Politics, Philosophy and History (BA) (Part-time) - 2012/2013 entry

• Provides a broad understanding of modern politics, philosophy and history, and of the relationships between the forms of knowledge they represent.
• Takes an innovative, interdisciplinary approach, bringing together the three disciplines. 
• Prepares you to undertake a higher degree or to move into a career in education, the arts, politics or journalism.

You will take 12 modules over four years, and each module is worth 30 credits (360 credits in total). There are six compulsory modules:

• Historiography
• Introduction to the History of Philosophy
• Introduction to the Study of Politics
• Magic, Science and Religion – Conceptions of Rationality: examines the foundations of the modern scientific world view, its roots in the seventeenth century, the challenge to which it has been subjected by modern philosophers, and the part it has played in attempts to distinguish Western and other cultures
• Problems of Explanation and Interpretation: considers the logic of social explanation, problems of meaning and interpretation, and historiography and historical interpretation
• The Rise of the Modern State: explores the social, political, cultural and intellectual changes that gave rise to modern political systems in Europe. 

You can choose two option modules from each of the three disciplines, including:

• Aesthetics
• American Politics and Foreign Policy
• British Imperialism, Decolonisation and Colonial States
• Disease and the Social Order – Europe and the USA since 1700
• Dissertation
• Epistemology and Methodology
• Ethics
• International Relations
• Ireland and the Irish from Famine to Partition
• Modern History of East Asia
• Modern Philosophy from Descartes to Hume
• Modern Political Analysis
• Personal Life: Politics and Social Change
• Philosophy of Kant
• Philosophy of Mind
• Political Philosophy
• Politics and the Middle East
• Politics, Power and Human Nature
• Race, Segregation and Protest in South Africa and the American South
• Russia since 1905
• Social Relations and Social Policy
• The City in Nineteenth-Century Britain
• The French Revolution
• The Third Reich
• Violence and its Double
• Witchcraft and Society 1550–1700.

For the remaining module, you have the choice of one further taught module from any of the three disciplines, or a dissertation.

Find out more about studying at Birkbeck's Department of Politics.

The PPH Society, run by students, organises regular study skills days, a weekend away, a journal, and regular social events.

We offer a range of learning resources and student support.

We offer a range of Master's degrees in politics, philosophy and history.

Graduates go on to careers in local and national government, the diplomatic service, policy work, the voluntary sector, and as researchers or journalists.

• Applications by 31 August.
• Late applications in September, subject to availability of places.
• Interviews March-September.