europeans understood themselves, their bodies, their history and their religion. We also consider how novelties such as the printing press facilitated the spread of new ideas, and how European ‘discoveries’ of new parts of the globe were absorbed into western worldviews. If you have studied the Tudors before the module will bring new depth and perspectives to your understanding; alternatively, if you are new to the period, the module gives an excellent insight into what made both England and this wider world tick.

View an example full module specification

HIH2186A: Deviants and Dissenters in Early Modern England

How societies define and create deviants and dissenters can tell us a great deal about those societies: what they value and seek to promote and encourage is inevitably also revealed through what they seek to discourage or stamp out. This module explores who were the people, and groups of people, who deviated in some way from the 'norms' of early modern society, or who disagreed with its political, religious, legal, economic, and medical institutions and tenets, and why. It will further examine what it meant to be defined or categorised in this way. What kinds of ideas and beliefs might place a person or people on the margins of early modern English society and culture? What were the consequences of espousing such ideas or beliefs, or of acting on them? But deviance could also be experienced through the body: what bodily appearances, practices and behaviours might similarly place you on the margins of early modern society? These are the kinds of questions you will explore in this module, using a wide range of primary sources, which will provide a foundation for thinking about those you might examine in your dissertation research next year. You will also have the opportunity to develop your debating skills, and to synthesise and substantiate arguments as you build your own ideas about these often contested areas of historical study.

This module aims to:

View an example full module specification

HIH2237: Doing History in the Digital Age

This module will enable you to develop independent learning skills, an understanding of the value and use of primary sources in history, knowledge of historiography, and critical and presentational skills. It is a progression from the Year 1 core modules in History, and from Sources and Skills. It will also help to prepare you for writing a dissertation in your final year.

The module is compulsory for Single Honours History students. It is optional for Combined Honours History students, but a prerequisite for students wishing to undertake a dissertation in History in their final year. The module is also available to students on other programmes as an optional module.

This module builds on work done in Year 1 in the core modules in History, and in Sources and Skills modules. It is a guided independent study module, which aims to develop your independent learning, understanding of the value and use of primary sources in history, knowledge of collections, archives, and databases, and critical and presentational skills. It also serves as part of the preparation for the final element of independent study in history programmes in the final year, in the form of the Dissertation or Research Project Dissertation.

View an example full module specification

HIH2244: Rebellion! Uprisings in England and France, 1173-1569

View an example full module specification

HIH2248: Strategy and Success in the Second World War

View an example full module specification

HIH2252: Atlantic History, 1500-1850: Communities, Identity and Empire

This module explores the history of the Atlantic world and the interconnected development of Africa, Europe and the Americas between 1500 and 1850. The rise and fall of the trans-Atlantic slave trade is a central element of this history, alongside the establishment and loss of European imperial possessions in the Americas. Competition for military, economic and cultural hegemony was acute, but the Atlantic world was also a site of connection. This module will therefore give students the opportunity to study the intellectual and material networks which influenced the lives of the people living there. It will encourage critical engagement with the rich historiography on the Atlantic world as well as the evaluation of the historical evidence which has shaped this scholarship. Students will encounter political, social, cultural, intellectual and economic histories that deal with identity, power and social structures; violence, warfare and revolution; and the intellectual and material drivers of human exploitation – but also of human solidarity and connection. An Atlantic lens, drawing on case studies from and connections between Africa, Europe and the Americas, is a powerful tool for studying such themes. It encourages a substantive focus on race, slavery and different European imperial dynamics right across a formative period for the modern world. For example, students will examine the varied and changing ideas about race, culture and identity, looking at African-European-Indigenous interactions but also at the transformation of these societies across the Atlantic. Students will be asked to enquire into the relationship between ideas about race, un-free labour, resistance and imperial possession. We will focus on individuals, groups, communities and states, adopting an approach that explores history bottom up as well as top down. This analysis will raise awareness of the historical roots of current conflicts and tensions.

View an example full module specification

HIH2253: Creating an American Empire: From Westward Expansion to Colonial Empire

This module explores the history of United States’ territorial expansionism and the controversial rise of a U.S. empire across the long nineteenth century (c. 1783-1902). That period saw the United States develop into a continental and colonial empire that extended across the American West and then claimed insular possessions such as the Hawaiian Islands and the Philippines. In this module, you will explore how historians have approached U.S. expansion and the drivers and debates surrounding the American empire, from the Revolutionary era to the Spanish-American War.

