We focus on modern history, from about 1450 to the present day, including regional, national, European, American and global perspectives. The programme is structured to take you from broad historical themes to much more focused historical subject areas. We also encourage students to exercise choice within modules. In some modules you can choose the question, theme, document or data as the focus of your assessments. In others, you can choose the type of assessment that suits the question you are asking. You might, for example, decide that a podcast is more appropriate than a poster presentation.

In the first year of your history degree, we introduce you to some major historical themes, such as the growth of the modern nation-state or the rise of the Atlantic world. We’ll also show how new approaches can illuminate the past. Crime and vice in the 19th century, for example, looks at how Victorians dealt with drug-taking and how contemporary newspapers covered the Jack the Ripper murders.

The second and third years allow you to specialise in areas that interest you most. Our lecturers draw from their own research, whether that’s on early modern magic, the impact of the nuclear industry on populations across the globe, or how history (and whose history) should be represented in public spaces. You will get to undertake your own historical investigation in the final-year dissertation.

Year One

Introduction to History
In this module, you will have the chance to acquire the key skills that will help you become a successful history student – from essay-writing to referencing, from research skills through to reading early modern texts. You will also have the opportunity to undertake your own research project using a range of digitised sources.

Crime, Vice and ‘Lowlife’ in Nineteenth-Century Britain
The nineteenth century saw significant changes in the way that criminals were thought about and dealt with. This module explores key themes in that history. We will wonder why the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 became a global news story, why the Victorians fell in love with Sherlock Holmes and why so many of them took opium (the chemical basis of heroin). We’ll also explore the reasons behind the decline of public executions, the rise of the prison, the overhaul of policing, the discovery of middle-class crime and the long-held belief in a criminal class.

Nations and Empires: The Making of Modern Europe, c.1750 to the Present
From the Enlightenment to the turn of the millennium, this module explores the ideas, developments and events that have shaped the Europe that we know today and interrogates the changing currency of key concepts like liberty, nationalism, democracy and capitalism. You will hone your debating skills, your competence in utilising primary sources of history and your writing skills through the module’s learning activities and assessments.

The Atlantic and Making of the Modern World: Old and New Worlds
In 1500 the richest parts of the world lay in China and India. By 1900, that had changed completely. What happened in the centuries after 1500? And why is the Atlantic world so central? Find out how a new ‘Atlantic system’ caused millions to be enslaved. How it changed the way we eat. How it overturned long-accepted ideas about the power of monarchs…and much else besides.

Science, Magic and Medicine in Early Modern Europe
Thinkers of the European Renaissance received a surge of new information from sites of trade and exploration abroad and through newly invented tools for observation and communication. Working without our current categories of ‘science’ and ‘magic’, they and following generations attempted to test and absorb knowledge which challenged existing systems for understanding the ‘visible’ and the ‘invisible’ worlds. This module considers the questions asked by early modern scholars regarding the nature of the world, the role of religion in daily life, the meaning of ‘monsters’ and natural wonders, and the development of medical knowledge and treatments.

Year Two

Reflection on Learning in the Workplace
As a history graduate your skills will be highly sought after by employers. Across your second year, you will undertake a placement of your choosing or on one of the history projects to which we contribute. The USW Careers team will support you to find a placement that will take you one step closer to the graduate career that you would like to pursue. You will also build your online profile and CV ready to make applications for jobs in your final year.

Women in Modern Britain
The changing roles, status and experience of women in Britain is, arguably, one of the most significant revolutions of the past two centuries. Taking the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792 as its starting point and ending with the final evacuation of the women’s peace camp at Greenham Common in 2000, this module considers the people who have driven, and opposed, change, as well as the social and economic structures that have facilitated, or militated against, change.

Germany: Memory, Identity and Public History
Modern German history is dominated by the First World War, the Holocaust and the separation of the country into two states, but Germany itself has a long history rooted in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. On this module, you will look at how events ranging from the Reformation to the Fall of the Berlin Wall have been remembered and understood by Germans and what impact they have had on German identity and the public understanding of history.

Poor Lives: Poverty, Welfare and History
When did poverty become a social problem? How was poverty understood by the non-poor? Could the poor make their own history or were they helpless victims of forces beyond their control? Why has the idea that the poor are morally weak been such a popular way of understanding poverty over the last 250 years? These, and other, important questions lie at the heart of this module. We will consider the different measures put in place to deal with poverty – including workhouses, the hated means test, charity, and the beginnings of the welfare state – as well as thinking about how those in poverty have skilfully deployed their limited resources to good effect.

A Global History of the Nuclear Age
From Wales, the nuclear age may seem fantastical and remote. Yet it was in Wales that the only ever inland nuclear power station in the UK was commissioned in the 1950s. Similarly, it was in Snowdonia that livestock businesses had to cease operations due to fallout from the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl in 1986. How the nuclear age connects us across space and time – and what it can mean in these changing contexts – is a question that lies at the heart of this module and shapes understandings of ‘the global’.

The Tudor World, 1485-1603
The sixteenth century was a period of reformation, rebellion, revolt and re-generation. This module examines the reigns of the Tudor monarchs from the accession of Henry VII in 1485 to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, situating them within the wider context of European political and religious change. The Tudors left a legacy that was to shape the British Isles for decades and centuries to come, and they remain a popular and central feature in national memory. However, the Tudors did not operate in a vacuum. Through a close analysis of the reigns of the Tudor monarchs as well as other European Houses, including the Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire and the Valois of France, this module will introduce you to themes regarding power, authority, legitimacy and dynasty as well as the structures that supported royal power, including the nature of government, propaganda and art.

