Review the recent history of British foreign policy starting in 1945. You'll explore contemporary debates regarding Britain's place in the world following Brexit. This module will cover topics such as the British empire and its legacy, the development of the Commonwealth, the UK's key strategic relationships with the United States and the European Union, and Britain's role in systems of global governance. During your study, you'll investigate key decision-points in post-war British foreign policy including the Suez crisis, entry into the European Community, the Falklands War, negotiations over the status of Hong Kong, the Iraq War and Brexit.

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

The state plays a fundamental part in social life and in shaping social development. It is a central concept in political analysis. On this module, you'll investigate the nature, development and prospects of the state using a variety of theoretical approaches. You'll consider big questions about the state such as why should we obey it? Who has power and how is political influence exercised? Does business exercise unrivalled influence? What are the arguments for growing or shrinking the state? Is globalisation forcing the state to retreat?

The Atlantic World was marked by a series of revolutionary transformations between the 1770s and 1848 - you'll explore how themes such as democracy, gender, race and violence ran across different revolutions.

Study how different media, including visual art, material culture and literary fiction, shaped and interpreted the modern British landscape. Reflecting recent trends in social and cultural history, you will look at the history of material forms, from water to electricity, and of the senses through which the environment has been apprehended. You will then consider the conservation and the place of landscape in contemporary policy-making.

Examine the origins, implementation and aftermaths of genocide by engaging extensively with historiography and contemporary debates about victims and perpetrators, the `grey zone? of resistance, collaboration and survival, and particularly the politics of remembrance. This module will also encourage you to critically examine why past genocides, such as the Nazi Holocaust, have assumed such importance in contemporary society. You will engage with debates about the politics of commemoration requiring the use of theory and empirical evidence and consider the language and history of remembrance in relation to genocide.

Explore the ideological challenges posed by communism and fascism to liberal democracy in the 20th century. In particular, you will focus on the `Age of Extremes' (1918-1991), in which authoritarian ideologies of the left and right embraced mass politics and offered alternative visions of social and political organisation that directly challenged the hegemony of the liberal-capitalist order. This module will enable you to question the usefulness of totalitarianism as a concept to understanding this era in history.

Develop an understanding of this moment in history and the contexts which gave rise to popular media forms of 60s' Britain. You'll gain familiarity with and assess the significance of approaches, frameworks and methods in historical explanation of this period. This will include key debates surrounding permissiveness, cultural revolution, and emergent identity politics.

Engage with historiographical debates which challenge long-held historical assumptions of an imperial/metropolitan divide. You will examine the role of the empire in British social, political, cultural and material life and how the relation between metropole and colony was experienced and expressed in everyday practices, such as consumer culture and popular entertainment. You will use a wide range of primary sources including visual, media and literary material. This module will explore and problematise how the empire is presented and preserved today by encouraging you to reflect critically on how histories, objects and perceptions of empire are presented in the 21st century in institutions where collections of empire are displayed.

This module will cover themes of change in European history during the `Age of Revolutions', namely the period between the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 to the completion of national unifications in Italy and Germany by 1871. You will focus on the development of new political ideologies, the impact of economic and social and economic change, the advance of communications technology, cultural conflict, and reflections of all of these themes through the art and architecture of the period.

This module covers the key movements for political change in the British Isles over the period from the Wilkesite protests of the 1760s to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. Your studies will encompass movements such as those mounted by Christopher Wyvill?s Yorkshire Association, radical movements for universal suffrage such as Chartism and violent action against the state and its functionaries such as the Despard Conspiracy, and revolutionary movements, including Irish Republicanism.

This module will consider how current health anxieties are historically represented in a range of written communications about medicine and the body. You'll investigate how other topical and pressing health agendas on issues such as mental health, disability, addiction and sexual health have been constituted and experienced in the past.

Gain an overview of contemporary environmental debates, with a particular focus on climate change and its consequences. You'll critically assess the evidence for global environmental crisis, and efforts at global cooperation to address the issues. This module will consider issues such as responsibility, and the role of environmental movements and alternative models of development.

Take a critical political economy approach to development in the Global South. You'll study the evolution and dynamics of development policy and practice in the Global South, from the period of post WWII state-led development to contemporary processes of neoliberal globalisation. You'll engage with a variety of theoretical approaches in order to understand issues facing development in the Global South. This module will also explore the roles and links between key institutions and actors at the global, national and local level.

