History (with Foundation Year)

Succeeding at University introduces you to learning in higher education and provides you with a framework for reflection and understanding of your own personal learning identity as well as tools for continuing educational success.

This module introduces you to the key themes and issues in European History between 800 and 2000, providing the key background knowledge required to succeed in a History, Medieval History and Modern History degree. The module examines five core themes over two semesters: states and empires; war and society; religious power and religious life; gender and history; society and culture.

This module is designed to enable you to develop the key critical thinking skills necessary for university study and beyond. Through a combination of lectures and small group seminars the class will discuss many of the key issues that underpin discussion of all academic disciplines. The lectures will introduce key themes and issues that enable students to make sense of the world in a critical fashion while the seminars will allow students to discuss these issues and engage with key readings each week. You are encouraged to apply these abstract concepts to your specific degree path.

This module introduces students to the key themes and issues in European History between 1500 and 2000, providing the key background knowledge required to succeed in a History degree in all relevant pathways. The module examines five core themes: states and empires; war and society; religious power and religious life; gender and history; society and culture. This thematic approach encourages students to think analytically about change and continuity over several centuries, providing the foundation for more advanced study at Levels 4, 5 and 6.

• Society's Big Questions - 15 credits
• Contemporary Conversations – 15 credits
• The Meaning of Life on Film - 15 credits

Succeeding at University introduces you to learning in higher education and provides you with a framework for reflection and understanding of your own personal learning identity as well as tools for continuing educational success.

This module introduces you to the key themes and issues in European History between 800 and 2000, providing the key background knowledge required to succeed in a History, Medieval History and Modern History degree. The module examines five core themes over two semesters: states and empires; war and society; religious power and religious life; gender and history; society and culture.

This module is designed to enable you to develop the key critical thinking skills necessary for university study and beyond. Through a combination of lectures and small group seminars the class will discuss many of the key issues that underpin discussion of all academic disciplines. The lectures will introduce key themes and issues that enable students to make sense of the world in a critical fashion while the seminars will allow students to discuss these issues and engage with key readings each week. You are encouraged to apply these abstract concepts to your specific degree path.

This module introduces students to the key themes and issues in European History between 1500 and 2000, providing the key background knowledge required to succeed in a History degree in all relevant pathways. The module examines five core themes: states and empires; war and society; religious power and religious life; gender and history; society and culture. This thematic approach encourages students to think analytically about change and continuity over several centuries, providing the foundation for more advanced study at Levels 4, 5 and 6.

• Society's Big Questions - 15 credits
• Contemporary Conversations – 15 credits
• The Meaning of Life on Film - 15 credits

This module introduces you to the core skills required to study history successfully at degree level. History makes sense of the past by analysing surviving evidence. Such evidence is either secondary, which requires in-depth critical reading, or primary or original, which demands critical contextualisation and analysis. All such evidence has uses to the historian, not necessarily obvious, and all contains partiality, which historians are trained to overcome. Working in small groups with one staff member per group, there will be a balance between developing awareness of these overarching core skills (such as conducting research and mastering referencing conventions) and a case study where you will work on academic reading connected to a particular topic. 

This module, and its co-requisite, Perspectives on the Past II, introduces you to different perceptions of history. Over the course of the modules, you are asked to critically engage with micro- and macro-historical viewpoints through the lens of local, national and global history or in terms of the significance of particular turning points versus the longue durée approach of change over time. The modules are divided into three-week studies of a particular theme (for example, Empire Religion or War) with overviews at the macro- and micro- historical level. The final week of each theme concentrates upon a seminar which explores primary source material related to that theme and acts as a progress update for the presentations which groups will ultimately put together. 

This module builds upon Sources & Approaches in History, further developing your skills as independent researchers, and giving you an opportunity to do research of a critical nature, using both primary and secondary sources. Continuing to work in the same Case Study groups as, and on a related topic to, Sources & Approaches, you undertake an individual research project, on a topic negotiated with a tutor. In addition, there will be an element of group work as you combine your individual findings, presenting on a subtopic of the module’s overarching theme. 

This module, and its pre-requisite, Perspectives on the Past I, introduces you to different perceptions of history. Over the course of the modules, you are asked to critically engage with micro- and macro-historical viewpoints through the lens of local, national and global history or in terms of the significance of particular turning points versus the longue durée approach of change over time. The modules are divided into three-week studies of a particular theme (for example, Trade & Economy, Ecology, Disease & Famine or Migration) with overviews at the macro- and micro- historical level. The final week of each theme concentrates upon a seminar which explores primary source material related to that theme. By examining such trends in more than one context, you will be introduced to the difficulties of analysing continuity and change over long periods and in different regions.