Year Three

Dissertation
Having explored a lot of history over your first two years, you will have the opportunity to delve deeper into a subject or question that really interests you. It might be directly related to one of the modules you have enjoyed, a subject that we simply haven’t been able to cover or a personal passion that you’ve nurtured for a long time. We will work with you to frame a question, identify sources, and showcase the historical skills you have been developing on the degree programme.

Frontiers: A Global History
In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner pondered the significance of the frontier in the making of modern America. He argued that the ‘wild’ frontier tested settlers, stripped them of their ‘Old World’ sensibilities and transformed them into something new – Americans. Historians have been arguing with Turner’s frontier thesis ever since. Where were the Indigenous peoples – the American Indians – in his analysis? His ‘frontier’ was their ‘home’, after all. Was there a place for women in Turner’s story of intrepid male fur traders, soldiers and settlers? And was the American West an exceptional historical experience – or was it more typical of other frontier histories? In this module, we consider a range of frontiers – including Viking Greenland, the Australian bush, the Argentinian Pampas and the Great American West – and how to write histories that best capture the great diversity of historical experiences of those who comingled and clashed in these fascinating spaces.

The Empire Strikes Back: History, Heritage and Race in Contemporary Britain
The relationship between the imperial past and the present is contentious and pervasive. It can be studied in relation to statues, museum displays, archives, film, music and television and even the idea of the university itself. Students will learn to negotiate and think critically about legacies of the imperial past in the present, as well as how these legacies can be confronted – on the streets, in museums, on social media and in the classroom.

Vice, Scandal and Depravity: Cities of Sin in Reformation Europe
Cities were the beating hearts of early modern Europe. Centres of commerce, finance, education and power, urban areas were at the forefront of changing religious, political and social landscapes. Yet, their position of power and prestige brought with it many dangers. Sin, greed, corruption, vice, scandal and depravity found welcome homes in cities and towns across Europe. Focusing on specific case studies from across Europe, this module explores the prevalence of vice, scandal and depravity and considers how people, led by religious and secular authorities, behaved in groups against perceived enemies or ‘pollutants’. Set against the backdrop of reformation and apocalypticism, students will examine the underbellies of society and place popular and state reactions to them into the wider contexts of toleration and persecution.

Understanding Postwar Britain: Evidence and Debates
The thirty five years following the Second World War are often appropriated by various political interests either as a time of inexorable decline that commenced with the creation of a welfare state and was hastened by growing ‘permissiveness’ and the dismantlement of the British Empire, or as a progressive period of growing social justice coupled with a standard of living and level of personal opportunities and freedom unknown to the majority in previous generations. This module interrogates the ‘headlines’ and widely held assumptions about this period to consider the post-war origins and development of present-day preoccupations such as class, youth culture, sexuality, immigration, gender and consumerism. Drawing on an exciting range of sources, the assessments for the module enable you to pursue the topics of your choice and to present your findings through a choice of formats with an emphasis on communicating complex, contested and sometimes controversial and sensitive material to an imagined public audience.

History is more than learning about the past. It enables us to understand the present and apply our knowledge to issues facing the world today. The rich and enthusiastic teaching environment at USW is underpinned with immersive learning activities such as story-mapping, source analysis, debates, and industry placements to develop students’ skills as historians as well as future leaders in their chosen careers.

Teaching at USW is delivered through lectures, small group seminars, workshops and individual tutorials. Students are taught by leading experts in their relevant fields and are provided with opportunities to work with staff on cutting-edge research projects. Lecturers provide a stimulating on-campus learning environment which is supplemented by detailed online module pages with access to a wide range of additional resources, including primary sources, escape rooms, virtual exhibitions, podcasts, quizzes, and more.

Throughout the degree programme, teaching is supplemented with excellent academic and pastoral care, with each student being allocated a Personal Academic Coach (PAC) from the lecturing team. The PAC provides academic support on an individual basis over the course of the degree programme and fosters a close relationship between the teaching staff and students. Our teaching and pastoral excellence is regularly recognised by students at the annual Student Choice Awards organised by the Student Union.

Research Expertise

You will be taught by a team of research experts. Each member of the team is a practising historian, which means that they are active in researching, writing and publishing history. As research experts, each team member also collaborates with heritage practitioners and policymakers to make sense of history in the present day, whether that means contributing to The Slave Trade and the British Empire: An Audit of Commemoration in Wales(Opens in a new tab) (2021), commissioned by the Welsh Government, or acting as an educational consultant for a charity such as the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association(Opens in a new tab).

The team’s expertise will expose you to cutting-edge research in your lectures, seminars and workshops. It will give you access to rare primary source materials from archives and private libraries. It will enable you to learn from and engage with a rich network of research collaborators and stakeholders in the wider subject community. It will also feed into opportunities to apply your historical knowledge in ‘real-world’ situations, as highlighted by a recent placement to re-assess the legacies of monuments and statues in Rhondda Cynon Taff.(Opens in a new tab)

As research-led teachers, the team are also enthusiastic to learn from students, whose insights and interpretations are valuable in shaping the articles and books that they publish. You can read more about the research expertise of the History Team on the History Research Group(Opens in a new tab) page.

You will complete coursework as you progress through the degree programme. Modules are assessed in a range of ways. While essays form the backbone of our assessments and there are a few examinations, many modules incorporate innovative and exciting modes of assessment, including podcasts, story maps, posters, source analyses, heritage guides and book reviews. The range of assessment methods exposes students to digital platforms and outputs, increases their digital literacy and productivity, and recognises the range of transferable skills they need in an increasingly digital workplace.