BA (Hons) History (Placement Year) Bachelor's degree at Lancaster University

We begin your historical training with the cornerstone of historical research: evidence. What counts as evidence? It comes in many forms: Chronicles and law codes Letters and diaries written by people in the past Visual records, from paintings to photographs, film and maps Aural records such as music and oral histories The physical remnants of past worlds, from coins to castles and burial places Each source has a context we need to uncover. Who produced the source and why? Who would have seen or heard it and what was their reaction? From here we can learn what questions to ask of our evidence. How can it illuminate past worlds? Our expert historians guide you through hands-on training, build

The medieval and early modern periods witnessed immense change. This module will introduce you to the key themes, sources, and methods you need to understand the patterns of change and continuity around the world over a period of more than a thousand years. The shift from a warm climate in the medieval period to a colder one in the early modern period may help us explain patterns of life in a world where most people depended on subsistence agriculture. Huge transformations were also wrought by the movement of people, diseases, animals, and goods, with events such as the Black Death in Europe and smallpox epidemics in the Americas decisively changing how people lived, and how they related to

What does it take to disrupt the normal course of history, to overhaul how countries are run, to overturn long-held scientific knowledge and show people the world in a different light, or fundamentally disrupt the ways that wars are fought? What counts as a revolution? How do they happen? Here we explore a concept fundamental to History: historical change. We discover what it looks like and how it happens. Together, we investigate a series of political, economic, social, environmental and cultural events and developments from the medieval period to the modern era that have been identified as revolutionary. You’ll gain the knowledge and skills to interpret and explain change in history and to

Why do historians disagree about how to interpret the past? What issues divide them and why do they disagree? Continue your training as a first-year historian and study real-life examples of historical debate introduced by our experts. If the cornerstone of historical research is handling evidence, why do historians place different values on certain evidence or interpret evidence differently, or miss evidence all together, and how do they build their arguments to come to alternative conclusions? You’ll develop skills in reading historical arguments, uncovering how historians select and present evidence and engage critically with fellow scholars and how they craft their argument. In the process

This module explores the lived experience of peoples and nations in the modern age through the emergence of new ideas – including nationalism, capitalism, imperialism, racism, feminism - and, in turn, how those ideas were shaped by individuals, political movements, and events in diverse regions such as Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. You will explore the dramatic changes that took place across the period, such as enslavement and emancipation, dictatorship and democracy, mass suffrage, war, persecution, and transformations in medical practice and legal systems, including the emergence of the idea of the citizen. You’ll also consider the histories of those who defied and resisted these

How do we learn about crime and criminals? Discover the methods criminologists use to study crime and the criminal justice system, moving beyond everyday assumptions and media portrayals. Using a range of topics within criminology as exemplars, you will learn to: formulate research questions conduct literature reviews design studies analyse findings You’ll develop the skills to think like a criminologist and be prepared for deeper engagement with the research field as you progress with your study of criminology.

Gain a nuanced understanding of the forces driving change in the international system and their implications for global order and human security. You will acquire the tools to navigate and contribute to a complex and interconnected world. The module moves beyond traditional state-centric perspectives to explore the complex interplay of actors, structures and processes shaping our world. You will delve into global governance and address the emergence of new security threats, while tackling shifting power-dynamics at both the national and international level. Throughout the module, you will engage with a variety of case studies that illustrate the complexities of these global issues. Through d

The English language is not set in stone. It has changed over time and it differs depending on who is speaking it and where it is spoken. These facts are often ignored in the many myths surrounding its ‘proper’ form and use. This module will give you the knowledge to challenge those misconceptions by examining the history and varieties of English and attitudes toward it. You will gain an insight into the way English became standardised and into the complex role that prescriptivism has played in shaping it. You will come to appreciate that English is ever-changing as its grammar and vocabulary continue to evolve in new directions. You will also explore how and why the places where English is

From questions about truth, justice, and knowledge to debates over freedom, power, and human purpose - how has philosophical inquiry shaped cultural, political, and scientific life across centuries? In this module you will explore the major ideas and traditions that have guided the development of Western thought. Specific thinkers examined will vary from year to year, but they will include philosophers whose ideas have helped shape philosophical viewpoints, categories and boundaries in the western philosophical tradition. You will be encouraged to think about the problems and limitations of different thinkers’ approaches, and their impact on the way we practice and understand the boundaries

