History and Politics BA

History core module - Autumn semester

History Workshop

What does it take to be a historian? In this module, you will study the process of historical research, learning discipline-specific methods and essential study and writing skills through close engagement with a historical text (usually a work of narrative non-fiction) linked to your tutor's research interests. You will develop skills in critical reading, historiography, essay writing, bibliographic techniques, and reflection.

The assessment for this module is aimed at giving you a strong foundation in the skills you will need throughout your degree and beyond: critical reading and writing, bibliographic techniques, and the ability to reflect on and articulate your skills as a historian.

20 credits

History core module - Spring semester

The core module for the Spring semester is awaiting approval. We expect you to have the chance to build upon the foundational skills you acquired in the Autumn semester and be introduced to the breadth of historical research interests at Sheffield. You’ll explore ancient and medieval history through to the contemporary world and learn how to frame your own historical questions.

History optional module examples:

Empire: From the Ancient World to the Middle Ages

Covering the period from the 4th century BC to the 15th century AD, this module invites students to explore the ancient and medieval worlds through the lens of 'empire'. It provides an introduction to ancient and medieval types of empire, their contacts with and legacies to each other, and the connectedness between East and West in this period. Using a wealth of primary evidence and drawing on corresponding historiographical debates, students explore what it meant to live in ancient and medieval empires, what kind of social, cultural and religious encounters they engendered, and whether there was any space for resistance.

20 credits

Land of Liberty? Rights in the USA, 1776-2016

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that men were created with 'certain unalienable rights'. Yet the new United States denied those rights to large swathes of its people. Examining themes which resonate powerfully today, this module explores American history as a struggle over how rights have been defined and debated, expanded and contracted, and secured and denied. Linking the history of ideas to the efforts of ordinary people, we will look at debates over liberty and slavery, democracy and disenfranchisement, capital and labour, integration and
segregation, gender and sexuality, nationalism and internationalism, and conservatism and liberalism.

20 credits

The 'Disenchantment' of Early Modern Europe, c. 1570-1770

This module explores the fundamental shifts in mental attitudes and public behaviour that occurred in Europe between the age of the Reformation and the age of the Enlightenment. The central focus of the course will be the examination of the supernatural - religious beliefs, but also witchcraft and magic. You will explore the changing ways in which beliefs impinged on people's lives at various social levels. You will also have an opportunity to study the impact on people's world views of such changes as rising literacy, urbanisation, state formation and new discoveries about the natural world. All these will be investigated in the institutional contexts of state and church and the ways in which they sought to channel and mould beliefs and behaviour. This module enables you to understand how the early modern period is distinctive from and links medieval and later modern historical studies.

20 credits

The Making of the Twentieth Century

This module considers the twentieth century as a time that transformed the social and political order in the world, calling into question the role of the European powers in global contexts, and dramatically reorienting the relationship between states and societies. You will engage with case studies representing key themes in twentieth-century global history: imperialism and the processes of decolonisation; the challenges of building the postcolonial nation; revolutions and the emergence of new states; war, genocide and conflict; and the institutions of international order.

In addressing these themes, The Making of the Twentieth Century has a particular aim of counteracting prevailing tendencies towards Eurocentrism.  You will gain a considerable body of knowledge on the histories of Asia, Africa and Latin America especially.  At the same time, emphasis is placed on the empirical and theoretical grounds upon which competing interpretations rest in order to encourage you to develop critical awareness of the character of historical analysis.  More generally, this module aims to develop analytical, conceptual and literary skills through class discussion and written assignments.  Communication skills will also be emphasised in weekly seminars that will allow specific issues to be discussed in more depth, often with reference to primary source material.  Above all, the module seeks to stimulate an interest in history and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

20 credits

The Transformation of the United Kingdom, 1800 to the Present

This module explores the central political, social, economic, cultural and diplomatic developments that have transformed Britain since 1800. Unlike most of its European neighbours, Britain did not experience dramatic moments of revolution, constitution-building, invasion or military defeat; indeed the belief that the nation was set on a course of gradual evolutionary progress was central to many versions of British identity. This course examines how, when and why change occurred in Britain. Key themes include the transition to mass democracy; the impact of industrialisation; shifts in social relationships based on class, gender and ethnicity; and the rise and fall of Britain as an imperial power.

20 credits

The Long View: an introduction to archaeology

This module traces the development of modern humans through to the modern era. It introduces the wide range of materials and methods that archaeologists use to study the past.  The practical laboratory-based classes and field classes provide experience in the basic identification, investigation and interpretation of archaeological evidence. They are supported by lectures that introduce archaeological methods, theories and worldwide case studies. From field to laboratory using examples from throughout the world, you will learn about how archaeology shapes knowledge about the deep and recent human past.

Through this module students will be introduced to debates on the formation and development of archaeological thought through a world-wide perspective from the Palaeolithic to the present. They will be presented with techniques and ideas used by archaeologists to explore the human record and understand the past. It offers an opportunity to explore and discover the archaeological record through practical engagement, using field and laboratory methods, while also highlighting the importance of selecting analytical techniques appropriate to the question posed and the data available. The module will enable students to develop core skills in decoding and critically understanding literature, observation, recording, analysis and interpreting archaeological evidence.

20 credits

Politics core module:

Political Analysis 1: An Introduction to Research and Scholarship

This module introduces students to the study of politics as an academic discipline. More specifically, it involves discovering different ways to research the dynamics of the political worlds around us. Students will simultaneously develop a range of independent study skills whilst acquiring the foundational knowledge and skills needed to build, test and evaluate rigorous accounts of political problems. Students will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, and independent study, and they will be assessed based on one reflective portfolio and an exam.

20 credits

Politics optional module examples:

Planet Politics

From the atmosphere to Antarctic ice sheets, the Earth has been fundamentally transformed by human activity: we now inhabit a ‘human planet’. At the same time, from mining and agriculture to modern patterns of resource consumption, humankind has become dependent on the very activities that have caused these transformations. 

Far from being automatic or inevitable, these transformations are deeply political on multiple levels – in their causes, in their consequences, and in the many arguments and differences over how to respond to them. 

This module will introduce students to some of this ‘Planet Politics’. It will consider questions such as: 

Are we on the verge of a planetary ecological crisis? 

Is capitalism the problem, or the solution? 

Are there just too many people? 

Is meaningful international environmental cooperation possible? 

What are the vested interests obstructing change? What forms of social resistance are appropriate? 

What is ‘environmental justice’? 

Examining both key environmental and resource issues and the main approaches to studying them, the module asks some of the biggest questions about life: how should we live, and what should we do?

20 credits

The World's Wicked Problems

This module will introduce students to key international relations concepts and discussions. Students will be able to understand, analyse and reflect on some of  the most pressing issues in the international arena including: 

migration

climate change

poverty and global inequalities

sexual violence 

armed conflict 

This introductory module will equip students with the tools to continue engaging with more in-depth theoretical and empirical international relations discussions as they progress through their studies.

20 credits

Introduction to Comparative Politics

This module examines the utility of the comparative approach to politics with a particular focus on democracies, dictatorships, and semi-democratic regimes. The key features of each regime type are considered and these are used to explain the nature of the comparative method, its strengths and weaknesses. This course also applies a comparative lens to processes such as democratisation, modernisation, and mobilisation. This course will draw on a wide range of examples from democratic, authoritarian, and semi-democratic countries.

20 credits

British Politics

This module will introduce students to key concepts and debates in British politics through an examination of post-1976 British political history. Each lecture will take as its starting-point one day in recent British history and will describe what happened on that day and what happened as a result of that day. Each of the seminars will then follow that discussion: paying particular attention to concepts and ideas within the study of politics which can help us make sense of those events.

20 credits

Introduction to Global Political Economy

This module provides an introduction to global political economy (GPE). It covers key mainstream and critical theories and considers critically what GPE is. Following this, the main focus will be on sketching the outlines of the global economy (past and present) by considering particular commodities. This provides a novel way to introduce the student to the major processes of global trade, finance and production. It also considers the political economy of race, class and gender as core theoretical themes that interweave the empirical examination of the global political economy, from roughly 1500 through to the 21st century.

20 credits

Introduction to Western Political Thought

This module provides an introduction to key themes and thinkers in Western political thought. It explores the different meanings of the nature of politics and the political in this tradition. One key theme will be the relation between human nature and politics. This will be explored through a series of deep conflicts between reason and desire, the state and individual, and the public and private. These conflicts are examined through the different visions of politics of a selection of ancient and early modern thinkers. The module will also engage with critiques of the canon of Western political thought itself, in particular from a postcolonial perspective.

20 credits

History core modules:

20 credits each. Dual students will choose one of two core modules.

Historians and History

This course will introduce students to the most influential 'schools' of historical practice in operation in the second half of the twentieth century and which remain influential today. These include Marxism, the Annales school, quantitative history, history from below, feminist and gender history, and postmodernism, as well as English empiricism. Lectures will provide an overview of each approach, and discuss the historical context in which it emerged. In seminars, students will be taught to assess critically the opportunities and limitations of each approach.

20 credits

The Uses of History

This module explores the theory and practice of public history by providing students with the opportunity to communicate their scholarly work to an audience beyond the boundaries of our discipline. Students will articulate an aspect of their own historical interests to a non-academic audience and evaluate the use of history outside academic settings. The course will engage in debate about important questions facing historians in the present, and consider ideas about the role and purposes of History as an academic subject.