Topics will likely include concepts of the “frontier” and of “borderlands”; slavery and free-land expansionism; Native Americans, Indian Removal and resistance, and federal Indian policy; the Mexican American War and the U.S. annexation of Texas and California; the incorporation and settlement of the West through farming, homesteading, speculation, mining, and railroad development; transpacific trade, immigration, and diplomacy; and the mythology of the frontier in US popular culture. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the U.S. expansionist gaze turned increasingly towards "frontiers" in Latin America and Asia-Pacific, leading to new and troubling questions surrounding the formal or informal imperialism of the United States.

View an example full module specification

HIH2596: Russia’s Empires: Societies, Peoples and Cultures

Over the course of the last four centuries, Russia has formed the central part of a series of states that can be categorised as empires in various ways, from the rapid geographical expansion seen during the imperial period, to the formation of the multinational USSR, to the present-day Russian Federation. This module will focus on various parts of this long period to explore the enduring questions of what empire has meant to these states and the varying nature of their imperial projects; what the experience of empire has meant to those peoples living within it and how this has changed over time; and how empire has shaped the society and culture of Russia over the centuries. The content of this module will be determined by staff expertise so may focus entirely on the imperial period, straddle the revolutionary divide of 1917, or explore the dynamics of the Soviet Union and its influence in the post-Soviet world.

View an example full module specification

HAS3999: Study Abroad

The Study Abroad programme enables you to undertake a year-long study placement at a partner university outside of the UK, as part of your degree programme.

This module serves as the administrative mechanism for recording the Study Abroad assessment results of students within the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS). Students participating in the Study Abroad programme and based in a HASS department (except for the Law School, the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Modern Languages, and the School of Education) will be registered on this module during their Study Abroad placement year.

The Study Abroad programme widens the range of modules available to you during Stage 3 of your degree programme; enables you to broaden your academic horizons by studying in a different learning culture and (where relevant and appropriate) in languages other than English; and aims to promote resilience, independence, cultural awareness, and communication skills.

View an example full module specification

HAS3998: Employment Experience

This module allows you to undertake and to learn from an extended work placement during the third year of a four year “with Employment Experience” programme. You will use one or more work placements to gain skills that equip you to work in the employment market and to improve your knowledge of the work environment. You are encouraged to think about the intercultural competence and the employability skills that you acquire during your year.

To progress to this module, you will have secured a suitable placement for a minimum of 26 weeks.

Having developed the skills necessary to find relevant roles and apply for roles in the graduate labour market, this is an invaluable opportunity to develop work-related skills and experience that will further enhance your success in the graduate labour market and support your future career choices.

During your placement year you will be supported by the Module Convenor and Placement Team.

The module assessment structure provides opportunity and support for you to evaluate your skills and achievements using personal development techniques.  You will also write an Employer Report to showpiece the culmination of your academic and business skills.

This module aims to:

View an example full module specification

AHV3000: Art History and Visual Culture Dissertation

The dissertation is an independent research project which enables you to produce a piece of work that is self-selected, rather than prescribed. It highlights your ability to work autonomously, identifying a topic, articulating the relevant issue(s) that in your view require analysis and devising a plan of work that is largely self-managed. The skills you have learnt over the course of your degree programme are a very good preparation for this, not only because you will have a broad understanding of the field of Art History and Visual Culture, but also because you have worked with a variety of research methodologies and, by now, should be in a position to produce a dissertation that is not only responsive to the best current thinking in the field but also demonstrates your commitment to a specific approach. You will receive guidance from a supervisor and receive support through a series of workshops and seminars. The dissertation module teaches you time management skills and gives you the flexibility to devise and follow your own research questions, extending your knowledge in a specialism which you have particularly enjoyed.