Learn how to analyse highly contemporary political events and trends, and develop the vital critical skills required to be able to put them into context. You will also discover how to relate these issues to core empirical questions and debates within academic research on politics. Taking a problem-based learning approach, you’ll use evidence to evaluate competing explanations for recent political developments. These may include: Democracy and elections Political leadership The state and globalisation Structural inequalities Political institutions Public opinion and protest. Lancaster’s politics experts have extensive expertise across different regions of the globe and we are quick to respond

How are your personal experiences connected to broader social forces? This module introduces you to the ‘sociological imagination’, a way of thinking that helps you make sense of the relationship between individual lives and society. Drawing on classic and contemporary sociological debates, you’ll explore key questions about individualism, institutions and social change. You'll learn to critically analyse how biography and history intersect, engaging with foundational ideas in the discipline. By developing your own sociological take on these themes, you’ll gain essential skills in critical thinking, argumentation and analysis, preparing you for further study and enabling you to see the world i

Who makes History? What drives them to investigate the past? You’ll meet the women and men who have helped shape the discipline of History, delving into their life and works. How did their experiences and opportunities shape their careers and what questions spurred their curiosity? How did they find the sources they would need, and what methods did they use to analyse them? In exploring their stories, you’ll ask how the place, time and society in which they lived opened opportunities or created obstacles to their careers, how they collaborated with other scholars or carved roles in learned societies or public debate. And you’ll ask why some historians have been heralded as ‘great’ – their na

Discover how wars are among the most important drivers of historical change. They have transformed states, societies, borders and landscapes, as well as ideas, identities, and worldviews. The decision to go to war is rarely taken lightly, but the mechanisms and norms for doing so have varied greatly over time. How peoples mobilize themselves for conflict has likewise been shaped by ideas about rights, responsibilities, and roles, ideas sometimes rooted in shifting concepts of gender and racial ideologies. War is also a crucible of scientific and technological change. From the longbow to the machine gun, and from photography and reconstructive surgery to the atomic bomb, war has stimulated sc

Explore the links between humans and their environments around the world from the medieval period to the modern era. Examine how people have understood nature and their place within it over time and across cultures, investigating climate change, environmental disasters and massive landscape transformations. You’ll situate the natural world as both an agent of change and a system that humans can alter on many scales, developing skills in navigating complex human-environment interactions. You will encounter a range of sources, from texts to images and environmental data, and learn how to analyse them, including through digital methods. With these skills, you’ll explore regional case studies of

Explore the two things that make us human – body and mind. Historians once regarded mind and body as the same across time and place. But more recently, historians have challenged this assumption, showing that changing societies have led people to experience mind and body in radically different ways. You will explore patterns of continuity and change from the medieval to modern periods by investigating key themes such as: How ideas about mind and body have impacted gender, race and social class Violence and injury Sexuality and gender identity Changing experiences of disability and transformations in attitudes to healthcare You’ll build the skills to historicise mind and body through innovati

What does it mean to die? Is it frightening? Will I see those I love again? What does it mean to kill, whether an enemy, a friend, or myself? Death is a universal human experience but, as you’ll discover, how we confront it has varied across history.You’ll explore varied experiences of death, from end-of-life care to execution, and from battlefields to pandemics. Religion can shape beliefs and customs, from the theology of the afterlife to funerary rituals and the treatment of the corpse. Yet at the margins have always lain a shadowy world, where the restless dead return, the living seek to summon the departed, and the despairing take their lives. You’ll discover the different means of inves

20th-century British history is largely a story of change. The impact of democratisation, war, economic decline, the loss of empire, and internal fragmentation has resulted in a nation seemingly in constant flux, often unsure of its identity and its values. In this module you will explore the patterns of social, economic, cultural and political change which have most affected the lives of the British since 1900. The overarching themes are the formation and reformation of identities based on class, gender, race, empire, nation, and the dual process by which the British were integrated into the state as citizens, and into the market as consumers. As well as being introduced to the key historio

To what rights are humans entitled? How are those rights balanced with the rights of other organisms and the environment? How are they balanced with the needs of societies and governments? The protection of human rights has been used to justify international conflict and military intervention to save lives, yet human rights critics have argued that they are a form of cultural imperialism limiting the sovereignty of local populations. You will explore the codification of rights, from Magna Carta and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the Geneva Conventions, and how questions of rights have manifested in movements for decolonisation and self-determination, debates on the use of capit

Hone a strong sense of purpose and gain the satisfaction of applying your skills and knowledge to a community, charity or student-led initiative. Your challenge will be to take responsibility for arranging and completing a voluntary or fundraising activity, locally, virtually or during vacation periods at home. You will need to show that you have made a positive difference through this activity. In class, you will be asked to reflect on this experience and explore the wider social impact of the work. In doing so you will build your confidence in your ability to contribute meaningfully to society through your future personal and professional path.

