History

This module introduces students to the core skills required to study history successfully at degree level, developing their skills in small groups with one staff member by focusing on a single topic (ex. Anglo-Saxon and Norman Winchester; Crisis, Cooperation in England, 1381-1414; the French Revolution in Global Perspective; The British Home Front in the Second World War, etc). There is a balance between developing awareness of overarching core skills (such as conducting research and mastering referencing conventions) and the case study in which students work on academic readings connected to a particular topic. This intensive small group environment helps students to adjust to the university environment and provides a venue for delivering other transitional and transferable skills.

We live in an interconnected world, which can be traced across time and place. From ancient times to the present day, this module explores history that cuts across national and local boundaries. Global history considers historical events as they unfold in the context of large-scale cultural, political, social, economic, and environmental contexts. Accordingly, you will explore the changing relationships between human beings and the wider world. Students are introduced to a wide range of themes, such as different types of governance and rulership; empires, imperialism and decolonization; nation-making and the forging of national identities; war and warfare; science, religion and political ideologies; trade and labour; diseases and famine; migration and diasporas. Through lectures and seminars, you are encouraged to explore these themes broadly, recognizing historical change and continuity through the entanglement of local, transnational and international factors. 

From the echoes of Rome to an era of kings and queens, the Middle Ages spanned a thousand years between the ancient and early modern worlds. This was a period of momentous change across Britain and Ireland, Europe and the wider world featuring the rise and fracture of multiple empires including Rome, Sassanid Persia, the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, the Carolingians, the Angevins, the Seljuks and the Byzantines. It was often a period of warfare, but also one of closer diplomatic and economic links. Old imperial legacies and ideologies were repurposed and adapted to the circumstances of the era creating new systems of kingship and queenship. Shifting religions in this period could often lead to conflict, but also created new political entities and often supported cultural and intellectual expression. The period saw ecological disasters and pandemics, alongside experiments with popular power and representative institutions.  

Study the foundations of the world we live in through an exploration of key developments in modern politics, governance, national identities, culture, society and the environment, from the 18^th century to the present day. Among the topics covered are the forces unleashed by the Age of Revolutions, the struggle over slavery, the creation of new nation-states, the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic empires, the emergence of cultural movements (e.g. Enlightenment, Romanticism, Modernism) and of political ideologies (e.g. liberalism, socialism, anarchism, fascism), the democratization of education, the progress of science and technology alongside secularism, religious intolerance and revivals, racial prejudice, including towards Native Americans and other indigenous peoples. Students are also encouraged to question the advantages of industrialization and to explore the trauma created by global conflicts, including WW1, WW2 and the Cold War, the impact of mass migration, decolonization, the struggle for gender rights, the rise of youth cultures and of environmentalism. 

History in Practice invites students to explore the diverse ways historians think, research, and write about the past. In the first semester, through lectures and seminars, students are introduced to various approaches, ideas, and worldviews that have shaped the production, writing, and interpretation of history. Students examine how different methodologies — such as post-modernity, gender history, postcolonial history, and environmental history — have challenged our understanding of the medieval, early modern, and modern periods.  In the second semester, through lectures and workshops, students delve into the methods and skills historians use to study the past. This may include utilizing local and national archives, databases, online sources, media, visual images, material culture, public history, and oral sources. By exploring these approaches and sources, the module encourages students to reflect on their identity as a historian and determine which methods best align with their interests, ultimately leading to the writing of a dissertation proposal.

This module provides the opportunity to explore and analyse the evolution of a series of historical themes across a long period of time, a diverse set of cultures or a substantial region. It takes advantage of the expertise of individual tutors to allow the consideration of a wide-range selection of periods, regions and themes and it permits students to select and investigate themes of personal interest. This may include medieval themes such as the Viking Age, Anglo-French warfare, the crusades, post-Carolingian rulership, feuds and justice, or food and drink. Early modern themes may incorporate the Renaissance court, English culture and society, or food and drink. Modern themes could include American slavery, the High-Speed society, feminism in Britain, political violence in Europe, post-War Japan and America, British relations with Europe, the Soviet Union, and Photography and society. 

This module introduces students to a range of source material, from traditional textual sources to visual and material culture. Students work with a lecturer within their area of expertise to develop skills of source analysis and evaluation, examining the authorship and meaning of historical texts. It covers topics such as al-Andalus, Norman Sicily, English monasticism, the reign of King John, female historical writing, late medieval England, Papal-Imperial relations, the Global Middle Ages, the Early Modern period and the Golden Age of Spain, Early Tudor England, Early Modern London, Victorian and Edwardian societies, Imperial Japan, the British Raj, the Soviet Union, Nazism and the Holocaust, the American South, the Global Hispanic World from 1763 to the present, the social experience of war since the 18th century, Immigration Histories of Britain, and Post-War culture and society.

Semester 1 Option A: Exploring Past Localities

Working in small groups, students uncover the history of particular places, spaces and communities to then consider how the landscape, built environment and written material can be used to explore how these were affected by, or influenced, national, regional, and global histories. Working as a team and under supervision students will produce an artefact (blog, tourist guide, virtual tour, or online exhibition) to showcase the history of a specific place. Whilst it may utilize the historic city of Winchester as one such place, it considers ‘localities’ in a broader sense – other examples may include cities such as Buenos Aires, Tokyo, or Berlin; landscapes such as the South Downs or the New Forest; could stretch to regions like Normandy, Louisiana, or the Maghreb; or shrink to the level of individual villages, streets, or buildings. 

