History

MAHI700
Key Debates and Research Methods in History 30 credits

This module will provide students both with an understanding of current debates about approaches, theories and methodologies in History and a grounding in research skills such as locating and using primary source material and making effective use of library and database resources.

MAHI701
Public History 30 credits

This work facing module examines the theory and practice of how the past is presented to public audiences. Students will explore, through site-based case studies and written projects, the creation, nature, use and understanding of various forms of public history, for example those associated with heritage and museums, oral history, film and popular historical writing.

MAHI702
MA History Dissertation 60 credits

In this module students complete a dissertation on an aspect of history of their own choosing. The topic is negotiated between students and teaching staff, who provide tutorial support and advice about all aspects of the project from initiation to completion.

MAHI704
Piracy and Privateering, 1560-1816 30 credits

This module explores piracy and privateering activity in the seas around the British Isles and further afield from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the end of the second Barbary War in 1816. This course focuses on the social history of piracy and privateering, the organisation of pirate society, and the economic impact of piracy and privateering.

MAHI706
The Civil Rights Movement

Examining the African American struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s.

MAHI710
The Irish Revolution 1912-37

This module examines the political, social and cultural history of Ireland during the period 1912-1937 with particular focus on causes and effects of partition and the nature what is known as the Irish revolution.

MAHI723
Key Debates in Modern Japanese History

This module is an introduction to the major themes of political, social and economic development in Japan in the nineteenth and twentieth century.

MAHI726
Filth and the Victorians

In this module students study the Victorian era from the perspective of environment, public hygiene, cultural values of cleanliness and fear of physical, moral and other forms of contamination. Drawing on urban histories, histories of medicine and science, the module also uses a range of literary and artistic sources.

MAHI728
Maritime Explorations and Encounters 30 credits

challenges students to rethink their ideas about the use of navies in exploration, leading explorers such as Sir Francis Drake, Captain James Cook and Charles Darwin, the place of Plymouth in maritime exploration and the nature of encounters with native peoples.

MAEH703
Coastal Cultures: Marine Anthropology in the Age of Climate Change and Mass Extinction 30 credits

Using a range of anthropological theoretical frameworks, this module analyses how coastal communities use the sea - not only as a source of livelihood, but as a key ingredient in the construction of their identity and place in world. Drawing on a range of ethnographic case study from around the world, we study how coastal communities are responding to climate change, climate change scepticism, sea level rise, pollution, and extinction. Through such debates, we examine how anthropology in general and marine ethnography specifically can contribute to the protection and management of endangered human and non-human life-worlds.

IRL727
Critical Approaches to International Relations in Asia

This module introduces the students to the study of International Relations in Asia by examining revolutions, lived experiences and ideas around concepts such as world order. Students are encouraged to think relationally about domestic and international politics and historical context. These critical approaches to IR help students not only to think about politics beyond Asia, but also UN SDGs 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 13 and 16.

LHSS700
Independent Study Module

This module enables students to conceive, plan and carry out an independent research project, with guidance from a supervisor on a topic not currently covered by the Programme’s other modules. Students may engage with a topic, period or genre relevant to the study of English Literature/History or use their research to construct a project in the context of a professional work experience.

MAEL713
Natural Knowledge and Narrative Knowing: Literatures of nature in North America

With a chronology from the colonial period to the twentieth century, this module examines the environmental literatures of North America, acknowledging the contexts and legacies of settler colonialism. By engaging with a diverse ranges of prose texts – eg. natural histories, the periodical press, novels, travel narratives – this module will analyse competing systems of knowledge production, western and indigenous, through a variety of literary forms.

MAHI739
The Secret Cold War: Culture, Espionage, and Identity, 1945-1991

This module examines Cold War competition through cultural, intelligence, and ideological dimensions. Topics include cultural diplomacy, propaganda systems, espionage operations, proxy conflicts, and the weaponisation of race and gender identities. Students analyse primary sources to understand how soft power and covert operations shaped superpower rivalry between 1945-1991 and beyond.