View an example full module specification

HIH3005: General Third-Year Dissertation

The History Dissertation module gives you the opportunity to undertake independent source-based research on a topic of your choice. Over the course of your final year, you will research and write an extended essay based on the analysis of primary sources. Although the onus is on you to identify and research your own chosen area, you are assigned a supervisor from the Department to advise and guide you through the process. The dissertation allows you to put into practice the key skills of source analysis, argumentation and independent study that you have learnt at levels 1 and 2, and represents the culmination of your training as a historian. The dissertation is your chance to pursue original research, to offer a contribution to the field and to add your voice to the debate!

The dissertation is compulsory for all final-year Single Honours History students and may be opted for by final-year Combined Honours History students, provided that they have taken HIH2001 Doing History at level 2, as the dissertation builds on this module.

This module allows you to:

View an example full module specification

HIH3006: Research Project Dissertation

This module is an alternative to the HIH3005 individual dissertation module (for which students chose their own topics in dialogue with supervisors). Staff will offer a topic built around a research project, archive, or historical theme where they have world-leading expertise. It will be offered as a collective research experience.

You will produce individual dissertations built around an individual strand of research, and put into practice many of the key skills that you have developed in the course of your studies so far (including that developed through the core modules at Years 1 and 2), such as: source analysis; argumentation; team working; and independent study. The dissertation thus represents the culmination of your training as a historian. Unlike HIH3005 Dissertation, however, the experience of supervision and support will be as part of a team, working on different aspects of a shared topic, archive or theme. You will therefore be expected to undertake your own independent research, and to develop and discuss this within the context of group supervision. The module will therefore build on the skills you have previously developed in group working, will introduce you to the specific practice of group research, an important part of academic and work life. HIH3006 Research Project Dissertation is your chance to pursue original research as a member of a project group, to offer a contribution to the field, and to add your voice to the debate!

View an example full module specification

HIH3330: Truth

Everything is relative! Nothing is real! Perhaps scepticism about truth in science, morality, and religion once belonged to radical fringes—but today’s global politics and culture seem to be overwhelmed with competing and contradictory beliefs about everything from the shape of the earth to whether Chat GPT has a soul. In disciplines such as History, there are still deeper questions lurking. Does the practice of history help us to identify the truth about past events, or does history play a role in encouraging scepticism and uncertainty over the ‘truth-makers’ of our society? In this module, your convenors and seminar leaders will take you through some core readings on knowledge, the history of science, and readings on the production of social truths concerning (potentially) gender, morality, politics, and alternative belief systems and cults: but from there you will be working to develop your own projects, developing case studies on key themes (a few are recommended in the video introduction). There will be scope to delve deeper into the philosophical questions lurking in any historical study of ‘truth’—and if those don’t appeal, there will also be room here to explore the social and cultural practices that make the truth—whatever it might contain!-- so irresistible to those living within a particular culture and time.

View an example full module specification

HIH3333: Disease

This module explores the concepts of sickness and health. While these might appear to be universal human conditions, this module invites you to think about how the conceptualisation, management, and experience of sickness and health has varied significantly across time and space. From definitions produced by the World Health Organisation for the entire globe to the individual's subjective experience of bodily, mental, and emotional suffering and wellbeing, what it means to be well and unwell is never detached from historical context. Through case studies drawn from across geographies, chronologies, and scales, you will be encouraged to reflect on how disease categories, treatment regimens, and illness narratives have been historically constructed. This module will also highlight what we can learn about a given political, social, and cultural context by putting sickness and health under the microscope. Both concepts have been central to the definition of the normal and the pathological, whether in relation to disability, sexuality, or race, as well as to the representation of the 'other'.

View an example full module specification

HIH3334: War

War is an ancient and contested concept. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus called it 'the father of all' around 500 BCE while the Bible lists 'conquest' and 'war' as two of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Wars were proclaimed to be 'just' or 'holy', but many people reject it on philosophical or religious grounds. The concept of 'total war' developed in tandem with efforts to codify the laws of war and mitigate its impact. War was praised as antidote to modern materialism, but the 'military-industrial complex' (Dwight D. Eisenhower) creates ever more sophisticated high-tech weapons. War is the subject of countless games but defined by cruelty. It was, for a long time, regarded as the ultimate test of manhood but is now increasingly conducted by drones, robots, or in cyberspace. It was once just waged against enemy armies but is now also fought against drugs, smoking, or obesity. In this module, you will explore and discuss different concepts of war and its impact on thought, society, culture, and people.

