BA History and Modern Languages
Entry requirements
A level: ABB IB: Pass, with 32 points overall with 16 points at Higher Level
About this course
Bachelor of Arts in History and Modern Languages, a modern languages and history degree centred on the combined exploration of historical periods and linguistic traditions. Core topics include Statistics, Research Methods, Historical Research, Ethics & Professional Practice, Human Behaviour, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. Students complete a residence abroad period during the third year with options for workplace, British Council, or partner university placements. The first year introduces academic skills for modern languages and linguistics alongside history modules such as History Matters (Object, Image, Text), World Histories Introduced, and foundational language study in French, German, or Spanish, with optional choices including Antiquity and Authority: Ancient Persia in Modern Iranian Politics and Applications of Linguistics. The second year focuses on public history and preparation for the year abroad through Making History: Historians and Audiences and Preparation for your Third Year (Abroad), complemented by optional modules ranging from Corpus Linguistics: Working with Large-scale Text Data to Culture, Power and Resistance in the Portuguese-Speaking World. The third year consists of the Residence Abroad Portfolio. The fourth year supports students upon their return with Seeing and Being Seen. Period Abroad Re-entry while offering advanced optional study in areas such as English as a Global Language and Exiles, Migrants and Citizens: Narrating and Documenting Displacement in Contemporary Spain.
Modules
- Academic Skills for Modern languages and Linguistics Students
- History Matters (Object, Image, Text)
- Introduction to French and Francophone Studies
- Introduction to German Studies
- Introduction to Spain, Latin America and the Portuguese-Speaking World
- World Histories Introduced
- Antiquity and Authority: Ancient Persia in Modern Iranian Politics
- Applications of Linguistics
- Elements of Linguistics: Sound, Structure and Meaning
- Masada: History and Myth
- Putin and the Politics of Post-Soviet Russia
- Rebellions and Uprising in the age of the Tudors
- The Crimean War
- The First World War
- The French Revolution
- Understanding History and Society
- Making History: Historians and Audiences
- Preparation for your Third Year (Abroad)
- Culture, Power and Resistance in the Portuguese-Speaking World
- Gender, Race and Nation in Modern Latin America
- AI Utopias and the Climate Crisis
- Ancient Greeks at War
- Ancient Rome: the First Metropolis
- Building London: the history of a city, 1666 – 2012
- Cities of the Dead: Death, Mourning and Remembrance in Modern Britain
- Corpus Linguistics: Working with Large-scale Text Data
- Creating Elizabeth I: Ancient Inspiration for a Renaissance Queen (1558-1603)
- Darwin and the Making of Evolutionary Thought: Myth, Memory, and Modern Society
- Data, Culture, and Justice
- Digital Futures of the Past: Power, Ethics, and Representation
- Discourse Analysis
- Exploring French Linguistics
- Exploring Spanish Linguistics
- Ghosts on Screen
- Globalisation: Culture, Language and the Nation State
- Health, Culture, and Discrimination
- High, Popular, Mass Culture: Cultural Hybridity and Globalization in Latin America and Spain
- Humanities and Professional Practice
- Imperial China: From China’s mythical emperors to the 19th century
- Islam's Identity Crisis: Between Violent Jihadism and Peaceful Reformation
- Jews in Germany before the Holocaust
- Language and Society in the German-Speaking World
- Language, Power and Institutions: How Linguistic Practices Can Shape Our Lives
- Latin 1
- Latin 2
- Learning about Culture: Introduction to Ethnography
- McCarthyism
- Multilingualism
- Myth and the Ancient World
- Napoleon and his legend
- Nelson Mandela: A South African life
- Plague, Fire and Popish Plots: The Worlds of Charles II
- Post-War French Thought and Culture
- Psycholinguistics
- Queering the Digital
- Ragtime! The Making of Modern America
- Researching Language, Culture and Communication in the Global World
- Retail Therapy: A Journey Through the Cultural History of Shopping
- Sound and Voice
- Syntax: Studying Language Structure
- Teaching English as a Foreign Language
- The Age of Discovery? c.1350-c.1650
- The EU and European Identity
- The Fall of the Russian Empire
- The First British Empire: the beginnings of English dominance, 1050-1300
- The Making of Modern India
- Variation and Change in English
- Vienna and Berlin: Society, Politics and Culture from 1890 to the Present
- Residence Abroad Portfolio
- Seeing and Being Seen. Period Abroad Re-entry
- English as a Global Language
- Exiles, Migrants and Citizens: Narrating and Documenting Displacement in Contemporary Spain
- A Short History of Exploration
- A Short History of the Far Right
- A Short History of the Populist Leader
- American Cinema Since 1965
- Audiovisual Translation
- China in the Cold War – Part 1 (The Chronology)
- China in the Cold War – Part 2 (Themes)
- Crime and Punishment in England c.1688-1840 part 1
- Crime and Punishment in England c.1688-1840 part 2
- Cultures in Contact: A Diverse Ancient World
- Cultures in Contact: Resisting Rome
- Digital Media, Language and Communication
- Encounters with Bodies in Lusophone Cultural Narrative
- Fragmented France: Cultures and Identities in Transition
- French Sociolinguistics: Challenges to Francophonie
- From Tyranny to Revolution: England 1625-49: Part 1
- From Tyranny to Revolution: England, 1625-49 Part 2
- German-Jewish Writing Across the Twentieth Century
- Historical Memory in Modern Latin America
- History Dissertation
- Language and Speech Disorders
- Language and the City
- Languages, Cultures and Linguistics Dissertation
- Minorities and Migrants: Exploring Multicultural Germany
- Public Service Interpreting
- Reading Histories
- Second Language Acquisition
- Sex, Gender and Desire
- Sex, Soap Operas and Female Dissidents: Representations of Women in the Hispanic World
- Sociophonetic Project Module
- Streaming, Social Media, and Stans: Music Culture in the Platform Era
- The Hammer and the Scalpel: The American Precision Ethos and Culture of War (Part 1)
- The Hammer and the Scalpel: The American Precision Ethos and Culture of War (Part 2)
- The Third Reich 1
- The Third Reich 2
- The imperial Other: Race, Religion and Identity in modern Britain and France
- The imperial Other: Race, Religion and Identity in the Russian and Soviet empires