20 credits

History optional module examples:

Optional modules are 20 credits each. Dual honours students will normally take two modules from across our options and document options.

In addition to the optional modules listed below, we expect you to have the opportunity to take a new module that will introduce you to the practice of historical research and support you to develop information awareness. This will provide a stepping stone from the critical source work of document options to your third-year dissertation. You’ll develop essential skills in locating and evaluating sources while gaining firsthand experience of designing, developing, and presenting a short research project.

A Protestant Nation? Religion, Politics and Culture in England 1560-1640

On the accession of Elizabeth I, England became an officially Protestant country but the Church, State and laypeople did not necessarily agree about the nature of changes needed to accommodate the new religion. On the level of national government policy, we shall explore what governments expected from their subjects and how they attempted to secure religious conformity during the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I. How far did anti-Catholicism define English identity in this period? Did authorities at the national and local levels disagree about how severely religious minorities should be treated?

20 credits

Culture in Early Modern Europe

Culture is the key to understanding how societies thought and behaved in the past. Early modern Europe - a period of immense cultural change and conflict - is no different. This wide ranging module introduces students to ideas about culture and examines how cultural history has revolutionised what we know about the lives of men, women and children in Europe between 1500 and 1800. Building on a rich historiography and through a series of intriguing case studies, the module draws on wide range of sources - such as diaries, letters, and legal records, to printed works, art and archaeology - to enter into the many cultures of early modern Europe. The module explores issues like material culture, youth culture, cultures of protest, intellectual culture, and religious culture. It asks whether we can talk about different cultures of men and women and how cultures were affected by social and economic inequalities. It thinks about forces of cultural integration and pressures of cultural conflict. And it explores ideas of cultural change, and how these changes helped create the modern world.

20 credits

Byzantine Intersectionality: Gender, Race and Power in the Medieval Mediterranean, c.500-1300

How did race and gender appear before modernity? How similar were they to how race and gender appear to us today? And can the tools of intersectionality, an approach developed by the critical race theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw that thinks of different kinds of identities as deeply intertwined in structuring our lives, help us understand the medieval world? These questions sit at the heart of this module, which will guide you through the Byzantine world, the survivor of the Roman empire in the East, stretching from the Balkans to Syria, but with a particular focus on the manifold ways in which this world and its power hierarchies were structured by complex ideas about gender and race. From castrated men, or eunichs, sleeping at the foot of the emperor's bed, to saints assigned female at birth who decided to spend their lives as men in male monasteries, this course will ask us to reconsider the assumptions we make about gender and race today, by tracing both how far they have come from the medieval period, and how far they have deviated from it. It will both start and conclude with some bigger historiographical questions: does the existence of race and gender in the past, the realities of racial and sexual hierarchy, offer us an origins story or an opportunity for liberation today?

20 credits

Decolonisation: The End of Empire & the Future of the World

The world was transformed in the twentieth century. A world of empires and colonies became a world of independent states. In this module we analyse this global transformation. Why did it happen - and how? How much really changed? For people around the globe - from imperial rulers in Europe to anti-colonial nationalists in the 'third world' - the crumbling of European empires was an opportunity to shape the future of their own communities and of the world. Sometimes negotiated, often violent, these hard-fought struggles over the future created the world we live in today.

20 credits

Gender and the Georgians: Sex and Society in Britain 1714-1837

Eighteenth-century Britain witnessed great change: historians have argued for a 'revolution' in industry, the 'birth of a consumer society' and the emergence of a 'public sphere' of political debate; global trade expanded, towns grew, and new Enlightenment ideas flourished. In this context, gender identities and roles were redefined, understandings of the body debated, and notions of masculinity and femininity contested. This module explores these ideas about gender, and how they informed people's experiences, from polite fashions to the criminal underworld, bluestocking sobriety to drunkenness in gentlemen's clubs, and from 'subcultures' of homosexuality to the first 'feminists'

20 credits

Gender, Race and Class in Nazi Germany 1933-1945

This module analyses German society from 1933 to 1945 from the perspective of gender, race and class. We will examine the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion under the Nazi dictatorship through the lens of the agency of ‘Aryan’ women and men, the persecution of ‘racially’ defined minorities and by probing into the connections between social class and both consent and popular dissent. While racial categories were pivotal for Nazi policy, their application and their outcomes intersected with issues of gender and class, whether in the forced sterilization of (mostly) women, or in labour market policies that limited gainful employment of women. Through the focus on gender, race and class as dimensions of policy, collective agency and experiences in Germany from 1933 to 1945, the module will offer an introduction into key aspects of the Nazi dictatorship and its dynamics.

20 credits

Holy Russia, Soviet Empire: Nation, Religion, and Identity in the 20th Century

This module explores the twentieth-century history of Russia, the Soviet Union, and its successor states. Rather than approaching this turbulent period in history by focusing on the rise and fall of different political leaders (as is often the case in survey courses), we instead approach this subject through the prism of nation, religion and identity. The course probes the following questions: What did the 'Russian revolution mean for the multi-national empire created by the Romanovs? How far did the communist party manage to create a 'Soviet' identity, and on what was this based? Did the Bolsheviks attempt to create an atheist society succeed? And what happened to 'Soviet' identity when communist leaders began to lose their grip on power in the final decades of the twentieth century?

20 credits

Life Worth Living

What does it mean for a life to go well? How does one live life well? What is a flourishing life? These questions have shaped intellectual endeavour for millennia. Life Worth Living explores approaches to these questions through engagement with diverse traditions/thinkers including classical Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Existentialism, Marx, and Nietzsche. The module includes historical analysis of these traditions, visits from individuals whose lives are shaped by them, fieldwork to discuss the ideas beyond the classroom, and assessments to help students develop their own vision of a life worth living.

20 credits

Looking East: British Perceptions of the Soviet Union from the Holodomor to the Early Cold War

In this module you will learn about how Britons perceived the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. You will examine the reasons why some Britons responded in adulatory fashion to the Soviet experiment, and why others saw a malignant force out to undermine Britain's institutions and way of life. You will understand how the Soviet Union was represented across the media and in different cultural forms, and discover what this reveals about how Britons thought about themselves between the 1930s and 1950s; their hopes, fears, and introspection about their place in the world.The module covers key topics that act as landmarks in the chronology of British attitudes to the Soviet experiment, including the Holodomor (Ukrainian Terror-Famine), Stalin's purges, the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the wartime alliance, and the start of the Cold War. The module also considers other less well-known episodes that influenced British perceptions: the Metropolitan-Vickers affair in 1933; the Russophobia of press outlets such as the Saturday Review (1933-1936); and Moscow Dynamo's football tour in November 1945. These incidents will also be set against wider themes that influenced the reactions of Britons, notably the role of 'fellow travellers' and itinerant sceptics, international political dynamics (such as affinity for fascist alternatives), and cultural representations in literature and other media forms.

20 credits

Postcolonial France and Britain: Empire and its legacies since 1945

In 1942, Winston Churchill declared, 'I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire'. However, between 1945-1960 a quarter of the world's inhabitants revolted against colonialism and colonial rule. So how did we get from Churchill's certainty that the Empire will endure to the emergence of 65 new sovereign states - and what were the consequences in Europe of that massive shift? 

This module looks at postwar Western Europe through an imperial lens, applying new perspectives from the field of postcolonial studies which argue that empire and metropole should not be examined separately. The module covers three main themes: the question of what empire and its loss meant to the colonisers; migration from former colonies to Europe and its consequences; and the memory, representation and historiography of empire. Focusing on Britain and France the module uses a wide range of sources and approaches to explore cultural, social and political aspects of post-colonial Europe.

You will learn what empire meant to Europeans in the twentieth century, and in what ways colonialism and its legacies have shaped the history of Europe since the end of formal imperial rule between 1945 and 1980.  Over the course of the semester we'll examine a variety of topics, beginning with an introduction to postcolonialism as a theory and a means of examining and understanding the world. We'll then start exploring how the colonial empires were perceived at the end of the Second World War. We'll look at the late-colonial state and new forms of colonial rule, including changing ideas about colonial governance, race and equality. Then we'll move to the failure of the late-colonial project: was the decision to withdraw from empire an orderly retreat? In particular, we'll focus on reactions to and debates about decolonisation in Algeria and Kenya in metropolitan societies. We'll examine the experiences of the Windrush generation, and questions of race relations, policing, and the emergence of racial discourses in politics and society.The focus here will be on the 1958-70s for the British case (Enoch Powell) and the 1960s in France with the emergence of the Front Nationale and the emergence of anti-racism campaigns and movements since 1968. We will finish our semester examining the 'second generation' with questions on ethnicity, difference and belonging through the concepts of 'post-colonial fracturing'. Through sport, culture and music we'll look at national identity - was the 1998 French world cup team a representation of multicultural France? We'll end the semester on the question of colonial nostalgia, former settler's repatriation to Europe, and the problems of commemoration in the French case.

20 credits

Religion in an Age of Terror: Ancient Texts and the Making of Modern Israel.

This module will look at the origins, growth and development of conflict and violence in the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), in order to provide a historical perspective on the roots of contemporary religious violence. The focus of the module will be a case-study on the conflict in Israel/Palestine (especially between 1947-67). Primary source analysis will be of the Bible/Quran (and related material), and the documents relating to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Related topics will include: theories of religious violence; religious terrorism; politics and religion; and the roots of religious 'fundamentalism.'

