BA (Hons) English and History
This course allows you to jointly study English & History, giving you a fully rounded experience of both subjects.
Studying English at BGU provides an exciting and wide-ranging engagement with the power of human creativity and the rich heritage of literary expression. You will study great works of literature from Sophocles to Ali Smith, directing your own path of learning through module options such as children's literature and trauma narrative, creative writing and crime fiction, restoration drama and contemporary literature.
History is essential in understanding what the past means for us in the twenty-first century. Here at BGU, you won't just study history through documents, you'll learn through placements, site visits and the archives and museums that the ancient city of Lincoln has to offer.
Award: BA (Hons)
UCAS Code: QV31
Academic School: School of Humanities
Mode of Study: Full-time
Start Date: September
Awarding Institution: Bishop Grosseteste University
Institution Code: B38
Why Study This Course?
This course offers an exciting and wide-ranging exploration of the power of human creativity and literary expression.
BGU has an institutional specialism and focus on social and cultural history, making this different from most history degree courses.
A degree that fosters critical thinking, modern communication and employability skills, to help prepare you for successful graduate life
What better place to study history than historic Lincoln? You will have thousands of years of history on your doorstep, ranging from Roman to Victorian, medieval to wartime and beyond.
You will normally need 96 -112 UCAS tariff points (from a maximum of four Advanced Level qualifications). We welcome a range of qualifications that meet this requirement, such as A/AS Levels, BTEC, Access Courses, International Baccalaureate (IB), Cambridge Pre-U, Extended Project etc.
However this list is not exhaustive – please click here for details of all qualifications in the UCAS tariff.
Click here for important information about this course including additional costs, resources and key policies.
In accordance with University conditions, students are entitled to apply for Accredited Prior Learning, AP(C)L, based on relevant credit at another HE institution or credit Awarded for Experiential Learning, (AP(E)L).
This course is subject to revalidation.
Studying English at BGU gives you access to the intense power of human creativity, with opportunities to debate critical questions that continue to shape the investigation of literature. You will encounter authors from Ovid and Aesop to Shakespeare, Blake to Tennyson, Woolf to Winterson, Dickens to Blackman, and explore the richness and diversity of literary expression. All of this whilst you develop your understanding of key genres, styles, periods and contexts, supported by a passionate team of research-active lecturers.
At BGU you will study an exciting range of writers, texts and topics. You will be able to study works in their historical and genre contexts, explore literary concepts and themes (identity, memory, gender and adolescence), make intertextual and creative connections (myth, adaptation, film, creative writing) and develop your critical independence and career prospects with extended research and work-based projects (English@Work, research project). Throughout your studies you can follow your own interests through optional modules, and choose your own focal points and textual examples for assessment tasks.
You will acquire key academic and transferable skills such as critical thinking and evaluation, analysis, research and high-level communication skills through diverse methods of assessment, which blend established critical and communication skills with up-to-date digital literacies and platforms. You will develop expressive and creative skills fit for the 21st century; combining written essays and oral presentations with e-portfolios, multimodal video, posters, hypertext, digital publication, and independent research projects. You will benefit from an innovative and flexible approach to teaching and learning that promotes student participation and engagement. With the close academic support you will receive here at BGU, you will have the opportunities and guidance to fulfil your full potential.
As an English student at BGU, your engagement with literature won't stop at the seminar door. The English team are all research-active lecturers who are passionate about the study of literature and its positive impact on the individual and wider society. We actively support a range of organised events and visits to enable a wider participation with literary culture, including visiting speakers, a research seminar series, subsidised film and theatre trips, workshops and celebrations, poetry readings and literary awards.
(Please note that depending on your choice of English course, you may have a choice of optional modules in your second and third years.)
History is essential in understanding what the past means for us in the twenty-first century. Here at BGU, you won't just study history through documents, you'll learn through placements, site visits and the archives and museums that the ancient city of Lincoln has to offer. Discover the ages in a dynamic and exciting way; through words, images, buildings and artefacts.
Throughout the course, you will discover a number of the modules which take a more thematic approach where you may explore critical issues such as community and public history, local history or war and commemoration. During your final year, with advice and guidance from academic staff, you will also choose to focus on a topic, period or theme that is of particular interest to you. This allows you to tailor the course to your own interests and particular career aspirations.