View an example full module specification

HIH3335: Violence

This module explores the social and cultural histories of collective violence, focusing on the act of violence itself. Engaging with the extensive theorisation of violence offered by different social sciences, the module will examine why violence has taken particular forms and rituals, what it has meant to perpetrators and victims, and the limits placed on violence by formal and informal rules and practices. The module will explore the roles of religion, ethnicity, group dynamics, and gender, phenomena ranging from riots and massacres to the duel, as well as the halting of violence through surrender or negotiation.

This 'Concepts' module requires you to engage with historical ideas and theories relating to violence that are applicable across time and space. You will be encouraged to think beyond the detail of your Special Subjects and Dissertations, using a range of illustrative case studies to examine broader ideas. You will have to consider how ideas and concepts about violence vary, develop, or manifest consistently in different time periods and places, and why they are constructed as they are. What can this tell us about past peoples and societies, and what are the implications for the world in which we now live?

View an example full module specification

HIH3336: Revolution

Along with major wars, with which they are often associated, revolutionary struggles have formed some of the most dramatic turning points in the development of human societies and their governments. At times the threat and promise of revolution has been an all-consuming preoccupation, epitomised by 'classic' revolutions such as those in France in 1789 and Russia in 1917, but also encompassing many other examples of both successful and failed attempts at revolutionary change right up to the present day. On this module you will take an inter-disciplinary approach to the global phenomenon of revolutionary change, starting before 1789 when revolution tended to be a word ascribed to significant events after they had occurred before moving to the post-1789 period when the idea of revolution changed and people became consciously involved in attempts to reshape their governments and societies in the hope for a better future, even if the end result was often very different.

View an example full module specification

HIH3455: Sexualities

This module explores the conceptual frameworks that shape approaches to the history of sexuality. While sexuality might appear to be a universal human (even biological) element of our personalities and identities, this module introduces you to the claim, central to much recent historians' work, that the thinking about ourselves as having a sexual identity is peculiar to some twentieth century cultures. As a result, the history of sexuality invites us to explore the different ways bodies and desires have been conceptualised in different times and places. What concepts have been deployed to make sense of human sexual experiences? What shifting categories (gender, race, nature, age) have been critical to the ways in which societies organise sexual behaviours, or demarcate the moral from the immoral, the pathological from the unhealthy, the normal from the abnormal, the legal from the illegal or the appropriate from the distasteful? Drawing upon case-studies drawn from across geographies, chronologies and scales you will be encouraged to reflect on how sexual categories and modes of regulation reflect different political, social and cultural contexts shedding light and offering new perspectives on our own worlds.

View an example full module specification

HAS3006: The Legend of King Arthur

The deeds of King Arthur and his court are imprinted on the landscape, embedded in (pseudo-)historical texts, and have been repeatedly re-invented in romances, novels, film and television programmes. This interdisciplinary module asks you to investigate the appeal of the 'once and future king' from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century, including the ways in which his legend has been adapted and extended over time. The Southwest has unique links to the Arthurian myth, and this module allows you to explore the manuscript and archaeological resources that distinguish this region.

No prior knowledge, skills or experience are required: this module is suitable for all students at this level.

NB This module is also listed as an MA option: undergraduate and postgraduate students will be taught together in mixed classes. An undergraduate student who has taken this as a Stage 3 module cannot then take it as a masters module.

View an example full module specification

HIH3417: The Yes, Minister Files: Perspectives on British Government since 1914

This module uses the hit BBC comedies Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister as a window on to the world of British government. The programmes were based to a considerable extent on insider information, and the course will explore some of the real life counterparts to things that happened in the series. The module will also show how Yes, Minister relates to other fictional representations of British politics. If you want to understand how Britain has been governed over the last century, this is the course for you.

Possession of a sense of humour is recommended but is not essential.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Bernard, if the right people don't have power, do you know what happens? The wrong people get it: politicians, councillors, ordinary voters!

Bernard Woolley : But aren't they supposed to, in a democracy?

Sir Humphrey : This is a British democracy, Bernard!