• British Introductory Module: Early Medieval Britain 400-1066
• International Introductory Module: The United States
• International Introductory Module: Early Modern Europe
• International Introductory Module: Europe 1300-1500
• British Introductory Module: English History 1272-1500
• British Introductory Module: Victorian Britain 1815-1914
• International Introductory Module: East Asia 1900-present
• British Introductory Module: Tudor and Early Stuart England 1500-1660
• International Introductory Module: Rise and Fall of Modern Empires, 1783 - 1997
• British Introductory Module: Uniting The Kingdom? Britain, 1660-1837
• International Introductory Module: Modern Europe, 1789-2001
• British Introductory Module: Seventeenth century England
• British Introductory Module: Britain in the Twentieth Century
• International Introductory Module: Europe and The Americas (1763-1914) - change and interchange
• International Introductory Module: Europe in the Early Middle Ages (c.400-c.888)
• International Introductory Module: Europe in the Central Middles Ages (c.888-1200)

Classics modules:

• Introduction to the Classical Greek World
• Introduction to Classical Greek Literature
• Introduction to Classical Archaeology
• Introduction to the Classical Roman World
• Introduction to Classical Roman Literature
• Introduction to Classical Theatre

Please note the modules listed are correct at the time of publishing, for full-time students entering the programme in Year 1. Optional modules are listed where applicable. Please note the University cannot guarantee the availability of all modules listed and modules may be subject to change. For further information please refer to the terms and conditions at www.winchester.ac.uk/termsandconditions. The University will notify applicants of any changes made to the core modules listed above.

Reading History provides an overview of ‘doing History’ from the Classical period onwards. It examines the ideas that have underpinned historical research and writing, from Herodotus to Post-Modernity, as well as recent theories of history (many of which have been drawn from other disciplines and including post-colonialism, gender and identity, spatial theory) as they have been used by historians. It provides you with an opportunity to think reflexively about the nature of the historical enterprise. You are encouraged to link your studies in Reading History with your other second-year modules. This module principally examines the ways in which British historians have worked from the early medieval period to c.2000.  It investigates the influences which shaped their approaches (including, e.g., the work of foreign scholars such as Leopold von Ranke and the historians of the French Annales School). It also investigates theories of history – e.g. Marxist ideas.  It emphasizes the expansion of historical interests and the methodologies which have permitted fresh areas of study in the last thirty years and looks at the current practice of history.

This module considers the planning and preparation of research and the methods and skills used, with particular reference to – but not sole consideration of – the dissertation. A wide range of historical approaches and methods are assessed, including use of local and national archives, databases and online sources, media and newspapers, visual images, standing remains, landscape and the material environment, public history, oral sources and scientific data. Ethics in historical research are also examined.

• Work Placement
• Group Project
• Field Trip
• Volunteering Placement

• Option A: The Carolingian Renaissance
• Option A: The Vikings and the Frankish World
• Option A: The Investiture Contest
• Option A: Norman Sicily, ca 1000-1197
• Option A: English Monasticism
• Option A: The First English Empire: c. 1100 to c. 1350
• Option A: The Reign of King John
• Option A: Culture and Society in Late Medieval England
• Option A: The Crusades
• Option A: The Golden Age of Spain
• Option A: Religion, Politics & Society in Early Tudor England, 1485-1558
• Option A: The Global Hispanic World (1760s-1960s)
• Option A: Victorian Culture and Society
• Option A: Imperial Japan
• Option A: The British Raj, from the 'Indian Mutiny' to Gandhi - 1857-1947
• Option A: The American South 1865-1970
• Option A: Edwardian Britain
• Option A: Revolutionary Russia, 1900-1924
• Option A: Nazism and the Holocaust
• Option A: From Austerity to Affluence: Everyday Life in Post-war Britain
• Option A: The Human Explosion: Energy, Industrialization and Environment, 1750 to the Present
• Option B: The Age of the Vikings
• Option B: Post-Carolingian Rulership
• Option B: Societies at War – England and France, 1189-1529
• Option B: Textiles in the Medieval World
• Option B: Food and Drink in Medieval and Early Modern England
• Option B: The Urban History of Europe from the Black Death to the Industrial Revolution c.1350-1700
• Option B: The Renaissance Court: Power. Politics and Patronage
• Option B: Gender in Europe and North America, c. 1500-1914
• Option B: Culture, Society and Economy in Early Modern England
• Option B: Exploring Past Localities
• Option B: The Rise of the High Speed Society (18th-20th centuries)
• Option B: American Slavery
• Option B: History’s Eye – Photography and Society
• Option B: Sisterhood – Before and After: Feminism in Twentieth Century Britain
• Option B: Political Violence in Twentieth-Century Europe
• Option B: ‘Subordinate Independence’: Japan’s Relationship with the US 1945-present
• Option B: Stalinism
• Option B: Dreams and Nightmares: Britain in 20th Century Europe
• Option B: Climate, Culture and Catastrophe in the Modern World: The Making of the Anthropocene

• The Glory of Athens & the Shadow of Sparta
• Rome: The Rise of the Eternal City
• The Symposium: Ancient Greek Drinking Culture
• Alexander the Great
• Imperial Rome
• The Culture of Neoclassicism
• Political and Religious Themes in the Modern Near and Middle East
• War on Terror
• Exploring Teaching as a Career

Please note the modules listed are correct at the time of publishing, for full-time students entering the programme in Year 1. Optional modules are listed where applicable. Please note the University cannot guarantee the availability of all modules listed and modules may be subject to change. For further information please refer to the terms and conditions at www.winchester.ac.uk/termsandconditions. The University will notify applicants of any changes made to the core modules listed above.