20 credits

Shell-Shock to Prozac: Mental Health in Britain

This course charts the history of psychiatry and mental health in Britain. We start at the First World War, with the large-scale management of psychiatric casualties (shell-shock). We will look at the uptake of psychoanalysis in interwar Britain, contrasted with 'extreme' asylum treatments such as lobotomy and insulin coma therapy. We shall then gauge the impact of the National Health Service from 1948, the closure of the asylums, and the impact of new drug therapies (including the iconic Prozac). Finally we shall analyse the rise of patient activism, and the emergence of new 'epidemic' illnesses such as depression and self-harm.

20 credits

The Archaeology of the Later Medieval Church in England

This module will provide an overview of the archaeology of the later medieval church in England between 1066 and c.1540. Drawing on a wide range of archaeological, architectural and textual sources it will explore the nature of the church through a series of thematically organised lectures and seminars. Themes covered include the development of the parish church and its architecture, the place of the church in the rural landscape, churchyard archaeology, the impact of the Black Death, the fabric of monastic life, monastic economies and the effects of the Reformation. You will learn to critically evaluate and debate established approaches, and to develop fresh, evidence-based arguments that are relevant to current research.

This unit aims to offer students an advanced introduction to the diverse range of evidence and the chronological frameworks relevant to the study of the later medieval church. It will provide a critical overview of the key debates and theoretical approaches concerning the archaeology of the church, and place them within the broader context of changing perspectives in archaeology. Students will develop their abilities to judge between relevant academic arguments and it will be encouraged to contribute to current research debates, and to develop innovative critical perspectives and evidence-based arguments. The module will foster students' skills in presenting complex ideas, arguments and critical analysis during seminars and presentations and in written contributions.

20 credits

The Export of England: Seventeenth Century Trade and Empire

This module considers the commercial and territorial expansion of seventeenth-century England. It examines how England's commerce was transformed from the largely bilateral cloth trade with Europe conducted by mercantile corporations, to a multilateral commerce conducted under several conditions (the 'navigation system, 'free trade', joint-stock companies). These changes coincided with the foundation of North American and West Indian colonies, building on earlier experiences in Ireland, and the course will consider their developing relations with the metropolis. Throughout, the focus will be on whether these changes were a consequence of deliberate 'mercantilist' state policies, or of the initiative of thousands of individuals.

20 credits

The Heretic, the Witch and the Inquisitor: The Medieval Inquisition from the Cathars to Joan of Arc

The Inquisition - an extraordinary court instituted by bishops from the 13th century to judge heretics and encourage their return to the Roman Church - marks an important development in medieval history and has played an essential role in modern perceptions of the Middle Ages. By focusing on some of the best known sources of the Inquisition, which have been important in recent historiography as well as contemporary fiction (The Name of the Rose), this module allows you to reflect on how a better understanding of the Middle Ages and a critical questioning of modern prejudices can benefit from each other.

The module focuses on two main source collections (which are available online in English translation): the inquisition record of Jacques Fournier, bishop of Pamiers in South France in the early 14th century, who became Pope Benedict XII, and the two trials of Joan of Arc, i.e., the accusation trial of 1431, at the end of which she was burned at the stake, and the rehabilitation trial of the 1450s that overturned the verdict of the first trial. It examines other forms and continuations of inquisition, such as the Spanish Inquisition (starting in 1478), the Roman Inquisition (which famously condemned Galileo in 1633), and the beginning of the witch-craze of the early modern period in late medieval Europe.

20 credits

The History of American Foreign Relations

George Washington famously warned against 'the insidious wiles of foreign influence' in his farewell address in 1796. But history has challenged any idea of the United States as a self-contained, bounded nation. Rather, the U.S. has played an active role in world affairs and has been profoundly shaped by events and people outside its borders. This course surveys the history of the U.S. in global context, beginning with America's first forays into overseas expansion in the late nineteenth century. We will cover both the major foreign policy moments and trends in U.S. history ;wars, government initiatives and interventions abroad, interstate diplomacy 'as well as the less formal encounters, migrations, and transnational exchanges that constitute American foreign relations. Primary and secondary source readings, lectures, and discussions will pay particular attention to the intersections between changes at home and developments abroad.

20 credits

The Making of Modern India, 1780-1965

Modern South Asian history has been an exceptionally fertile field of scholarly exploration, with many new insights and theoretical developments emerging from this field. This module will study the recent historiographical trends while looking closely at several historical developments during the period of British rule and the immediate post-colonial period. The module will be divided into four parts: the early colonial period, the late colonial period, the period of anti-colonial resistance or the national movement, and the post-colonial/Nehruvian era. The themes to be studied include: land/agrarian settlements, British expansionist policies, the revolt of 1857, the formation of caste identities, British famine policies, socio-religious reforms, Gandhian mass-mobilization, Islamic assertions, the national movement, Nehruvian socialism, partition of the subcontinent, and post-colonial legacies.

20 credits

Trumpism: An American Biography

Donald Trump's election, commentators claim, was unprecedented as well as unexpected: a break with more than two centuries of custom. Yet closer scrutiny of American history suggests Trump is no aberration. The module will interrogate the U.S. past to better understand the present, looking at the likes of populism as a political language, whiteness as a psychological wage, masculinity as a path to high office, protectionism as an economic policy, and deindustrialization as a political spur. By asking historical questions about the roots of Trump's rise, we will situate the American present in a complex and often painful past.

20 credits

Modern Chinese History: Beyond Revolution

This module will examine key themes in the histories of China's short twentieth century, with a primary focus on interpretations of 'modernity' and 'progress', explanations of revolution, and the ways in which new approaches in scholarship have influenced our understanding of China's recent past. While the structure of the module is loosely chronological, the emphasis is not on the detail of events but on the critical analysis of broad social and political changes, and we will examine these through recent historical writing on China and a range of primary textual and visual sources.

20 credits

Modern Japanese History

This module will explore key themes in the modern history of Japan from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century, while developing core skills in reading primary sources and historical analysis. Broad themes include identity and nation-building, social and economic change, war and its practical and cultural legacies. Key sub-disciplinary approaches will be based in social and cultural history, with some excursions into other historiographical approaches. It will be delivered through weekly lectures, and seminars structured around developing primary source analysis skills and relating these to appropriate secondary literature. 

20 credits

History document option examples:

Document options are 20 credits each. Dual honours students have the option to take one document option module.

History document modules have a narrower focus than our standard option modules and usually cover a specific event, a movement, or a moment in time. They help you develop your skills in the use and analysis of primary sources which will be invaluable as you progress through your degree.

From Democratic Marxism to Dictatorship: the 1973 Coup in Chile

This document option explores the coup of 11 September 1973 as a turning point in Chilean, Latin American and global history. It will use primary sources to explore events on both sides of this critical date, casting light on life in Chile under both democracy and dictatorship. This module will also situate the Chilean coup in international and global history, asking why events in a small Latin American country held such global importance. We'll use government documents to explore why  the United States found it necessary to intervene against the Allende government and assist the reactionary forces who supported the military coup and transcripts of interviews to grasp how everyday life changed for Chileans in 1973. We'll also explore the significance of events in Chile for the wider global Cold War, using music, art and documents left by activists to ask why everyday people in countries across the world - including the United Kingdom - mobilised in solidarity with the Chilean people and in the name of human rights, and we'll also assess the impact this activism had.

20 credits

Murder in the cathedral: the Becket Affair

On 29 December 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was brutally murdered in his cathedral by four knights of his King and one-time friend, Henry II. In the space of ten years, a close friendship had been ruined, and Thomas' stubbornness, flight to France, and untimely death created additional tensions for the English king. This document option investigates events surrounding Thomas' death and the emergence of his cult. It asks how a minor squabble became a continent-wide cause célèbre, forcing Henry into an act of ritual humiliation to clear his name while ensuring that Thomas' memory lived on.

20 credits

The Irish Republican Brotherhood, 1858-85

Britain's 'Irish problem' has long roots. This document module examines one of the most important violent Irish organisations that challenged British sovereignty in Ireland. Founded in 1858, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) (or the Fenian movement, as it was also known) was a transatlantic movement dedicated to the overthrow of the British state in Ireland. Fuelled by hatred for the British after the dreadful Famine in Ireland of the 1840s, the Fenians constructed a sophisticated organisation that was part secret society, terrorist cell structure and propaganda machine. It was the early forerunner of the Irish Republican Army. This document option investigates aspects of Fenianism from a range of angles. Using sources written and produced by contemporaries, we will consider the dynamics of the IRB and its place within nineteenth-century Ireland.

20 credits

The Myth of Venice

Historians typically debunk fabrications, but myths can themselves be the focus of historical study. During this module you will explore the Myth of Venice, its production, diffusion, and reception. On the one hand, Venice was celebrated as the ideal republican government, a bulwark in defence of Christendom, but it was also the city of state terror, secret police, and seductive 'oriental' luxury, famous for its libertine pleasures. The course also considers how these myths have endured and influenced the academic writing of Venetian history, as a city that was somehow unique and 'outside time'.