Examine the various debates within human rights, looking at the different theoretical frameworks scholars employ in the study and practice of this field. Take specific controversial debates within the field and explore them in depth. You will be challenged to see the complex nature of human rights as a moral framework for political action.

Develop an understanding of the key theories of peace, warfare and security, and their relevance to and practice in the 21st century.

Understand the way that humanities disciplines and skills intersect with a range of professional working contexts. You will complete 36 hours of live-brief learning to gain first-hand experience of planning, delivery and evaluating a professional working brief set by an industry partner organisation. You will work as a group across 10 weeks alongside a tutor to design, deliver, present and evaluate the brief to industry standards. As well as conducting a reflective case study of your brief, you will complete a CV, cover letter, LinkedIn profile and undertake a recorded mock interview.

You'll demonstrate a full range of skills, knowledge, and competencies developed over three years of study. This module provides an opportunity for you to choose and explore a field of study that has particularly engaged your interest.

Explore the operation, practice and context of contemporary policy making at the national level. Examine the actors, mechanisms and practice of policy making, and the drivers of policy change, via a focus on specific case studies. You will engage with key decision making theories and models of the policy process, exploring how institutional analyses and other theoretical approaches help to understand the complexity of the policy process.

Examine the history of Italy from the beginning of the country's national resurgence during the late 18th century to the present day. You will study the major political, economic, social and cultural developments of this history with a particular focus upon the themes of `continuity' and `change' from one period to another.

Explore the longer history of civil rights in the United States and Canada from the Civil War until today by studying a broad range of people including marginalised populations such as indigenous groups, women, children, and the LGBTQ community. You will study major themes in the history of race, ethnicity, and culture in North America, covering such topics as suffrage, eugenics, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Black Zionism, Red Power, urban ghettos, music, Idle No More, and politics.

Consider the question of what constitutes 'national identity'? and the relationship between cultural identities and the political questions of the day. This module will place the debate in historical context, exploring the emergence of a `United Kingdom' from the acts of union with Scotland and Ireland in 1707 and 1801 respectively to the partial disintegration of this union with the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, to the triumph of devolution under Tony Blair's New Labour government in 1999 and the EU referendum of 2016. You will have the opportunity to develop your presentation and leadership skills by designing and running one of your seminar sessions as part of a group exercise.

Study the complex and contested history of 20th-century South Africa by focusing on the development, implementation, and aftermaths of the apartheid system of racial segregation and discrimination. You will study key themes including the aftermath of the 1899-1902 South African (`Boer') War, the development of a distinctive Afrikaner identity during the 1920s and 30s, changing ideas about race and class, and the formal establishment of apartheid in 1948. Your studies will also consider aspects of social and cultural life under apartheid, for example the so-called `Drum' decade of the 1950s, and the roles and experiences of women, underpinned by a critical consideration of the historiography of gender in South Africa. You will also consider opposition to apartheid, and the formal end of apartheid and white minority rule in 1994. The module will conclude by considering developments in South Africa post-1994, focusing on political transformation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the construction of `new nationalisms' and the writing of new histories.

Study the initial spread of communism after 1945 to the collapse of communism in the revolutions of 1989/90. You will explore the onset of the Cold War that led to the division of Europe into `West? and `East? by the `iron curtain?. Your studies will look at the communist monopoly of power and Soviet control over Eastern Europe, and the numerous challenges, upheavals and compromises it underwent between 1945 and 1989. In addition to high-profile popular challenges to the ruling authorities such as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring of 1968, this module will also see you consider the various reforms adopted, the increasing role of dissent, and some of the ways that people reacted to, reshaped and resisted communism in their everyday lives.

Focus on the British Home Front during the Second World War and consider the extent to which the conflict should be regarded as ‘The People’s War’. Taking a thematic approach based on primary sources and artefacts, you'll trace the impact of the Second World War on British civilians. You'll consider its social, cultural and political legacies. Particular attention will be paid to everyday experiences of the war and the ways that these were presented through a range of different media. This module will end with a conference led by you and your peers, comprised of group presentations.

Gain hands-on experience of making public history by working in a small group on a discrete local history project commissioned by an external group or member of academic staff. Training workshops and tutorials will help guide you through the research process and the final outcome will be determined by each group in consultation with their sponsor. This module will reflect a growing interest in local communities about the places where they live, and will provide you with the opportunity to critically reflect on the skills you have developed and the public role of the historian.

