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This team-taught module will introduce students to the key research skills and resources required for successful completion of this programme and for pursuing further research.  It will provide them with greater understanding and deeper historical awareness of methodological approaches (e.g., international and diplomatic history, oral history) and historiographical debates (theories of history); students will learn how to locate and use key archival depositaries (for early modern sources as well as more contemporary material) and online resources, how to approach the use of newspapers, personal testimonies and non-literary sources. Students will be able to apply their understanding of the theories and methods of historical research in the two pieces of coursework set up for this module, the literature review and the research proposal, which will also constitute the foundation of their dissertation.

This is an interdisciplinary class that focuses on narrative, memory and public history. The student will receive a mixture of theory and practical skills around what is public history; how do we tell stories about the past; and the role of individual and popular memory in heritage.

Drawing from skills across the Humanities, including English & Creative Writing, Translation Studies, Journalism and History, this public history class will equip students with transferrable skills for careers in heritage, public engagement, creative practice and journalism. Students are encouraged to consider how people and societies remember the past in the present. The class casts a critical eye on what voices are privileged at the expense of others, thinking about sexualities, race and ethnicity, disability and gender.

The course has practical sessions in and around campus on oral history interviewing, creative writing and digital storytelling. Assessments are tailored to the interests and discipline of each student given them control over their own research interests in collaboration with staff. Over the semester, students will work on their own project to create a short public history project based on the skills and theory learned in class.

This class explores the complex interactions between medicine, gender, health and illness in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will explore the key role that gender has played in the emergence of modern healthcare, medicine and health activism in a variety of settings, such as Britain, Ireland and the United States.

Students will examine a diverse range of topics which will allow them to assess how men and women, and concepts of femininity and masculinity were defined by the medical profession and how responses to men and women’s health issues became increasingly gendered over time.

As well as developing their critical thinking skills through engagement with the secondary literature on these themes, students will have the opportunity to get to grips with a variety of primary sources such as women’s magazines, advertisements, films, medical journals and oral histories.

Food and Health explores how dietary influences on health have been perceived during the twentieth century.

Nutrition has been and continues to be one of the most controversial areas of health and medicine and one of the goals of this module is to examine why this has been the case. Students will investigate not only how the relationship between health and food has changed, but also the many cultural, economic and political factors that have influenced notions about the ideal diet.  

Students will engage with, and think critically about, primary sources ranging from popular literature and film to newspaper articles and medical studies, in addition to relevant secondary source material.

This class explores the diplomacy of the post war world. It will provide students with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the key international issues faced by Britain, France and the United States after the Second World War. Students will examine the issues which strengthened the post-war alliance and those which challenged it.

This module investigates the history of secret intelligence and international security from the Cold War to the global War on Terror. It looks at the development of intelligence services and their rivalry in the context of the Cold War. The course goes beyond the Western-centric narrative, to investigate the impact of the intelligence rivalry on the process of decolonisation and state-building in post-colonial societies. Moreover, it investigates the role of intelligence in counter-terrorism in historical context.

This class is designed to help students reflect on the subject specific and transferable skills they have acquired through their academic journey, articulate them to a potential employer and apply them in the workplace. This module aims to provide students with an insight into the day to day workings of an organisation, in order to develop history-specific vocational skills and promote reflection on employability and also on the issues involved in disseminating history outside academia. The class offers students the opportunity of spending eight weeks in a placement of their choice with museums, archives, historical associations, third sector organisations, university professional services. Placements are provided but students who have already identified an organisation or project they would like to work with, can discuss this with the class lecturer. Students will be asked to complete a small project or piece of research for their host. Assessment for this class include an initial work plan and a reflective essay on the student's work experience.

This module provides a structured approach to prepare you for your dissertation projects. There are no set seminars, instead, the module ensures that you can make use of the time dedicated to dissertation preparation in Semester 2 by following a structured programme focused on productive supervisory conversations and assessments targeted at supporting you towards robust and innovative dissertation research.

You must manage your own time and meet with your supervisor over the course of the semester to develop the dissertation. The assessments include a reflective journal and a dissertation pitch presentation towards the end of the semester.

The dissertation is an exercise in independent study. You will research a topic of your choice, under the supervision of an expert member of the programme staff. You will make full use of primary and secondary source material, including the identification and use of relevant archival holdings. While guidance will be provided by the supervisor, you will propose the area of study, compile an adequate bibliography, and take all initiatives necessary to carry out the work.