On this course, you will explore a range of fascinating topics spanning a number of historical eras, in a wide variety of local, national and global contexts. You'll analyse data, construct arguments and engage in real historical research, along with looking at how history is encountered within the community. You'll also take a work-based placement at an archive, museum or other historic sites.
This course will help to build your skills as a historian, from introductory subjects in your first year through to a research-based dissertation in your final year. As well as learning about people in the past, you will investigate how people today engage with history and consider how the past can be brought alive.
Welcome letter to all new 2019 students
There is no one-size-fits-all method of teaching at BGU – we shape our methods to suit each subject and each group, combining the best aspects of traditional university teaching with innovative techniques to promote student participation and interactivity.
You will be taught in a variety of ways, from lectures, tutorials and seminars, to practical workshops, coursework and work-based placements. Small group seminars and workshops will provide you with an opportunity to review issues raised in lectures, and you will be expected to carry out independent study.
Placements are a key part of degree study at BGU. They provide an enriching learning experience for you to apply the skills and knowledge you will gain from your course and, in doing so, give valuable real-world experience to boost your career.
We recognise that individuals come from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, so we use a variety of assessment strategies on our courses.
Assessments in English are designed to give you the oral, written and digital skills to be confident and successful in the 21st-century world. Through a staged process of development, you will learn how to express yourself persuasively and reflectively across a range of media and platforms: you will write short essays and a long dissertation, deliver oral arguments and create presentations, build digital portfolios and develop personal projects. Instead of time spent in examination rooms, you will experience a diversity of assessment methods, and acquire a broad platform of transferable skills that will prepare you for your future life.
In History, a variety of assessment methods are used, which include essays, reports, presentations and written tests. We support you in this work through a mix of lectures, seminars, tutorials, practical workshops and a wide range of field visits. History is primarily a written subject and consequently, much of the assessment of the course is based on essays and reports. There are a few exams, which often include analysis of provided source material, either text or images. There are also a smaller number of oral presentations and the production of portfolios of research material.
Careers & Further Study
Studying English at BGU equips you to succeed in a diverse range of professions, including teaching, journalism, creative and professional writing, publishing, marketing, librarianship, public policy and a range of creative and media industries. The highly transferable skills embedded in the English course focus on the creative thinking, flexibility, communication skills and problem-solving abilities that are consistently sought after by graduate employers.
English staff work closely with BGU's Careers and Employability department and a range of community partners to find ways of engaging students in real-world projects and putting those transferable skills to use in a way that builds your CV. As an approachable, supportive team we get to know our students well, so we can help you identify and develop your individual strengths, and build your confidence in areas where you want to improve.
Combining your study with History opens up a variety of other career possibilities.
The study of history teaches you how to assemble and assess evidence from a wide range of sources – archival and digital, textual and visual. It teaches transferable skills in the analysis of data and the robust construction of arguments using critical reasoning supported by evidence.
Possible future careers for History graduates may include museums work, education and outreach work, publishing, law and public policy, information research and management, working as an archivist or librarian, or journalism. Successful graduates of this course have also continued to study for Masters degrees at BGU.
Year 1 Modules
Early Modern Britain: From Reformation to Revolution
You will study aspects of the chronological account of the development of early modern Britain, and consider the period's historical significance and legacy. The module will investigate various political, social, economic and cultural perspectives, and will include the study of prominent themes and events associated with the period.
Life and Death in Late Medieval England
During this module you will study aspects of the chronological account of the development of late medieval England and consider the period's historical significance and legacy. The module will consider various political, social, cultural and economic perspectives, as well as different interpretations in the historical literature.
Introduction to History: Ideas, Issues and Approaches
This module serves as an introduction to the subject of history, offering a snapshot of some of the themes covered in subsequent modules. You will consider key areas of theory and practice in history, such as the significance of schools of historical thought, key source types and popular interpretative approaches.
Shakespearean Worlds
During this module, you will study Shakespeare's timeless work and investigate the ways his texts are repeatedly rewritten and performed today. You will engage in current debates about the nature and function of Shakespeare's work by reading the work of the Elizabethan bard in relation to changing contexts through a range of production instances.
