History (BA) (Part-time) - 2012/2013 entry

The main prerequisite for this programme is an enthusiasm for developing intellectual skills and critical approaches to the study of the past. Some experience of historical study is also helpful. Some students take this degree in order to fulfill their personal interests and curiosity. Others find that a history degree is excellent preparation for and complement to a number of careers – in the arts, education, social and political affairs, government or journalism. Many of our graduates develop their existing career through gaining a degree, while others go on to study for higher degrees.

Find out more about studying in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology.

• Develop the ability to understand how people have existed, acted and thought in the different contexts of the past.
• Assess historical evidence, and question accepted histories and traditions about the past.
• Develop your ability to construct and present a convincing argument.
• Watch our video of Professor Catharine Edwards talking about our courses and studying in the department.

The programme offers a wide choice of subjects and approaches within a structured framework. It begins with a foundation module in study skills and broad survey courses covering long time periods. You will then select topics to study in greater depth, making use of more specialised historical literature and sources. Appropriate modules will also train you in the use of historical argument and in bibliographical techniques. To complete the degree, you will research and write a dissertation on a topic of your choice, in collaboration with a supervisor.

• Year 1: take the compulsory Study Skills module and two Group 1 modules.
• Year 2: take the compulsory Historiography module and two Group 1 modules.
• Year 3: take the compulsory Bibliography module and either two Group 2 modules or one Group 2 and one Group 3 module.
• Year 4: take either two Group 2 modules or one Group 2 and one Group 3 module (depending on modules taken in Year 3) and write a dissertation.

Group 1 Modules

• American History from 1600 to Present
• British History 1500–1750
• British History since 1750
• Europe 1500–1800
• Europe from 1800  
• From Ancient to Medieval Societies
• From Republic to Empire – Roman History 133 BC to AD 284
• Modern History of East Asia
• The British Empire, 1780–1960
• The Greek World – Archaic and Classical Periods
• The Medieval World.

Group 2 and Group 3 Modules

• Approaching Death in Ancient Greece and Rome
• Building the Middle Ages: Urbanism and Architecture
• Civil Society: Ideas, Practices, and Dilemmas in the Modern World, 17th Century to the Present.
• Colonial Encounters: Race, Identity and Cultural Change in the British Empire
• Contested Nation: Germany 1871–1918
• Cultural Interaction in the Archaic Greek World
• Cultural Encounters: Colonial Encounters: Race, Identity And Cultural Exchange In The British Empire
• Death, Ancestors and the Afterlife
• Deviance, Disorder and the Self: c.1850–1900
• Family, Society and Culture in Britain, 1832–1918
• France 1774–1794: Reform and Revolution
• Gender in the Middle Ages
• Imperialism in Modern East Asia
• Ireland and the Irish from the Act of Union to Partition, 1801–1921
• Later Medieval London 1450–1560: Community, Politics and Religion
• Literature, Culture and Society in Britain, 1914–1945
• Living in the Middle Ages
• Louis XIV and the Crisis of the Absolute Monarchy, 1685–1720
• Modern Italy
• Oceans in History
• People and Society: A Social History of Venice (1450–1650)
• Political and Social change in the Middle East since 1918
• Power and Self Representation in the Greek and Hellenistic Worlds
• Rebellions and Revolutions: Britain, c.1588–1689
• Religion, Magic and Society in Late Antiquity
• Religious and Political Space in the Classical and Hellenistic World
• Responses to Rome from the Eighteenth Century to the Present
• Terror, War and Late Stalinism: Soviet Russia 1934–1953
• The Age of Plague: Disease, Medicine and Society in Western Europe, 1348–1665
• The Age of Science: The Transformation of European Life, 1850–1939
• The Athenian Empire
• The Birth of Modern Germany, 1870–1933
• The Birth of a Superpower: China from 1900 to the Present Day
• The British Raj and the Making of Modern Venice
• The Cultural History of Early Modern Venice
• The Empire of Letters: Epistolography in the Roman World
• The English Family c.1350–1720
• The History of Civil Society from the Eighteenth Century to the Present
• The Making of the Modern Racial Order in South Africa
• The Ottoman Empire
• The Third Reich
• The War of Ideas in Post-Revolutionary England 1660–1740
• Witchcraft and Society 1450–1750.

Please note: modules run on a two-year cycle and not all modules are available every year.

We offer a range of Master's degrees in history.

Graduates go on to careers as researchers, as archivists, in museums and galleries, in education, and as journalists.

Teaching

All formal teaching takes place between 6pm and 9pm, Monday to Friday. Staff are available to provide tutorial and general help at other times, as they have a full-time commitment to the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology. Most students will have to attend College for only two, or at the most three, evenings a week during term time.

Unlike other colleges and universities, Birkbeck teaches three equal terms of eleven weeks each, in the knowledge that mature students are often parents whose responsibilities are particularly heavy during the school holidays. Check our term dates.

All undergraduate students in the department are assigned a personal tutor, with whom they can discuss their academic progress and any problems they encounter during the course.

Studying history and archaeology as a mature student

In the department, we appreciate the commitment, experience and intellectual curiosity that mature students bring to part-time study. But we are also well aware of the problems you might face: the constraints on your time and energy and the changing level of other commitments. You may also feel trepidation about returning to study, especially if you have had a break of several years.

To help you, we run two initiatives. The first is a compulsory study skills short course for first-year BA students. Further details will be available at the History and Archaeology Induction Evening.

The second is the provision of a personal tutor for each student. If you have any problems during your degree, you can discuss them in confidence with your tutor. Of course, you are also free to talk about any issues with any other member of staff. The Students' Union also provides confidential advice.

Other support

The History Society provides occasions for socialising. It runs parties and arranges visits to places of interest. This is the students' own society and it is what they make it. It is worth thinking about volunteering to help run the society: this will enable you to get to know people and learn more about how the department works.

The department seeks to maintain an open and friendly relationship between students and staff, as is appropriate for mature, part-time students, through participation in social occasions.

A student-staff committee, run by undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral student, meets several times a year. The committee represents the views of the wider student body to the department and pursues initiatives to improve the student experience.

The best history degree each year is awarded the Dakin Prize, established by his family in memory of Professor Douglas Dakin, Professor of History at Birkbeck from 1935–1974. Another Dakin Prize is awarded, as appropriate, for personal achievement to a finalist who has overcome particular difficulties to obtain his or her degree.

• Applications from January.
• Interviews usually from March.