BA (Hons) English and History Bachelor's degree at Leeds Beckett University

Investigate some of the major developments considered to have shaped the modern European world. Your studies will take a thematic approach, looking at topics such as the Enlightenment, political and industrial revolutions, changing class structures and gender relations, and Europe's often violent encounters with the wider world. You'll establish a knowledge-base of key elements of European modernity and a chronological framework for further study.

Examine a series of short stories that introduce key concepts such as genre and subgenre, context, and theory. You'll also explore more specific ideas about narrative fiction such as reliability, authority, perspective, chronology, story versus plot, and more.

Study drama as a social practice and explore texts in relation to their historical moment of production. This module will introduce approaches to the contextual study of literature.

You'll examine the histories of relocation, cultural encounter, and migration that have shaped the modern world from voyages of exploration to twentieth-century political conflict.

Gain an introduction to the major political, social, and cultural developments in 20th-Century Europe. You'll adopt thematic and comparative approaches to the study of European societies to build a useful framework for understanding modernity to post-modernity during this period. You'll study a number of key areas including the impact of the two world wars upon Europe, the rise of totalitarian dictatorships and the efforts at peace-making across the continent.

Focus on a single, long novel from a canonical text published in an early period as you explore the formal features of the novel. You'll start to study critical theory as a means of enabling elaborate reading of a longer literary text.

Your studies will be divided into two parts. In the first you'll study the varied approaches historians use to study the past. In the second, you'll be supported by a member of staff to develop a viable dissertation proposal.

Engage with a comparative perspectives by considering the connections between revolutionary upheavals in North America, Europe and Latin America. This module will emphasise the ways these revolutions were linked and what they had in common. You will explore a number of key themes including race, political relationships, national identity, class and gender through which to evaluate the similarities and differences between revolutions in America, France and Haiti.

Develop your historical research skill set through online lab sessions in which you will apply your learning from lectures. You will explore how to create a website using a content management system, how to use digital libraries such as JSTOR, how to use apps to understand specific landscapes of enquiry over time and the possibilities presented by virtual reality for research and research communication.