Across the module you will examine a wide variety of sources relating to the myth, and develop the skills required for their interpretation, including descriptions of the city by Venetians and foreigners; political tracts, histories and satire; paintings, sculpture and architecture; theatre and literature. (All sources are provided in English translation.) The close focus on a single city allows us to cover a broad period of time, from the leading centre of Mediterranean trade in the fifteenth century, to a growing sense of the city as a centre of tourism and idle pleasure in the eighteenth century, to the city as a symbol of a romantic past in the revolutionary era of the nineteenth century.

Throughout the module a lot of emphasis will be placed on interactive learning activities. During the lecture workshops, you will engage with materials through interactive exercises. In the seminars, you will be asked to take responsibility as part of a small team for leading the learning activities. As well as having the potential for being a lot of fun, this is also important for developing key transferable skills - my past students have commented how useful they found this for their development and how much they enjoyed doing it.

20 credits

The Putney Debates, October 1647

Following the first English civil war there was political stalemate over the post-war settlement. By late 1647 there were calls for revolutionary political change, not least at the famous Putney debates. They came at a crucial moment in the development of the revolution, and successive editors between 1891 and 2007 presented the records of the debates in varying contexts in order to reveal the fundamental significance of the revolution. This module explores the background to the debates at Putney, what was said, and also considers how different editions of the debates reflect the shifting significance attached to the English revolution.

20 credits

The Ten Commandments

This document option examines the Ten Commandments, perhaps the most well known 'legal' code in the world. Through the close study of key primary sources from the Hebrew Bible and the cultures that informed its writing, all readily available in modern English translation, the module explores the ancient Near Eastern context for these commands, the four texts in the Hebrew Bible that contend for the name Ten Commandments, and the role this text played in the political, social, economic, and ethical aspects of ancient life.

20 credits

Welfare children: the state, the family, and society in modern Britain

This module charts the rise and decline of the welfare state through its influence of modern British childhood and on the family. With a particular focus on primary sources, it traces the ideological origins of welfare in British imperialism and eugenics, and is attentive to those who have been excluded from so-called universal entitlements. It engages with the scholarship of Black feminists who have termed the 'welfare state' a 'malfare state'. We will examine the everyday lives reshaped by the state - through healthcare, work, education, housing, and maternity services - in the second half of the twentieth century, paying particular attention to the way that the city of Sheffield shaped and was shaped by the welfare state. We are also interested in the way that the political economy, specifically the shift from Keynesianism to Neoliberalism - changed society and the state. How did ordinary men, women, and children experience major economic change, and how did they challenge - or promote - these changes? In Sheffield, a city shaped by steel and then mass unemployment, this is a particularly fraught history. We draw on a number of different historiographical and political traditions in this course, including socialism, feminism, and liberalism. Primary sources are central to our analysis.  We nuance our understanding through sources ranging from private diaries, family photographs, and archival ephemera through to political speeches and to public buildings, including those we see around us every day in the city of Sheffield. 

20 credits

Politics core module:

Political Analysis 2: How to do empirical research

This module provides students with an introduction to a range of quantitative and qualitative methods for studying political phenomena as well as the software required to do so. The module builds on the introduction to research design offered at level one by encouraging students to reflect on how they conceptualise and design research about the political world. It also goes further by helping them to understand and apply practical tools for collecting data and in turn, carrying out independent analysis of data. Students should leave this module with a much greater appreciation of the relationship between theory and empirical political research.

20 credits

Politics option module examples:

Africa in the World

Africa has long been treated as a marginal part of the world, both historically and in relation to contemporary global politics. This module aims to take this misconception away by exploring the crucial role that Africa plays in the current world order and the way it has historically evolved. 

Students will be introduced to the political, economic, socio-cultural, and military of Africa’s international relations and be familiarized with the key actors, institutions and processes involved. 

We will look at how the slave trade and colonialism have shaped the modern world order, the global reverberations of African independence movements and pan-Africanism, and how continuing unequal relations are expressed in, amongst others, the politics of debt and military intervention. 

The module will also analyse Africa’s relations to emerging global powers, such as China. To analyze these issues, the module will equip students with a range of theoretical and conceptual tools from the field of international relations, drawing to a considerable extent on the work of African thinkers.

20 credits

Chinese Politics

This module explores the political development of China from the end of the Qing Dynasty up to the present day. The core themes animating this module centre on China's continuous quest for modernity, the transformation of domestic politics, economics, and society, and China's changing position on the international stage. 

It covers a range of topics including:

the 1949 revolution and the Mao Zedong era

the post-1978 reform and opening-up era

recent changes under Xi Jinping

Students will be expected to think critically about the transformation of China, including the main forces that shaped it, as well as the domestic and global implications.

20 credits

Contemporary Security Challenges

This module examines a series of key contemporary challenges to international security. It addresses debates about the changing nature of security, analyses some of the causes of conflict and the development of new security threats, and assesses some of the ways in which states seek to manage these threats. A range of approaches are examined in order to provide students with a theoretically-informed but policy-relevant understanding of security-related issues in the twenty-first century.

20 credits

Oppression and Resistance

This module considers oppression and resistance from a variety of perspectives. Although the Enlightenment sought to liberate individuals from social/political domination, it failed to address many forms of oppression at home and was bound to European projects of colonialism. Addressing these forms of violence has been the major project of post-Enlightenment thought and global social movements. This module gives students the historical, theoretical and empirical tools to understand modern oppression and resistance. It explores: the legacy of the Enlightenment, feminism, sexuality, racism, post-colonial and decolonial thought, intersectionality, and social movement case studies such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo.

20 credits

Tackling the World's Wicked Problems: theoretical tools and applications

Rising poverty and inequality within and between states, increased droughts, flooding and environmental degradation, armed civil conflicts and war, infectious diseases, gender based violence, institutionalized racism, food insecurity are just some of the pressing problems that the world faces today. 

What solutions are there? 

What sources of knowledge can we draw on to develop ways forward to tackle such problems? 

This module will present students with a variety of theoretical perspectives and tools, such as Postcolonialism, and Green Theory, that seek to address the various ‘wicked problems’. Students will be tasked with critically evaluating different International Relations theories and their applications, assessing their utility and ability to practically solve the most pressing problems in world politics. 

Global problems arguably require global solutions, and therefore global sources of knowledge. This module will also introduce students to ‘non-Western’ perspectives such as ‘Chinese IR’ and Ubuntu, in the process getting students to examine their ‘problem-solving’ capacities.

20 credits

The Left: Past, Present & Future

This module considers the past, present, and future of 'The Left'. From its origins in the French Revolution, this movement has struggled to balance equality, liberty and solidarity. Implementing these values has given rise to many different stands of leftist thought, leading to debates between radicals and proponents of meliorism. This module gives students the historical, theoretical and empirical tools to understand 'The Left' as a continuing project. Core topics include: defining 'The Left', its origins and theoretical development, its relation to political economy, as well as the current state of the left in the UK and around the world.

20 credits

The Making of The Modern Middle East

This module examines the major socio-economic and political dynamics that govern contemporary Middle East. 



Drawing on insights from anthropology, history, politics, political economy and gender studies this module explores key historical developments and political themes in the region and will provide students with historical and theoretical toolkits to analyse various political events in the Middle East. 

Students will learn how to:

use politics from below perspective

listen for multiple discourses and silences

contextualise voices and silences historically, politically, economically and geographically in wider regional and global power structures. 



The module will equip students with the conceptual and analytical skills to de-exceptionalise their understanding of Middle East politics.

20 credits

The Political Economy of Global Capitalism

This module will begin by providing students with an account of the major theoretical traditions which seek to interpret and explain the global political economy. These are liberalism and interdependence theory; mercantilism, nationalism and hegemonic stability theory; and marxism, dependency and world systems theory. It then explores different aspects of the contemporary global political economy - finance, development, trade and production - and ends by reviewing the intellectual debate about the meaning of globalisation.

20 credits

The Politics and Government of the European Union

This module will provide students with a working knowledge of European integration, and of the main institutions of the European Union, including the Council of Ministers, the Commission and the Parliament. The module consists of a series of lectures on the history and institutions of the European Union, and seminars to discuss issues raised in the lectures.

20 credits

Political Analysis 2: How to do empirical research

This module provides students with an introduction to a range of quantitative and qualitative methods for studying political phenomena as well as the software required to do so. The module builds on the introduction to research design offered at level one by encouraging students to reflect on how they conceptualise and design research about the political world. It also goes further by helping them to understand and apply practical tools for collecting data and in turn, carrying out independent analysis of data. Students should leave this module with a much greater appreciation of the relationship between theory and empirical political research.

20 credits

Political Theory in Practice

This module explores key debates in political theory, and the implications of those debates for current political practice. It first examines debates surrounding justice, and what these mean for welfare and taxation policies. It then analyses disputes over the meaning of well-being, and their implications for policies surrounding disability and health. It introduces students to different ideas of toleration, and how these influence laws on free speech. It also explores controversies over multiculturalism, and in particular its impact upon women. Finally, it examines care ethics and its implications for how we value the environment.

20 credits

History optional module examples:

20 credits each.

In addition to the modules listed below, we expect you to have the opportunity to take a new module that will give you the chance to build on your core work in your second year and learn how to navigate conflicting and controversial disputes in history and historiography by focusing on a single interpretive issue.

Short Dissertation

The dissertation in History is an exercise of 7,500-8,500 words in which students explore an individually chosen topic involving problems and issues derived from a module taken at level two or level three. It is expected to consist of research at a high level where interpretation and analysis will be of importance. The balance between primary and secondary materials will depend on the topic and an availability of sources. In each case students work independently under the guidance of a supervisor.