View an example full module specification

HIH3418: The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution was one of the greatest events of the twentieth century, heralding the emergence of the first communist regime and providing the inspiration for subsequent revolutions across the world. This module examines the revolutionary period from 1914 to 1922, exploring how and why revolution emerged, the progress of events during the crucial year of 1917, and how the Bolsheviks seized and held on to power during a tumultuous civil war. As well as examining political developments, it seeks to explore the fluctuating aspirations of ordinary people and the emergence of a revolutionary culture, while contrasting Bolshevik aspirations to build a pioneering new state and society with the reality of the foundation of the Soviet Union.

This module studies the revolutionary period in Russian history (1914-22) through the wide range of sources available, including memoirs, diaries, letters, political manifestos, official documents and correspondence, newspapers reports, photographs, and film. It encourages you to analyse and evaluate the reliability and value of these sources, place them in the broader context in which they were produced, and relate them to the subsequent arguments of historians.

View an example full module specification

HIH3421: Magic in the Middle Ages

This course explores how medieval people thought about magic and the magical practices that they used. It takes a long chronological sweep, from the period of conversion to Christianity in the early Middle Ages to the development of new ideas about witchcraft in the fifteenth century.

The course will examine the key changes which took place during the period, including the Church's efforts to Christianise popular practices; the impact of new magical texts which circulated in Europe from the twelfth century onwards; intellectual debates about what magic was and how it worked; and the rising number of trials of magical practitioners. It will also examine how these factors contributed to the invention of a new crime, witchcraft, and the first witch trials.

This module will bring together a wide range of evidence, including religious treatises, academic theology, magical texts, works of literature and trial records to examine both the reality of medieval magic and perceptions of it. It will place this evidence in its social and cultural context, and analyse the key debates in modern historiography.

View an example full module specification

HIH3424: Governing the World: A History of Internationalism from WW1 to the Present

Since the 19th century individuals and states sought to promote national interests in various international fora and to find ways to ‘govern the world’ for the greater good of mankind. This module will introduce students to the rich and complex history of internationalism and the evolution of iconic organisations such as the United Nations from diverse perspectives, engaging with leading as well as lesser known twentieth-century thinkers, policy makers, activists and transnational groupings both within and beyond the Western world. It will examine critically internationalism’s role in the shaping of the modern world, including contemporary critiques and acts of retreat from multilateralism and global cooperation.

The module focuses on internationalism’s dynamic relationship with nationalism and the dialectic between ideals and power politics that had defined visions of global cooperation throughout the 20th century. You will develop skills in researching, interpreting, and analysing both primary and secondary material related to the history of internationalism and international institutions. Drawing on archival, published and translated sources, as well as on a growing number of online digital archives, the module will use official institutional sources, as well as oral histories, letters, post-war memoirs, photographs and video material.

View an example full module specification

HIH3426: Health and its Politics in the 20th Century

Who has a right to health, and who is responsible for maintaining it? Who should pay for it and who should provide it? Questions around access to health and medical management have been central to how international order, state formations and political systems have been imagined and organised in the 20th century. We will explore relationships among social and political structures and health in local, national and global contexts, moving in space, time and thematic approach throughout the course. We will focus on intersections of medical technologies and scientific knowledge; social movements and political ideologies, such as empires and the bacteriological revolution; reproductive rights and women's health movements; socialist ideas of health and decolonisation; and the rise of global health and the neoliberal world order.

The module aims to:

• Introduce you to the entangled histories of health, society and politics in the 20 thcentury through analyses on local, national and global registers.
• Drawing on published and translated source collections as well as a growing number of online digital archives,

The module will make use of sources ranging from governmental records, medical literature, news media, oral history interviews, public health campaign materials, advertisements, personal letters, photographs, conference proceedings, memoirs.

View an example full module specification

HIH3430: From the Grand Tour to Gladiator: Modern Encounters with the Ancient World

The classical world is all around us. We encounter the classical world in museums, buildings, gardens, films, poems and video games. We find classical references in political, economic, social and cultural debates on topics such as education, democracy, slavery, sexuality or imperialism. In this module, we will examine why the cultures of Greece and Rome still matter to global societies.