Poetic License: Lines and Lyrics
This foundation module will equip you with the necessary skills to analyse and evaluate poetry as a text. It will give you an idea of the breath and range of poetry in English by developing intertextual connections and recognising its relation to changing contexts.
The Gothic: Transgressive to Shock
This module is an introduction to Gothic effects, such as suspense, mood, eeriness, the weird, fantasy and horror. It covers texts from the eighteenth century to the present and aims to build your knowledge of the rise of the Gothic as well as its different manifestations in different genres and creative outputs, such as the novel, poetry and film.
During this module, you will be introduced to the literacy-critical skills and approaches that are fundamental to the study of English. It will equip you with specialist analytical terminology and techniques, and reinforce and develop your existing skills of analysis.
People and Places: Researching Local History
This module will develop students' knowledge, understanding and subject-specific skills related to local and regional history. This will include relevant research methods, including archival study and digital information skills. The module will review the historiography associated with local and regional histories and students will consider a range of perspectives and framings such as the political, social, cultural and economic.
Creative Destruction: The Atlantic World in the 17th and 18th Centuries
You will study aspects of the chronological development of the Atlantic during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The module will investigate various political, social, economic and cultural perspectives, and will include the study of prominent themes and events associated with the period.
The Secret State: The History of Modern Espionage
The module will explore the historical evolution of modern British espionage throughout the twentieth century. It will include a critical discussion of the historiographical issues related to the study of intelligence history, focusing on a number of case studies drawn from: Britain's culture of secrecy, the 1911 Official Secrets Act, the growth of MI5 and MI6, the Abdication Crisis of 1936, Ultra, the Cambridge Five, The Profumo Affair, the role of women, international relations, and the popular culture of espionage.
This module provides you with opportunities to apply your subject-specific skills and knowledge, being developed throughout the programme, in a transferable manner. Suggested projects could take the form of a publication project (print or web), targeted writing project (such as brochure, newsletter or resource pack), or a project relating to a particular industry (such as arts, heritage, education, journalism, etc.), although this is not proscriptive. (optional module)
Becomings: Women & Writing
You will examine the impact of women in literature through transnational parallels and contrasts. This module highlights identity politics and the ways in which women have fought to change discriminations based on race, gender, class, age, and sexuality. (optional module)
Modern Drama: The Inconstant Stage
This module offers a survey of the development of western drama from the late 19th century to the present day. You will be introduced to dramatists such as Ibsen, Brecht, Williams and Beckett, alongside key developments and debates in dramaturgical theory and practice. (optional module)
Victorians Unbound
In this module, you will be introduced to the generic and thematic diversity of the Victorian period (1837-1901). This module emphasises the specific historical, socio-cultural contexts of the Victorian era to reflect on the ways in which Victorian writers negotiated groundbreaking ideas and discoveries, and significant events. (core module)
Literature & Identity: Self or Subject?
This module is organised around key frameworks for the understanding of human and cultural identity; likely to include gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, subculture and social class. The exploration of such frameworks will be supported by theoretical materials designed to introduce you to key literary and cultural concepts (such as ideology, patriarchy, heteronormativity, performativity, otherness, diaspora, and hybridity). (core module)
In this module, students are required to undertake a historical research project, drawing on academic advice as well as their own interests and intellectual skills, to produce a research-based written assignment. Students conduct their research by addressing self-formulated questions, supported by the critical selection, evaluation and analysis of primary and secondary source material as appropriate. By these means they devise and sustain a core argument, and/or solve relevant historical problems, to support the premise of their research question. The relatively modest guiding role of the supervisor means that students will be empowered to develop their intellectual and transferable skills of initiative and responsibility.
The Cold War and the Space Age
During this module, you will undertake a wide-ranging critical study of the political, social and cultural chronology of the Cold War from a number of differing geo-political perspectives including that of Great Britain and other European nations as well as the USA and USSR. The module will give significant focus to the conquest of Space as a specific element of both Cold War politics and later 20th century social and cultural change.