Semester 1 Option B: Group Project
This module gives student-led opportunities to design and run group projects in small groups. Options for projects may include to organise and run a student conference or run an exhibition (online or physical); work on an existing staff project; design and deliver a history-related social media campaign, to give just a few examples. Projects are planned in co-ordination with a member of staff, and the results are assessed by means of a journal and an essay. 

Semester 2 Option C: Field Trip

The field trip utilises a visit to an external setting (e.g. Paris, Madrid, Krakow, Edinburgh, Bruges) which has relevance to other components of the student’s programme of study as a means of examining the interplay between history, heritage and the contemporary world. This may include visits to museums that provide historical contexts for the contemporary issues studied, and to historical buildings of significance, war memorials, cemeteries and other commemorative sites. All study is supported by preparatory sessions, detailing advance reading and course assessment.

Semester 2 Option D: Work Placement

This module allows students to take up a placement equivalent in length to three working weeks (15 working days) in a carefully chosen, well-monitored private or voluntary organization either in the UK or overseas. The aim is that students will make a positive and personally rewarding contribution to the community whilst also reflecting critically upon their experience and developing skills which will enhance employability and personal development.

The Dissertation (Extended Independent Study) is an 8,000-10,000 thesis on a subject of a student’s own devising with advice and supervision from an appropriate history tutor. Through their dissertations, the students make an original contribution to historical knowledge and understanding, drawing from their own engagement with primary sources and interpretation and analysis of existing secondary literature. Building on all previous undergraduate study, students employ the conventions of a historian whilst developing a range of transferable skills in project planning, management, and delivery, creativity, problem-solving and critical analysis. 

Depth Study is the most detailed and exacting part of the taught programme where students are given the opportunity to work in depth with one tutor on a single specialist topic. Exploring the rich primary and secondary source material of a specialist area consolidates the skills and competencies of a historian developed throughout the duration of the degree. A variety of topic areas are offered for study each year, examples of which include: Pax Romana; modern reception of the classical world; the Wars of the Roses; civil war, revolution and republic in the British Isles; the United States and the Cold War; Japan at war and under occupation; the Italian Wars 1494-1516 and 1521-1559; genocide in history and memory; ruling England in the second Viking Age; the Global Age of Napoleon; the post-war teenager in Britain; colonialism and its aftermath in north Africa and France; and the Anglo-Norman Civil War 1135-1154. 

Option A: Comparative Study in History

Comparisons highlight the various ways in which people have experienced historical change. In this module, students explore historical issues across various countries, communities or cultures showing the numerous ways societies react to a broad range of issues. Comparative topics covered may include: popular protest throughout medieval Europe; the Middle Ages in computer games; chivalry and knighthood across medieval Europe; early modern witchcraft and supernatural beliefs in the British Isles, continental Europe and America; war crimes in Germany and Japan; memory of the Holocaust; ideologies in British and French colonial empires; and fascism in Italy and Spain. 

Option B: Contested History 

Contested History explores the ways that people in different times and places understood the world they lived in, by addressing challenging and difficult pasts. In this module, we explore – and confront – difficult histories to understand historical debates and interpretations. Students may study topics such as Borderlands and Commodities in modern history; Refugees and forced migration in the 20^th century; the Black Death and pestilence in medieval Europe; Hostages, prisoners and slaves in the Middle Ages; Feud, rebellion and war in the early Middle Ages; Gender, authority and female rule in Renaissance Europe; and the rapidly-changing society of Britain in the 1960s. 

Semester 1 Option A: History and Heritage

Societies and communities inherit ideas, beliefs, material, traditions, (their culture) from the past to preserve and put to work in the present. This is our heritage. Some of it is tangible, such as historic monuments and houses, the Colosseum in Rome, or former sites of conflict, death or disaster (sometimes referred to as ‘dark heritage’. Some is intangible, such as customs, crafts, and folklore. We also have natural phenomena, such as the Great Barrier Reef, that are recognised by international organisations as ‘world heritage’. This module introduces students to key aspects and issues of heritage and encourages critical engagement with the forces and processes that shape our physical and cultural heritage. Ultimately, this module confronts questions around what determines ‘our heritage’ and if there really is such a thing as ‘heritage’ at all.

Semester 1 Option B: Histories on Screen

This module allows students to explore the complex and controversial representation of the past on screen, including cinema and television. Working with different members of the History team, students are introduced to the emergence of film as a medium as well as the theory behind the representation of the past on screen. Students then critically assess a variety of different historical themes as these have been represented on screen. Finally, students curate their own historical film festival, either focused on a particular theme (for example, queens on screen; imperialism and colonialism; the Holocaust; Japanese cinema), or investigating the past through a broader lens. 

Semester 2 Option C: The Past Matters

This module gives you the opportunity to explore how and why the past features in our everyday lives, and why the past matters now. The material discussed throughout this module raises questions over the importance of historical narratives in popular media, politics, and education. You will be encouraged to reflect on your own academic study of History and/or Classical Studies and how this can be mobilised for the wider benefit of society. Through an assessment of both academic and practical applications of public history, this module will introduce you to the uses (and abuses) of the past for public consumption.

Semester 2 Option D: Death and Ritual in the Ancient Greek World 

This module explores death and death-related rituals in the ancient Greek world. It explores funerary rites and commemorative practices through a wide range of material and written sources. The module engages with current and past trends in death studies and with a range of methodologies for studying funerary practices and commemorative rituals.