You are invited to collaborate in an interdisciplinary team with other students as you explore major global challenges such as climate change, inequality or emerging technologies. Throughout the module you will examine how the humanities, arts and social sciences contribute to understanding and addressing complex issues. Classroom discussions and activities focus on the process of identifying problems and considering innovative, ethical responses, while helping you to consider and articulate the relevance of this work to your personal and professional development.

Explore how ideas can be developed into real-world projects with lasting value. Through hands-on collaboration and problem-solving, you will develop innovative projects, learn how to bring ideas to life and explore ways to sustain them. Whether you are working in a team or individually, you will be encouraged to experiment with different approaches to making a difference in artistic, cultural, social and community spaces.

This module will allow you to spend the year working in a graduate-level placement role in the industry or sector that interests you most. Throughout the year, you will build an awareness of what is required in the professional workplace whilst developing a range of transferable skills. During the module you will reflect on and critically analyse: your own career readiness, the ongoing development of your self-awareness in terms of skills and professional knowledge, and your understanding of current workplace practices and professional etiquette. Our Careers and Placements Team will support you during your placement with online contact and learning resources.

Why does History matter? What does it contribute to our world? Challenge yourself to consider how our discipline is applied. Beyond working in universities, historians are active in public debate and influence the policies of institutions and governments on matters from the memorialisation of historic figures and institutional links with the Transatlantic Slave Trade to geopolitical threats to UK security. They collaborate with museums, helping visitors engage with material remains of the past, and write books for a wide public readership. You’ll develop a critical awareness of your discipline and gain confidence in articulating its significance in our world. You’ll also contend with the sub

As an advanced undergraduate historian, you’ll identify a historical topic that excites you and where you can make your own contribution to historical understanding, gaining the satisfaction of forging your own research project. To guide you throughout, you’ll be allocated an expert historian as your supervisor, with whom you’ll meet regularly to discuss your choice of topic and research design, your hunt for primary sources and your analysis of secondary literature. With their support you’ll research and write a dissertation: a written research project exploring a challenging historical problem. Research for dissertations involves building systematic understanding of your topic and engaging

The traditional historiography of the Cold War focused predominantly on the United States and the Soviet Union, and the European theatre of the conflict. This module, in contrast, offers you a different, less Western-centric view of the Cold War. You will study the impact of the East-West struggle in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, and how the course of the Cold War was affected by conflicts in the Global South. Thereby, you will learn that the Global Cold War was not only dominated by the two superpowers, but was also heavily influenced by Third World actors and lesser Cold War powers such as the People’s Republic of China. The study of the Global Cold War is currently the

Uncover the origins of modern consumer society in Britain. In the century from the abolition of advertising tax in 1853 to the birth of commercial television in the 1950s, advertising became a pervasive feature of modern life, and Britain became a nation of consumers. Through a range of sources, including press reports, social surveys and – of course – advertisements, you’ll investigate the impact of new shopping environments like the department store and the supermarket, and the rise of ethical consumerism. Advertising is political, and you’ll also examine how it helped Britain win two world wars and market the Empire to its citizens. By the end of the module, you will understand how advert

Examine how cogent issues in crime, justice and punishment have been treated historically from the eighteenth century. Taking advantage of online historical datasets, including Digital Panopticon and Old Bailey Online, you will be introduced to the vast range of historic criminal justice records. On the module, the classroom becomes the archive. You’ll get hands on with primary sources evidencing the social and cultural history of modern Britain, and act as Digital Detectives to gather evidence to unlock the world of Victorian crime and punishment. By using digital approaches to this evidence, you will be able to navigate a history from below and explore the impact of crime and injustice on