20 credits

Making History Public

This core module is designed to allow students the opportunity to produce a piece of public history. It will equip students with the skills required to effectively communicate their scholarly research to a non-academic audience, and develop transferable skills beyond the traditional academic skills of a History degree. Drawing on any aspect of their experience as History undergraduates, students will design and produce an accessible digital artefact presenting a topic or theme of their choosing. Students will be supported by workshops and seminars to identify suitable topics and develop communication and digital skills central to public history, and will also be encouraged to bring their extra-curricular skills and interests to this module. A virtual exhibition will showcase student work to the whole History community. In addition, students will submit an interpretative written exercise, situating and explaining the artefact they have created and analysing their experience over the course of the module.

20 credits

History Special Subject examples:

Special subjects are 40 credits each. Dual honours students have the option to take one special subject.

Cannibals and Christians: Mexico and Spain, c.1492-1600

This module examines the extraordinary clash of cultures which occurred following the 'discovery' of America, and the reciprocal relationship which developed between Europe and the 'New World' in the sixteenth century. Focusing on the sixteenth-century discovery, conquest and settlement of Central and South America, especially Mexico, the module will address such themes as the nature of the encounter, the intellectual and cultural impact, trade and exchange, migration, evangelisation and empire. The module addresses the encounter from a wide range of perspectives, evaluating the encounter from the viewpoint of sailors, conquistadors, priests, historians, explorers, missionaries, administrators and the indigenous people themselves.

40 credits

Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Britain, 1923-1945

This module examines three inter-related issues in order to assess the impact of fascism in Britain between the wars. Making full use of one of the best archives for this purpose in the country held here in the Special Collection of the University Library, first we examine the political organization, the ideas and the culture of 'native' British fascism from its inception in 1923 to the Second World War. Second, we move on to explore active and ideological resistance to British fascist and racist organisations by a loose coalition of Communists, Socialists, Liberals and even Conservatives, as well as the resistance mounted by those religious and ethnic groups most affected by fascist racial provocation and violence. Third, we will consider how contemporary interpretations of fascism, and formal and more informal relations with the European dictatorships, contributed to the National Government's policy of appeasement on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to the greater definition of what was quintessentially 'British' about Britain's war aims with the outbreak of World War Two. We will approach these topics by analysing primary source material, including political pamphlets and propaganda, newspapers, public records, memoirs, oral testimonies, visual material, film and recordings, and novels.

40 credits

Italy in the Age of Dante, ca. 1200-1350

In the 13th and 14th centuries, northern-central Italy was one of the most urbanized, economically dynamic and culturally innovative parts of Western Europe, to the point that important scholars of the past have seen the Italian city-states as forerunners of modern concepts of republicanism and individualism. The cultural efflorescence of this period is still visible in the historical city centre of many Italian towns, in the frescoes of Giotto, and in the literary works of authors such as Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), best known for his exploration of the Christian afterlife in the Divine Comedy. And yet, Dante's Italy was also plagued by instability, civil wars and factionalism, as exemplified by the poet's banishment from his city, Florence, on account of political rivalries. How did the Italian city-states manage to flourish economically and culturally in such a fraught political landscape? How could they reconcile intellectual sophistication and religious revival on one side, and significant levels of violence and turmoil on the other? This module will make use of sources such as artwork, chronicles, literature and charters to explore various facets of the political, social and cultural life of the communes with the aim of providing a deeper understanding of this multi-faceted society.

The module will introduce you to the political, religious, social, and cultural landscapes of the Italian city-states between the 13th and the 14th century. It will develop your awareness of the historiographical interpretations of the period and its key features, e.g., the communal movement, merchant capitalism, the 14th century crisis and lay sanctity.

40 credits

Mao and the Making of Twentieth-Century China

In 2015, citizens in Henan Province erected a 120-foot gold statue of Mao Zedong, which was swiftly torn down on government orders. Why does Mao still provoke such strong feelings? To some he is a monster: history's greatest mass murderer. But recently historians have painted a richer picture of Mao's China, trying to understand its social character, political culture, and role in Cold War rivalries. Focusing on the origins, character, and legacy of Maoist rule, and devoting most of our attention to the period between the declaration of the People's Republic in 1949 and Mao's death in 1976, we will use translated primary sources, a rich visual culture, and a burgeoning scholarly literature to explore Maoist thought and its critics; major upheavals like the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution; and everyday life under 'Communism with Chinese characteristics'.

40 credits

Nomadland: The Peoples of the Steppe, 600-1000

Nomads are the dark matter of history. Choosing neither to produce written sources, nor found cities which are the usual target of archaeology, they defy the typical means of investigation of the historian. Yet their political impact – from the Huns of Attila to the Mongols of Ghengis Khan – was vast. Fear of the nomad other, framed in terms of barbarism, is one of the defining literary themes of the settled civilisations who were their neighbours. This fear had a huge impact on settled society: the Great Wall of China was built to keep nomads out.This course asks how we can look beyond the fearsome, caricatured image produced by sedentary authors to reconstruct the politics, mentalities, and lifestyles of these crucial agents of pre-modern history. To do so, we will focus on the varied experiences of the nomadic peoples who emerged in the aftermath of the disintegrations of the great Turkic Khaganate in the seventh century. The Khaganate stretched over the vast, flat, grasslands of the Steppe, from China to Hungary and its successors settled regions across modern day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine and the Balkans. These new peoples and their cultural and political choices fundamentally transformed the region, and had a profound impact on the great empires around them, namely Byzantines, Sassanian Iranians, and the Islamic caliphate.Throughout, we will use material culture and sources written originally in Greek, Arabic, Armenian and Slavonic (all available in modern English translation), to ask: how do we write a history of a people who chose not to write? 

40 credits

Permissive Britain? Social and Cultural Change 1956-74

This module explores British society and culture as the nation moved from an era of austerity to one of unprecedented affluence. Key topics include the impact of affluence on class and gender relationships, the emergence of a national youth culture, changes and continuities in sexual behaviour, and debates about immigration and race. The unit encourages students to assess the significance of reforming legislation that relaxed the censorship regime, decriminalised homosexuality, enabled easier access to abortion, liberalised the divorce system and abolished capital punishment, examining the arguments of those who resisted, as well as those who championed the 'permissive society'.

40 credits

Popes, Caliphs, Emperors, ca. 1130-1215

The Crusades are known as religious wars, in search of the earthly and heavenly Jerusalem. Yet they were only part of the complex interactions between peoples of different politics, religions, and cultures in the medieval Mediterranean basin. Using sources including histories, letters, buildings, art and mosaics, this module will examine how religion intertwined with medieval politics, culture and society. From Iberia to Jerusalem, and from Italy to Africa, we will investigate religion's role in expressing political power and in the everyday life of the people who lived there. How was religious authority received, understood, and contested by contemporaries?

40 credits

Red Continent: Socialism in Twentieth Century Africa

When we think about the history of 'socialism', we might first consider Marx and Mao, Lenin and the Soviet Union, even Castro and Cuba. Africa rarely features in these conversations. Yet no fewer than 35 African countries claimed to be 'socialist' at some point in the late twentieth century. There was little consensus as to what 'socialism' meant in Africa, however. To some, it was a homegrown ideology, with its origins in 'traditional' village life. To others, it was a set of imported theories that could propel anticolonial liberation struggles. Critics alleged that Africa's socialists were simply pawns of Cold War superpowers. Socialism's proponents responded that they were building a new future after empire - a vision which had evaporated by the end of the century, but increasingly of interest to historians today.

Rather than seek an encyclopaedic understanding of socialism in every African country, this special subject module combines in-depth studies of key cases with the study of broader, transnational themes. We will examine the political thought of major thinkers, including pan-Africanists among the diaspora, anticolonial leaders, and public intellectuals. We will assess the 'African socialist' project in Tanzania and the military dictatorship in Ethiopia which preached Marxist revolution. Yet no leader or government controlled the meaning of socialism, as their visions were challenged by students, workers, and women's activists. Locating African socialism in a global context, we will follow the transnational journeys of these figures as they forged relationships with Cold War actors and contributed to the radical project of the Third World. 

The thematic classes will trace connections and divergences between these socialist experiences in Africa. We will investigate the role that the media played in communicating socialism. We will understand how artists, directors, and novelists all engaged with the ideas of socialism. The module will take us into the villages, to see how rural communities responded to state-making projects which were imposed from national capitals. Then we will explore the concrete design of Africa's 'socialist cities' and the livelihoods of the men and women who lived among them. Finally, we will gain an understanding of life in post-socialist Africa and ask 'what's left of the African left?' 

In this module, students will work with a wide range of primary source material. This includes excerpts from the work of major African intellectuals, like Kwame Nkrumah, Léopold Senghor, and Julius Nyerere. Students will examine how these ideas were put into practice (or not) through material drawn from government archives and diplomatic cables. Moving beyond the vision of the state, we will also analyse student magazines, film, poetry, fiction, street photography and architecture. All source material and secondary reading will be provided in English, either as original or in translation.

