This interdisciplinary module examines the global role of the United States to understand its place in historical and contemporary world affairs. From its earliest days, the US has played an important part in the world, from its struggle against the British Empire, through its growth as a continental and hemispheric power, through to its emergence as a Superpower in the twentieth century. The module employs an innovative and exciting range of approaches to allow students to comprehend how America’s role in the world has developed and why it remains so vital to understanding international relations today

In this work-based learning module, you’ll work as part of a small team to deliver a real public history project that’s been commissioned by an external body, for example, a community group, local history society, charity, museum, archive or company. Outputs could include a small exhibition, website, podcast or pamphlet – but communicating the past can take almost any form! You’ll be able to bid to a dedicated funding pot to produce any materials you need (much like heritage organisations themselves do) and receive academic credit for it. You’ll be supported throughout by staff and have access to representatives of the commissioning organisation, gaining invaluable real-world experience to enhance your academic learning. It’s also really rewarding and enjoyable – a chance to take your interest in history and skills as a historian out of the university and into public spaces.

This module offers you an overview of the history of Ukraine from the Middle Ages until the Russian invasion of the country in February 2022. The module will trace and discuss these dynamics of Ukrainian history in its relationship to Russia, but also to other European neighbours. It will do so from a scholarly point of view attempting to deconstruct the political and emotional narratives that dominate public discourses.

This module is a gateway to introduce you to an interdisciplinary approach to China and Chinese history, and you’ll examine significant and complex issues in its modern history. We examine materials that deal with the historical, political, social, and artistic aspects of famous sites and phenomenon, such as Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall and the Yellow River, in order to understand modern China at its politico-cultural core, in its relations with the outside world, its symbolic function in the new global order, as well as its path to modernisation.

The early modern British Isles were home to four, or even five, nations, six languages, and peoples with vastly differing cultures. You examine the clashes between these different cultures and their hostile perceptions of each other, the different languages and why some survived whilst others disappeared, the conceptions of honour and status, the different ways of maintaining law and order, and the basic social unit of the early modern British Isles: the family.

You explore the relationship between cinema and society in Britain from the interwar depression, through the Second World War and the onset of affluence and mass-consumerism in the 1950s and 60s.. You examine classes and cultures in relation to the lived history of the period, in order to track what they both reveal and conceal about the historical processes which transformed Britain during the 20th century.

Policing activities are essential for any state and offer an insight into the relationship between state and society. This module explores police activities between state protection and social control in 20th century-Europe. You’ll examine the relations between the state, the police and the public tracing continuities and differences in policing dictatorships and democracies.