This module will trace the history of British holidaymaking abroad by considering motives for and experiences of travel. You will evaluate changes in how travellers journeyed across two centuries, and explore notions including national identity, racial inequality, coming of age, gender and pilgrimage, which are enabled and challenged by foreign holidaying. Drawing on diaries, travel ephemera, journalism and instructive literature, you will study documents replete with accounts of Britishness, how to behave, what to see and do, the value of empire and the unpredictable nature of foreigners. You will also consider the ways in which encounters with other cultures and peoples are recorded, understood, and justified and in so doing understand how travel documents can reveal as much about British prejudices and perceptions as they reveal about the locations being visited.

Consider the social, political and cultural histories of Paris in the 19th century. Starting with Napoleon's demise in 1815, you will trace the rise and fall of the many political dynasties and systems which came and went in this period. You will then move on to looking at social and cultural change, as well as the developments in urban planning and infrastructure, all of which caused many to consider Paris the `Capital of the 19th Century.'

Explore the ways in which history and media can be brought together to enhance our understanding of both the past and the present. Using cities such as Paris or London as case studies, you'll learn about how the idea of modernity evolved as people began to contend with the experience of urbanisation.

Examine the history of the sea, the seaside and the humans who have lived upon them since the beginning of modern globalisation in the mid-to-late-eighteenth century. You will also have the opportunity to consider the changing representation and imagination of the sea and sealife in popular culture and art.

Study the role that the street has played since the mid-19th century in shaping our lives and identities. This module is concerned with the everyday lives of urban dwellers who used streets for work, leisure, travel, and living in its many legal and illegal ways. You will examine the different users of the street, and the changing representation of the street across our period. In addition to lectures and seminars, you will attend classes off-campus - on the streets and in the arcades with walking tours, in the city's public libraries and in museums. You will be introduced to the variety of primary sources that reveal the personality of a city's streets and activities, around which you will write assignments: photographs, film, maps, newspapers, testimonies, and the buildings and public spaces themselves.

Examine the process of decolonisation from its origins in the late colonial world, through to current debates about the legacies of modern imperialism.

Investigate the related issues of terrorism, security and human rights. You will explore the synthesis between the fear of terrorism which is a pervasive threat felt by both states and individuals, the response to these threats that states adopt in creating security policy, and the impact upon human and civil rights.

Recent years have seen British politics navigating multiple seismic and systemic events, from the 2008 financial crisis and the following period of austerity, to Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. This module will help you to make sense of British politics in these era-defining moments by charting its most significant developments over the last century. You'll examine the current condition of Britain and consider the key issues and challenges faced in British politics today, as well as how British politics might develop in the future. In covering the past, present, and future of British politics, you'll gain a detailed understanding of its key actors, institutions, processes and ideologies. You'll also build techniques for critical analysis and develop your own evidence-based arguments about the subject.

This module will provide an advanced introduction to current debates about the persisting relevance of colonialism to thinking about politics today. It will introduce you to the critical theoretical literature around ‘coloniality’ and race from post-colonial and decolonial perspectives and applies these ideas to contemporary political issues.

There are currently more than 280 million migrants on the move in the world. Millions of refugees and other people have been displaced from their homes due to violence, economic desperation, climate change, conflict and persecution. Although this is not a new problem, this level of displacement and forced and voluntary mobility is unprecedented and is increasingly framed as a ‘crisis.’ This module will give you a strong understanding of how the social and political geographies of displacement and migration are produced, experienced and governed at various scales. You’ll also examine how local communities are responding to the complex issues experienced by displaced people and migrant communities.

By reflecting on learning acquired through work placements, this module will focus on promoting self-awareness of your ‘career story’. You will look at how you evaluate your current skills, explore the future possibilities in your career development and navigate pathways through those chosen possibilities. This module will enable you to become ‘cartographer’ of your own future experience. You will embark upon a minimum of 80 hours work placement, supported by reflective exercises, and build expertise and confidence through a range of assessments designed by the course team and employer partners. Conceptualised and designed by digital specialists, the module is purposefully created to be delivered and experienced online – reflecting the increasingly distributed nature of work communications and embracing digital environments as an integral aspect of how employees and the self-employed progress their careers.