40 credits

Resistance & Liberation in South Africa: Gandhi to Mandela

This module analyses resistance to segregation, apartheid, and white supremacy in South Africa. Drawing upon memoirs, oral histories, novels, films, speeches, news reporting, online databases, and document collections, we begin with the non-violent campaigns led by Mohandas Gandhi in the 1900s against the segregation of Indians in South Africa, and end with Nelson Mandela's election as president in the country's first non-racial democratic elections in 1994. We will explore the inspirations, nature, and effects of a wide range of forms of political, social, and cultural resistance by opponents of white supremacy - from ordinary people to elite politicians - both inside South Africa and around the world.

40 credits

Revolution, Dictatorship and Democracy in Latin America, 1944-90

This special subject uses the three themes of revolution, dictatorship and democracy to examine the history of Latin America in the second half of the twentieth century. Beginning with Guatemalan Revolution (1944-54), this module explores key events over the next four decades, including the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the rise of anticommunist dictatorships across the region in the 1960s and 1970s, the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979, and the 'Third Wave' of democratisation that swept the region in the 1980s. Throughout, we will identify and analyse regional trends in Latin American history while remaining attentive to national dynamics. In particular, this module will focus on two subregions of Latin America: the Southern Cone (especially Chile, Argentina and Brazil) and Central America (especially Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador). Primary sources will include government documents, speeches, visual sources and other cultural outputs, including song, poems, and testimonials. This mix of different sources will allow students to consider the ways in which gender, race, and class all shaped how different Latin Americans experienced the second half of the twentieth century.

40 credits

The Great Depression in the Age of Empire

During the interwar period, the United States and European nation-states were thrown into near simultaneous and deep social and economic crisis, ushering a decade of de-globalization, which was spurred by deep financial and monetary crisis, the breakdown of international trade, protectionism, border closures, and world-wide disruptions in the production and circulation of goods and foodstuffs. But what did interwar de-globalization mean for the colonial world? This course will explore the joint crises of European colonialism and capitalism during the 1930s. Using case studies from the British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese colonial empires in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, the course will examine the politics of European imperial economic blocs while seeking to move beyond Western-centric understandings of this global crisis. Bringing together perspectives from political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural history, we will look at the workings of colonial capitalism, commodity production patterns, the role of imperial states in the management of colonial economies, peasant uprisings, and urban strikes. Sources may include pamphlets, novels, administrative documents produced by colonial states, peasants' petitions, labour control devices and objects (e.g. workbooks, tax receipts), films, etc. 

Topics for discussion will include channels of contagion of economic crisis to Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean; responses of colonial powers and nominally independent nations; the collision of imperial and indigenous capitalisms; debates about industrialization and manufacturing; overlapping political, social, and economic crisis; and the roots of decolonization. A century after the onset of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, and the beginning of a decade of global economic fragmentation or 'de-linking', what can we learn from the experience of countries which were then under formal and informal colonial rule? Did they manage to 'weather the storm' or did the crisis on the contrary reveal and exacerbate irremediable tensions? 

This course seeks to introduce students to the various ways in which a crucial episode of economic crisis has been experienced and discussed in areas of the world which are known today as the 'Global South' and whose economic and political role will shape the twenty-first century. Through critical engagement with a wide range of historical sources, they will develop the skills to distil arguments and marshal relevant evidence.

40 credits

The National Security State, Treason, and Individual Rights during the Twentieth Century

National security scares over 'whistleblowers' such as Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning or Kathrine Gun have catapulted the image of the 'traitor' back into public discourse. At the same time, controversies over Wikileaks' political agenda and Russian interference with the Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential elections were as much discussed in terms of British and US national security as a threat to the security of 'the West' as a whole. These conflicts stand at the end of a century that has seen the rise of the modern surveillance state and transnational security frameworks organized through institutions such as Interpol, NATO, and the Warsaw Pact states (until 1989/91). 

Over the course of the 20th century, more and more people saw themselves suspected of betrayal of the community. The First World War transformed older clearly defined criminal offenses of 'high treason' against the sovereign and their immediate family members to wider accusations of treason against the nation, state, and people. The rise of communism and fascism triggered the building of new domestic public security apparatuses in the interwar period. War crimes and genocide of the Second World War further complicated debates on the morality of collaboration with the enemy. In response, security agencies professionalized their work and the early Cold War saw calls for transnational bloc-wide security regimes to combat subversion by the Cold War enemy. Since then, state surveillance has come to be seen more and more as a constant everyday threat to privacy and individual rights after the digital revolution of the 1970s. 

In this special subject, we explore through rich source material the political, emotional, social, and cultural dynamics that were at play when individuals or groups from across Europe, the US and Soviet Union were accused of betraying society. We will consider how people's ethnic, gender, and class background impacted their fate of becoming 'traitors'. Taken together, their cases will provide answers to the central question of how demands for the professionalization of the national security state have impacted ordinary people's lives and rights under different forms of government and how they shape our contemporary understandings of democracy and authoritarianism.

40 credits

The Rise and Fall of the British Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1640-1807

The transatlantic slave trade is the largest forced migration in human history. Europeans transported 12 million captive Africans across the Atlantic Ocean between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. This contributed to the development of a transatlantic economic system that linked three continents - Europe, Africa, and the Americas - and which funnelled wealth created through the exploitation of enslaved Africans into the hands of Europeans.  Britain was the pre-eminent slave trading nation of the eighteenth century. From 1640 to 1807, British vessels trafficked 3.2 million captive Africans across the Atlantic to work in the plantation economies of North America and the Caribbean. This module traces the rise and fall of Britain's participation in the transatlantic slave trade, studying developments in West Africa, the Caribbean, and Britain, and exploring the linkages between the three. It begins in the seventeenth century with the corporate activities of the London-based Royal African Company, moves into the eighteenth century when non-corporate merchants based in the outports of Liverpool and Bristol dominated the trade, and ends with Abolitionist efforts to abolish British involvement in the trade in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.  The module is fully Atlantic in scope. Using a wide range of primary and secondary sources we will analyse the process of cross-cultural exchange on the West African coast, the horrors of the Middle Passage, the exploitation of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean plantation system, and the direct and indirect impacts of the transatlantic slave trade on early modern Britain. We will make regular use of case studies to explore the history of the transatlantic slave trade 'from below', foregrounding the lived experience of enslavement for captive Africans and the vital role of African Abolitionists in precipitating the process of abolition.

40 credits

The United States and the Cold War, 1945-1975

The Cold War shaped American foreign policy as well as domestic politics and culture for much of the second half of the 20th century. But how all-encompassing was the Cold War? How did non-state actors react to and influence the course of its development? And how 'cold' was the Cold War? This module will examine the Cold War with fresh perspective. We will revisit the traditional historiography, which focuses on high policy actors and U.S. relations with the Soviet Union. But we will also gain new insight from an emerging literature that challenges such a deterministic and elite framing of what was a global conflict that involved multiple actors at all levels of society, many of whom brought with them complex motivations that existed prior to, or outside of, the rigid Cold War binary. In addition to these secondary sources, we will explore a wide range of primary source material, from declassified State Department documents to Third World assertions of sovereignty to popular films and novels.

40 credits

The Wars for Vietnam: Empire, Decolonisation and Liberation

In the middle decades of the twentieth century, Vietnam was wrenched by wars: a world war, a war of decolonisation, a civil war, the Cold War, and a war against its erstwhile communist allies. By studying these conflicts, we not only learn about modern Vietnam, but also the French empire, U.S. foreign policy, and communist internationalism in the mid-20th Century. As case studies, these wars shed light on larger global processes of imperial conquest, decolonisation and neo-colonial control, communist revolution and the limits of internationalism. As an archetype of national liberation, events in Vietnam also profoundly shaped anti-colonial struggles around the world and social movements in the United States and Europe, from Black Power to the women's liberation movement. This module explores the wars for Vietnam through the themes of empire, decolonisation, and liberation, paying close attention to Vietnamese perspectives, exploring the role of France, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, and uncovering the global reverberations of these conflicts. We will investigate the historiography which set the broad parameters of debate, as well as newer scholarship which has challenged these orthodox interpretations, and we will examine a wide range of primary sources, from government documents, memoirs, and oral histories, to images, fiction, and film.

40 credits

The West & the East in each other's eyes 1850-2000

The idea that the 'East' and the 'West' are fundamentally different in their thinking and values and are locked in a mutually antipathetic 'clash of civilizations' is an age-old one. It has been argued by European and Asian politicians and writers alike, by imperialists and anti-imperialists, 'orientalists' and their critics, and has been manifested in a range of approaches and ideologies, including 'Orientalism', 'Occidentalism', pan-Asianism, pan-Islam, and Samuel Huntington's notorious 'clash of civilizations' thesis. It has fed into both colonialist and anti-colonialist thought. This course is intended as a case study in the history of ideas. We will investigate how ideas of a division between 'West' and 'East' have been expressed and developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries and how they have been deployed by politicians in a range of different countries and contexts. We will also examine some of the more subtle, alternative formulations of East/West cultural difference, assimilation and appropriation that have been articulated in the same period. The course will encourage you to rethink how cultures relate to each other, and about what is distinctively 'Western' or 'Eastern' about political and economic organization, human rights, democracy and secularism. Can we really talk about 'East' and 'West' as meaningful categories, and if not, when and how did people start using these terms and why, and what does that tell us about how we should understand the world and write about it? In semester 1, after an initial introduction of the themes and questions of the course, the next 4 weeks ('the West looks at the East') will analyse Western accounts of the East. The second half of the first semester ('the East looks at the West') then undertakes a chronological and thematic analysis of the different ways in which Asian governments and writers have understood, analysed and critiqued the West and its values. The second semester ('the East looks at the East') concentrates on how Asian governments and thinkers have understood the East, and their views of how far it can be said to enshrine coherent non-Western values. As well as studying transnational movements (pan-Asianism, pan-Islam and the Non-aligned Movement), we will also study selected Asian writing on democracy, human rights, nationalism, and secularism up to the present day.
During the course we will be using a wide range of documents in translation - from constitutional debates, political tracts, government declarations, policy documents and educational literature, to travel accounts, speeches, letters, poetry and images.
The course is intended to help you to rethink how you understand Western and non-Western cultures and to provide you with a more informed sense of the roots and nature of current global geo-political and cultural tensions.