The Sun Never Set and the Blood Never Dried: The British Empire in the Long 19th Century
In this module you will study aspects of the chronological development of the British empire, its colonies and its decline across the long 19th century. The module will investigate various political, social, economic and cultural perspectives, and will give significant focus to the impact that British imperial policies had on other peoples and nations.
Pleasure & Profit: 18th-century Literature & Culture
This module introduces you to a range of fiction, poetry, drama and periodical writing from eighteenth-century Britain. The module emphasises two major strands: on the one hand, it engages with the diverse and vibrant popular culture of the period, as a space where public and personal ideologies are contested; on the other, it considers the multiple models of value (moral, social, intellectual and economic) brought under scrutiny by Britain's mercantile and imperial expansion. (optional module)
The Future Unwritten: Late 20th- and 21st- century Literature
This module offers a final opportunity for you to extend your critical engagement with modern writing through an examination of some of the most significant writers, movements, and innovations in literature since the end of the second world war. Central strands of investigation will likely include: challenges to realism and aesthetic experimentation; the rise of apocalyptic imaginaries and the arrival of the Anthropocene; multiculturalism and globalisation; and the deconstruction of self and subjectivity. (optional module)
This module asks you to undertake an independently-conceived and researched research project, on a subject of your choosing and to work on and prepare a substantial literary critical essay. The module will continue to deepen and refine your knowledge of a specialist area, as well as offering insight and supervisory guidance in the construction of longer pieces of analytical written work. (core module)
Writing Back: Literature & Memory
During this module, you will consider the role of memory as topic and method in the production of literary texts from the Victorian period to the 21st century. You will explore current issues in memory studies, including (for example) trauma theory, the ethics of memorialisation, and the role of memory in cultural consciousness and heritage. (optional module)
Adolescence in Literature: Why Grow Up?
This module introduces and discusses texts from the nineteenth century through to the present day. It explores the meaning and origins of the concept of adolescence by investigating its functioning in works of literature written for and about adolescents and in relation to relevant social or cultural contexts. (optional module)
In this module, you will be asked to undertake an independently-conceived research project, on a subject of your choosing and to work on and prepare a substantial literary critical essay. The module will continue to deepen and refine your knowledge of a specialist area, as well as offering insight and supervisory guidance in the construction of longer pieces of analytical written work. (core module)
Romantic Horizons
This module promotes detailed knowledge of the major developments in English Literature occurring during the Romantic period. With its emphasis on the cultural contexts of literary, poetic and dramatic language this module enables you to discuss critically changing modes of expression in relation to political, philosophical, aesthetic and social contexts. (optional module)
Modernism: Make It New!
You will explore a range of literary and other texts associated with the cultural and artistic developments of Modernism during the early decades of the twentieth-century. You will be introduced to the diverse strands of Modernism, as exemplified by writers such as Conrad, Joyce, Hemmingway, Woolf, Eliot, Pound, Yeats, Mansfield and Faulkner. (optional module)
Dr Amy Albudri
Dr Cassie Ulph
Cassie's research focusses on the literature and culture of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centurie
Dr Robert v. Friedeburg
Dr Robert von Friedeburg is Reader in History in the School of Humanities, focusing on early modern and mod
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English, History Related Courses
UCAS: V758
Starts: September
UCAS: Q300
UCAS: V10A
Education Studies and English
UCAS: X1Q3
Education Studies and History
UCAS: X1V1
UCAS: QW34
English and Psychology
UCAS: Q3C8
History and Theology, Philosophy & Ethics
UCAS: V2V6
Archaeology and History with Foundation Year
UCAS: V75F
Education Studies and English with Foundation Year
UCAS: X1QF
Education Studies and History with Foundation Year
UCAS: X1VF
English Literature with Foundation Year
UCAS: Q30F
English and Drama with Foundation Year
UCAS: QW3F
English and History with Foundation Year
UCAS: QV3F
English and Psychology with Foundation Year
UCAS: Q3CF
History with Foundation Year
History and Theology, Philosophy & Ethics with Foundation Year
UCAS: V2VF
English and History Related Area
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English and History Related Contents
Research Cassie's research focusses on the literature and culture of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, and she...
Reader, History, School of Humanities Dr Robert von Friedeburg is Reader in History in the School of Humanities, focusing on......
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