The Dissertation (Extended Independent Study) is an 8,000 -10,000 thesis on a subject of your choice. It makes an original contribution to historical knowledge and understanding. It demonstrates an advanced capacity to work as a historian and to employ the conventions of a historian.  

This module is taught through small seminar groups only. In these groups, you will be able to explore the nature of historical research and historical debate through reflection on your own dissertation and the sharing of best practice with other students. It will allow a more supportive learning environment whilst ensuring a more active engagement with individual research.

History in the Public Sphere asks students to engage with the process of accessing the past both through History as an academic discipline and alternatively in public history. Through the study of a variety of uses of the past in areas such as politics, journalism and popular media, you will engage with the methodological problems and nuances in studying History at degree level. This module will allow you to develop a more nuanced understanding of both popular and academic approaches to the past and to consider the applicability of academic history in more popular arenas.

• Field Trip
• Work Placement

• Depth Study: The Hundred Years’ War 1337-1453
• Depth Study: Alfred the Great
• Depth Study: The Wars of the Roses 1450-1499
• Depth Study: Civil War and Revolution in the British Isles
• Depth Study: The United States and the Cold War 1945-63
• Depth Study: Japan at War and Under Occupation 1937-52
• Depth Study: The Home Front: the United Kingdom 1939-1945
• Depth Study: The French Wars of Religion 1562-1598
• Depth Study: Society, Culture and Everyday Life in Russia: 1928-1985
• Depth Study: The Norman Conquest
• Depth Study: Interwar Britain
• Depth Study: The Italian Wars 1494-1516 and 1521-1559
• Depth Study: The Henrician & Edwardian Reformation and the Marian Counter-Reformation
• Depth Study: Genocide in History and Memory I and II
• Depth Study: Ruling England in the Second Viking Age, Part I: Kingdoms Lost and Won and Part II: Political Cultures
• Depth Study: Norman Worlds I (Normandy and the British Isles) and II (Southern Italy and Crusader Kingdoms)
• Depth Study: The Anglo-Norman Civil War, 1120-1148 and 1148-1162
• Depth Study: The Emergence of the Italian City Communes (c.1050-c.1150) and The Dominance of the Italian City
• Communes (c.1150-c.1250).
• The Age of Napoleon in global perspective - I and II
• Depth Study: The Emergence of Modern Environmentalism I & II: The Discovery of Nature and The Crisis of Nature
• The Post-war Teenager, 1945-1979 Part 1 and Part 2
• Depth Study: The USSR after Stalin, 1953-1964 and 1964-1985
• Depth Study: Greek Rhetoric: The Sophists and Lysias & Demosthenes
• Depth Study: The Black Death Part 1 and Part 2
• Depth Study: The Maghreb, Colonialism and Its Aftermath in North Africa and France 1827-1914 and 1914-Present
• Comparative Study: Supernatural and Witchcraft Beliefs in the British Isles, Continental Europe and America c.1450-1800
• Comparative Study: Chivalry
• Comparative Study: Minorities in the Past
• Comparative Study: Mediterranean Fascism: Conflict and Dictatorship in Spain and Italy 1914-1947
• Comparative Study: War Crimes Trials and Memories of War: Japan and Germany
• Comparative Study: Religious Reform in Sixteenth-Century Europe
• Comparative Study: Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe
• Comparative Study: The Monstrous Regiment: Gender and Authority in Early Modern Europe
• Comparative Study: Nation Making in Early Modern Europe
• Comparative Study: Holocaust Memory and Representation in Europe, the United States & Israel
• Comparative Study: Ideas, Ideologies and Colonial Organisation in the British and French Empires
• Comparative Study: Borderlands and Commodities In History
• Comparative Study: Medieval Hostageships
• Comparative Study: Gender and Authority in Early Medieval Europe
• Comparative Study: Warfare in the Medieval West from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century
• Comparative Study: The Middle Ages in Computer Games
• Comparative Study: Apocalypse Then and Now! Disasters in World History
• Comparative Study: The ‘Swinging’ Sixties

• Depth Study: The Pax Romana – Dynastic Stories
• Depth Study: Herodotus. Tall Tales & Epic Histories
• Depth Study: Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Literature

• Comparative: Games & Gladiators: Sport and Leisure in the Ancient World
• Comparative Study: Murder in the Ancient City
• Comparative: Classical World in Film
• Comparative: Plutarch and his Great Lives
• Comparative: The Fall of the Ancient City
• Comparative: Greco-Roman Egypt 331-31 BC

Please note the modules listed are correct at the time of publishing, for full-time students entering the programme in Year 1. Optional modules are listed where applicable. Please note the University cannot guarantee the availability of all modules listed and modules may be subject to change. For further information please refer to the terms and conditions at www.winchester.ac.uk/termsandconditions. The University will notify applicants of any changes made to the core modules listed above.