40 credits

The World of Intoxicants in Early Modern England

Intoxicants were a key feature of early modern societies. This is as true for 'old' world alcohols like wine, beer, ale, and other fermented drinks as it is for 'new' intoxicants like opiates, tobacco, sugar, caffeines, chocolate, and distilled liquors that began to enter European diets after 1600 from the Levant, the Americas, and Asia. Focusing on intoxicants in England, this module considers a) the ongoing importance and, indeed, increasing significance of alcohols to culture, society, and economy over the course of the seventeenth century and b) the introduction and popularisation of new intoxicants over the same period.

40 credits

Tools of Empire? Medicine, Science and Colonialism, 1800-1950

Western science and biomedicine have, for long, been seen as symbols and agents of progress. Research in the last two decades has, however, revealed their close ties with the history of colonial conquest and rule - so much so that scientific discoveries such as guns, steamboats, and quinine have been seen as 'tools of empire'. This module will, however, go beyond this fact and discuss much larger questions of equal relevance. It will, for instance, deal with the question of the 'consumption' of science in the colonies, the role of the colonies in constituting western science, the role of medicine in furthering colonial hegemony, the 'reinvention' of traditional sciences such as Unani and Ayurveda under colonial influence, the relationship between scientific centres and peripheries, and post-colonial developments with respect to medical and scientific administration. In exploring these themes, the module will not limit itself to any particular region, but will draw upon readings from South Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

40 credits

Visions and Violence: race, empire and identity in mid-nineteenth-century Britain

British expansion did not result from a single, coherent imperial strategy, or a fit of 'absence of mind'; it developed from specific cross-cultural encounters and competing colonial visions. Some saw the Empire as a place of adventure, others an opportunity for Christianisation, still others as a 'New World' in which to build a Greater Britain. These visions were always contested and challenged both overseas and in Britain. This module explores these contested visions and the impact of empire at home. It is structured around different 'visions of empire' including those of humanitarians; missionaries; settlers; travellers; scientists and the British public.

40 credits

Politics core module (choose one):

Political Analysis 3: Independent Research Through a Dissertation

This module involves supervised research on an agreed topic. Students will meet with their module tutors and peers in five two-hour dissertation interactive lecture-workshops prepare and submit a formally assessed 1,000-word research proposal, undertake individual research, and be assessed based on an 8,000-word dissertation. Students will also undertake four individual supervision sessions with their dissertation supervisor at which objectives will be specified, their achievement monitored and general progress reviewed.

40 credits

Research Project 1

This module allows students to research and explore in-depth a topic studied on a semester one module. Students will meet with their supervisor individually, to undertake research and be assessed on the basis of a 5,000 word project.

20 credits

Politics option module examples:

Animals, Ethics and Politics

This unit explores the debates surrounding what we owe to animals politically. It introduces students to the main debates in animal ethics, and asks how they affect our political practices, norms, institutions and policies. Particular attention is focused on the tensions between animal welfare and other political values and goods, with students exploring such controversial policy debates as animal experimentation, animal agriculture, conservation and the use of animals for entertainment. The overall aim of the unit is to investigate the implications of taking animals seriously for current political practice.

20 credits

Public Policy and Democratic Politics

Recent years have seen a tide of pressures impact on policy makers. Fuelling distrust and disaffection with public policy making, populist politicians have blamed civil servants for alleged corruption. Political leaders have also pushed for fundamental changes in how states operate. From the bottom up, social movements have put pressure on policy makers to revolutionise racial and gender equality, and respond to climate catastrophe. Technological innovations confront policy makers with a new and alienating future.

Amidst a plethora of global crises, and with historically tight budgets and rapidly reducing timeframes, policy makers at multiple levels, from transnational bodies to local authorities, are now under extreme pressure to deliver. They need to find solutions for sustainability, stop pandemics, end inequality and protect fundamental rights. How can they make radical change happen? This module examines precisely this question. Students will gain a nuanced understanding of the pressures everyday policy makers face and how they manage these pressures with the aim of successfully implementing radical shifts in how we respond to the most pressing policy issues of our time.

 



 

20 credits

Legitimate and Illegitimate Violence

This module examines under what circumstances political violence is deemed legitimate or illegitimate. We will not treat this as a question to be answered by normative political theory, but rather as an empirical question of power and politics. The key organizing questions for the module will thus be: when is violence treated as legitimate in the world? who gets to determine this? and how and when do the boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate violence change? Specific cases may include the distinction between civilians and combatants, the use of violence in war vs. peace-time, terrorism, torture, domestic/family violence, and police brutality.

20 credits

Narcopolitics

Drugs are big business and politically salient, yet their production, trade, distribution and regulation are understudied in politics. Narcotics are rooted in complex webs of public, private and criminal power, with diverse consequences for growth, development, security and health. This module explores this evolving panorama: it traces the political evolution of therapeutic/psychotropic substances from the opium wars to prohibition, before analysing the 'War on Drugs', the attendant creation of mafia violence, and the emergence of 'narco-states'. Later classes address contemporary experiments in legalisation and decriminalisation, the development of licit recreational narcotics industries, and the implications for the global prohibitionist architecture.

20 credits

Party Politics: Competition, Strategies & Campaigns

This module provides an in-depth analysis of party politics. It offers a detailed exposition of the multiple issues related with parties, looking at the interactions both within and outside parties. The module covers key aspects of party politics such as the different types of parties, their organization, party membership, types of party systems, political competition and issue positioning, campaign strategies, formation of new parties, the effects of cleavages, coalition formation, party financing and the number of parties.

20 credits

Parliamentary Studies

This module focuses on how parliaments and legislatures operate and is founded on the basis of theoretically-informed but policy-relevant teaching. It therefore attempts to provide students with a sense of why cultures, traditions and informal relationships matter as much (if not more) than formal procedures. Although the House of Commons and the House of Lords provide the main institutional focus for this module students will be encouraged to adopt a comparative approach whenever possible and to situate their analysis within an appreciation of the changing role of parliament within evolving frameworks of multi-level governance.

20 credits

Peacekeeping, State-building and International Intervention

This module looks at the way international intervention has changed in recent years. It draws on a number of different areas - humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping, development and state-building. It draws these areas together by exploring what they have in common and how there has been a shift in the way that international intervention deals with these issues. In particular, the international community has moved from direct involvement towards a form of governance that operates from a distance by encouraging local ownership, capacity building and resilience.

20 credits

The Ethics of Political Leadership

This module investigates the ethics of political leadership via an engagement with the western tradition of political thought and contemporary analytical political theory. Its overall objective is to enable students to analyse and evaluate normative arguments on the significance and function of political leaders in contemporary politics. The module examines competing theories of leadership in their historical and intellectual contexts and a number of issues of contemporary ethical significance, including the problem of 'dirty hands', the nature of political integrity, and the ethics of political compromise. The approach is theoretical and philosophical and examples of political leaders will be used to highlight strengths and weaknesses of competing theories of leadership, and to emphasise their ideological assumptions and implications.

20 credits

Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism is the idea that the world should in some sense be understood as a single political entity. 

This module will engage with 'cosmopolitanism' from the perspective of normative political theory. It will start by discussing the historical origins of cosmopolitanism, from the Cynics in Ancient Greece to Immanuel Kant and will then move to a discussion of the contemporary wave of cosmopolitanism theorising that began in the latter part of the 20th century. 

There have been two core strands to this wave: 

claims about the global scope of justice

claims about the need for a global democracy

Both strands have come in for considerable criticism: 

Is justice really global in scope?

Is it an idea that belongs within the state or nation? 

Do we really need a global democracy, and is it feasible? 

Does cosmopolitanism imply a world state? 

Is the whole notion of cosmopolitanism dangerously imperialistic? 

During the module students will discuss all of these questions, and more.

20 credits

Gender Politics in the Arab World

The topic of women and gender in the Middle East is probably one of the most prevalent themes in popular culture. The image of Arab women or LGBTQI community members as the victims of Arab men are only two of many images to which most people have become accustomed through the media. There is widespread ignorance concerning the lives, struggles and achievements of Muslim/Arab women and LGBTQI identifying and non-identiying persons living in the Arab World. This module examines what this focus on Arab/Muslim women tells us about current politics and power relation.  We also study how the images of Arab/Muslim women are used to justify certain policies and maintain certain discourses and truths not only about these Arab/Muslim women, but also about other women: Western women.