Soviet history is often told through the prism of totalitarian oppression, but beneath layers of state control a vibrant dissident movement was active. In this module, you will explore the breadth, depth and complexity of the Soviet dissident movement and critically analyse the impact that they had on the wider world. You will explore the nature of political life in the Soviet Union, ranging from the labour camps under Joseph Stalin, to the use and abuse of psychiatry under Nikita Khrushchev and the silencing of dissidents under Leonid Brezhnev. You’ll also consider the role dissidents played in the collapse of the Soviet regime and the position of dissidents in contemporary Russia. By focus

Gain an in-depth understanding of this dark chapter of Spain’s history. On the 17 July 1936, a group of military generals launched a coup against Spain’s democratically elected Second Republic. The following three years witnessed a bitter struggle to determine the future of Spain. The Spanish Civil War has been dubbed a ‘dress rehearsal’ for the Second World War. General Francisco Franco relied on Hitler and Mussolini to defeat his domestic opponents, while the Republic received support from Soviet Russia. Yet the conflict had important local dimensions. Spanish socialists, communists, anarchists, liberals and feminists fought to the last against Franco’s ‘Nationalists’. Following his victor

Explore the history of South Asia from the abolition of sati to the death of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. You will consider the social, cultural and political histories through which the idea of India was expressed and contested. You will examine the debates and rebellions through which the European colonial project was resisted and South Asian identities were expressed and cohered. You’ll begin by considering how, in the nineteenth century, the translations, interpretations and classifications of subcontinental history, society and language were created. How were ideas of identity, community and freedom formed in response to and against the incursion of European power in

Explore British foreign policy and the country's broader engagement with the wider world throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Considering broad debates concerning the decline of British power during this period, you will investigate the central themes that defined Britain's overseas policy in this era, including the impact of the World Wars, the loss of Empire, the 'special relationship' with the United States, and European integration. In exploring these themes, you will consider how people from a variety of different perspectives (British and foreign, politicians, journalists, novelists, activists) conceived of Britain's world-role since the First World War. In order

The thirteenth century brought rebellion against a tyrant, then a revolution: a party seized power from the king to govern England. This period is hailed as the foundation of democracy – but the reality is darker. Religious leaders were empowered to punish kings, rebels fought as crusaders, and people killed and died for a political cause. You’ll explore events including the making of Magna Carta, the 1258 coup, and the Battle of Evesham that ended England's First Revolution. You’ll meet queens like Eleanor of Provence, leading knight William Marshal, and Pope Innocent III; tyrannical and hapless kings; Simon de Montfort, the revolution's leader; and the low-born people who flocked to his ba

With the blurring of the Home and Battle Fronts in Britain in the Second World War, the conventional wartime gender contract, in which men fight to protect the vulnerable at home and women keep the home fires burning, was challenged. In this module you will examine how war was experienced by those who conformed to and those who challenged gender norms, by those included in the war effort and those who stood outside it. You’ll consider different categorisations of experience (military/civilian; home front/ battle front; male/female) and how historians have grappled with key concepts including the People’s War and hierarchies of service. Through a wide range of primary sources, including aut

Today the claim that God designed everything in the universe has given way to the theory of evolution. The usual story of this change is one of conflict between science and religion. But we will challenge the popular narrative. You will reconsider the rise and fall of the idea that nature was the work of a divine designer, focusing on the period 1450-1800. As well as trying to understand why the design argument became so important in the early modern period, you will seek to understand why it fell out of favour during the 18th century - long before the theory of evolution. But you will not simply be studying the history of ideas. To understand how early modern science changed, you will study

Colonisation fundamentally transformed Jamaica’s paradisical environment. In this module, you will gain a detailed understanding of how this process occurred. You’ll begin by studying how the first colonists comprehended the New World environment and the importance of that environment for shaping settlement. You will then study how settlers exploited the Jamaican environment using enslaved African labour. In the concluding section, you will examine how colonists sought to mitigate the devastating effects of plantation agriculture through nascent environmentalism. You’ll study this fascinating history using a diverse array of primary sources and by reading deeply in environmental history. In

Explore the development of the Italian cities across one of the most significant periods of medieval history. Between 1100 and 1350, northern Italy was divided into sixty ‘city-states’ governed by their citizens through assemblies and shared public office. Italian merchant-bankers grew so rich that they lent money to kings and popes, and used their wealth to transform cities into works of art, encouraging a period of cultural flourishing later called the Renaissance. But beyond this splendour lay a darker reality of economic exploitation, political exclusion and violence that eventually proved fatal for this system of self-government. In this module you will explore themes such as coexistenc