Covering roughly the period from 1750 to the present day we will excavate the ways the ancient world has shaped the modern. We will explore the centrality of Greece and Rome to concepts of civilization, national identities, political ideology, race and sexuality. Why is the ancient world so prominent in narratives of Western triumphalism, marshalled in support of white supremacy and imperial politics, harnessed to legitimate dictatorships or wielded to promote liberal democracies? How is ancient history relevant to movements for sexual liberation or deemed illustrative of the dangers of pornography? How and why are ancient cultures appropriated to shore up racialised, classed and gendered structures of oppression?

View an example full module specification

HIH3434: The Body in Early Modern England

This module will provide a detailed analysis of both the history of the body in early modern England and historical sources available for the subject. Seminars will focus on exploring key issues and questions in the study of the body and its historiography. Topics covered may include: anatomy; sex and gender; sex, reproduction, and sexuality; medicine and midwifery; life-stages from conception to old age; illness and disease; death and dissection; regulating the body (including morality, size, behaviour); deformed, disabled, foreign, monstrous bodies.

If you have not previously studied the period you will be expected to do some general reading to familiarise yourself with the early modern world.

You will require at least 90 credits of History at level 1 and/or level 2 to complete this module.

• To analyse the history of the body in early modern England
• To analyse the historical sources available for the subject

View an example full module specification

HIH3441: Britons Abroad: The Experience of Travel, c. 1650-1900

Travel today is commonplace, familiar to us all, and often routine; but it hasn't always been so. From the early modern period in Britain, domestic and international travel increased markedly, driven by socio-cultural phenomena such as the Grand Tour, commercial expansion and the Atlantic economy, as well as developments in transport and travel infrastructure. By the twentieth century travel had been 'democratised', opening up mass tourism. For the first time in history, large numbers of travellers were beginning to explore the globe, encountering new countries, environments and peoples. But the history of travel isn't just about journeys and destinations...it encompasses a huge range of historical factors including gender, health, sexuality, race, transport, the body, risk and vulnerability. This module enables you to explore the experience of travel over the course of three centuries. Alongside broader narratives of the development of tourism, transport and material culture, and drawing on a wide variety of source materials, including travel literature, personal narratives, advertising, art and literature, it focusses on the profound changes to individuals of encountering 'new' peoples and places, and their experiences of journeys in the past.

View an example full module specification

HIH3446: The Celtic Frontier

The events of 1066 brought radical and permanent change not just to England but to Wales, Scotland and Ireland which, over the next century, became targets for Norman ambition. In This module you will examine the processes, voluntary and involuntary, by which these countries were brought into line with continental norms.

You will focus on studying all aspects of the impact of the Normans on the British Isles between 1066 and 1215. A variety of primary sources will be used to examine the processes of conquest and assimilation. Writings of both conquerors and conquered are used and will include correspondence, ethnography, satire, chronicle, poetry, prophecy, and charters. Texts may be from Latin, French, English, Welsh and Irish origin.

We welcome students from other disciplines; however you will require at least 90 credits in History at level 1 and/or level 2.

The events of 1066 brought radical and permanent change not just to England but to Wales, Scotland and Ireland which, over the next century, became targets for Norman ambition. This course examines the processes, voluntary and involuntary, by which these countries were brought into line with continental norms.

View an example full module specification

HIH3451: Borders and Mobilities in Postcolonial South Asia

Tracing contested borders and frontiers cleaved by Empire, this module examines histories of war, peace, and resistance in postcolonial South Asia. Drawing on the intertwined histories of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka, we will study the cartographic anxieties and boundary-making practices that enumerate identity and shape mobilities in the region. We will adopt an intersectional approach that foregrounds caste, gender, race, religion and class and unsettles the nation-state's rigid, exclusionary borders. Spanning a range of topics including ethnic conflict, diplomacy and disputed territories, statelessness and citizenship, this module explores the postcolonial states and societies of South Asia.

The module will enable students to utilise interdisciplinary frameworks in postcolonial studies, diplomatic history, migration and borderland studies to better understand South Asia. You will be introduced to scholarship that challenges methodological nationalism and top-down approaches by putting forward a nuanced, intersectional agenda. Drawing on diverse sources including archival documents, diplomatic memoirs, biographies, fiction, translated works, and cinema, you will also be equipped to work with primary sources effectively and innovatively.

View an example full module specification