This module has three components: 

theoretical

historical

political

During seminars students will learn about Middle Eastern history in relation to gender and sexuality, covering early Islamic, Ottoman, colonial and recent histories. Students will study the relationship between national and Islamist movements and gender as well as  examining key current issues. 

One of the main aims of this course is to enable students to use theories to understand current trends in politics. These theories will help students pay attention to power relations not only between genders, but also in analyzing how gender functions in different knowledge/power structures and discourses.

20 credits

Global Politics of Forced Migration

Armed conflicts, persecutions, and disasters cause people to be forcibly displaced, both nationally and internationally. By the end of 2022, there were 100 million forcibly displaced people according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Forced displacement, particularly asylum, has also received more attention from the media and decision-makers. In this module, we will discuss the politics involved in these forced displacement situations. 

You will be provided with a comprehensive view of global forced displacement topics including asylum, refugee children, gender, family reunification, externalisation strategies, environmental displacement, and internally displaced people (IDP). Throughout this module, we will reflect on the following questions:

Who is a refugee? How do states create and employ different categories to classify forced displaced people? What are the implications of these classifications for forcibly displaced people?

Which actors and structures constitute the global governance regime of forced displacement? 

What are the power and constraints of international organisations working on forced displacement?

By studying the asylum systems in Europe, Africa, and Latin America in a comparative way, you will gain the important tools you need to understand the global forced displacement regime.

20 credits

State and Society in China

In this module, we examine relations between the party-state and society in contemporary China. You will explore this topic through a number of themes, such as resistance, 'civil society', gender, online expression, censorship and self-censorship, repression, responsiveness, and inequality. Through doing so, you will engage in important recent debates about China's political development.

20 credits

Conflict, Violence and Security in Africa

Why does Africa appear to be prone to conflict? In this module, you will seek to find the answers to this much-debated question through a systematic study of conflict, violence, and security in Africa, focussing on sub-Saharan Africa.

You will gain a better understanding of the complex and distinct dynamics of violent conflict in Africa, in part through an in-depth study of specific case studies, such as the anti-colonial wars in Kenya and Zimbabwe, military coups in Burkina Faso and Mali, child soldiers in northern Uganda, conflicts in Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Nigeria. In addition, you will examine broader security challenges that impact the lives of ordinary Africans as well as look at the international response to conflict, violence, and insecurity on the continent.

20 credits

Global Culture Wars

Cancel culture, identity politics, the war on woke… How should we make sense of the so-called 'culture wars' that are transforming politics? This module examines this from a global and historical perspective, looking at the contemporary politics of culture wars that are found worldwide, and at how these kind of tensions have existed in one form or another since the dawn of modernity. In doing so, we will aim to take a step back from the commotion, scandal and outrage to instead trace the historical lineages of culture wars across global politics.

20 credits

Hunger in the Global North

Millions of people across the global north lack adequate access to food. This module looks at the drivers and experiences of hunger in these countries, and the responses in place. Students will have the opportunity to explore different approaches to measuring and understanding hunger, including through data collected by governments and the voices of people with lived experiences. Students will also explore the policies and practices that are working to alleviate and address hunger across the Global North. The module will look at the work of charities including food banks and ask whether these are effective responses for ensuring everyone has adequate access to food. Students will also explore the role of welfare states and food systems in driving hunger, and how food, health and social security policies shape food experiences and environments.



The aims of the module are:

To introduce students to different concepts and theories of hunger, and ways of measuring these experiences.To provide students with the opportunity to explore how different groups are impacted by hunger.To equip students with skills and knowledge to think critically about different responses to hunger across the Global North.  To provide students with space and support to explore what effective solutions to hunger in the Global North look like.To provide students with opportunities to undertake this learning and development collectively.

20 credits

Understanding Elections

Elections are key moments in democratic politics.  They influence the formation of governments and provide a means for citizens to express their political preferences and their judgements on the competence of those who govern them. In doing so, they offer important insights into public opinion, participation, and political behavior. Elections are also complex events, influenced by political debates, ideas, and campaigns, by the different rules under which particular electoral systems operate, and by large social forces beyond the control of governments. Understanding elections requires insights into many aspects of modern political life.

This module will analyse how elections 'work'. We will look at elections from a range of different perspectives:

What influences voters' decisions, and how have these influences changed?

What effect do parties' political campaigns have on the outcome of elections?

How do the 'rules of the game' governing the electoral system affect the outcome of elections?

You will examine elections in the UK and around the world, drawing on the latest evidence and research to both understand academic debates on electoral politics and to develop your ideas and analyses of elections.

20 credits

Civilisation, Empire and Hegemony

With American power seemingly all powerful today, this unit provides a rethink of the origins of great power politics/economics. Mainstream Eurocentric theories in International Relations view great power politics/economics as having universal materialist properties. And they view America and Britain as hegemons that provide global public goods for the benefit of all. This module problematises this view by revealing the differing moral foundations and 'standards of civilisation' that inform the various directions that great power can take. It examines Britain and China in the pre-1900 era, contemporary America, Japan, and the potential role of China in the coming decades.

20 credits

Terrorism, Violence and the State

This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the nature and legitimacy of forms of protest against the modern state. In particular the module focuses on issues of contemporary terrorism. However, in order to understand the nature and motivations of terrorism it is necessary to understand the nature of the modern state and other, non-violent forms of protest such as civil disobedience.

20 credits

War, Peace and Justice

This module provides a practical and theoretical overview of contemporary war, peace and justice. It explores key conversations, issues and conceptual responses relating to: the challenges and ethics of researching war; the construction of ethics and notions of justice in war and peace; the politics of technology in contemporary warfare; the politics of peace, resistance and pacifism; the politics of war, memory and commemoration; embodied and emotional registers of war; and the politics of death and grievability. Students will explore the practice, experience, representation and cultural imaginary of war in the 21st century and consider implications for peace and justice.

20 credits

Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict

This module will address when, why, and how widespread sexual violence occurs in armed conflicts. The module will
(1) examine how academics and international actors understand and research what sexual violence is and why it occurs in certain conflicts;
(2) assess the international efforts to prosecute and prevent sexual violence in armed conflict; and
(3) undertake in-depth case study analysis to assess the various long-term consequences of sexual violence in armed conflict for individuals, communities, and processes of reconciliation.
Resultantly the module will assess what can be done to address this security issue and its numerous violent consequences.

20 credits

Corporations in Global Politics: Possibilities, Tensions, and Ambiguities

Corporations are ubiquitous, affecting everything from mundane individual consumption choices, to the investment decisions of both weak and powerful states. Importantly, their authority extends beyond the economic sphere and into political, as they shape and execute policies and activities for some of the world's most pressing problems. This module explores the multifaceted political roles of corporations, and challenges students to critically reflect on their implications. Drawing upon international relations, political economy, and global governance literatures, it analyses the corporation theoretically, but also empirically drawing upon diverse case studies ranging from environmental sustainability and development, to war-making and peacekeeping.

20 credits

Political Psychology: The Personal Side of Politics

This module covers the major theories and research paradigms in the exciting subfield of Political Psychology. Rather than reviewing what happens in politics (e.g. who wins an election) or how it happens (e.g. who votes for whom), we will look at why it happens by studying the psychology of politics at the micro level (e.g. the personality of politicians), the meso level (e.g. the ideological and moral foundations of political parties), and the macro level (e.g. motivated reasoning, racism and prejudice, mass political behaviour and the influence of the media).

20 credits

Britain and the European Union

The course seeks to make sense of: Britain's relations with the EU; the problems within UK politics associated with the European issue; and the Europeanisation of British politics/policy. The course will cover the pre-history of membership and accession. It will set out the analytical toolkit for understanding the UK's impact on the EU and then explore Britain's European diplomacy. It will also explore the EU's impact on the UK, using the Europeanisation literature to understand the impacts on British governance, its political forces and public policy within the EU. A short comparative section will put Britain in context.

20 credits

Practical Politics: How to Make Policy and Influence People

This course will provide a practical, hands on account of how policy is formulated, implemented and why it sometimes doesn't work. Focussing on environmental politics, the course draws on the experiences of policy experts including civil servants, lobbyists and politicians. It will an assessment that mirrors tasks routinely undertaken by those within or seeking to influence government.

20 credits

Contemporary Issues in Latin American Politics

Latin America is home to only eight percent of the world's population, but its countries usually top the rankings in bad public outcomes such as criminal violence, corruption, clientelism, and democratic erosion. 

This module will offer a look at some of the most pressing contemporary issues in the region by critically combining theoretical approaches and empirical data. 

We will explore issues such as:

Forms of government: from authoritarian regimes to populism

Economic development: industrialization, commodity extraction, and informal job markets

Poverty and inequality

Clientelism: making people turn out to vote

Criminal and political violence

Corruption

Ethnicity and indigenous peoples

The battle for the expansion of rights

You will analyse how current theories help us understand the fate of Latin American nations, and also carefully review the evidence to build new empirically-grounded theory. By the end of this module, we aim to better understand some of the most acute contemporary problems, such as democratic erosion, criminal violence, and inequality.

20 credits

Britain in a New Age of Crisis

This module will study some of the key moments in British political, economic, and social history since the year 2000. You will explore particular incidents over this time, such as the Iraq War, the Global Financial Crisis, austerity, Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. You will also study recurring themes in British political history, such as the centralisation of political power, globalisation, equality, and the political economy of growth. You do not need to have studied British politics before if you wish to take this module.

20 credits