BA (Hons) History

The world's most pressing challenges don't fit neatly into one subject or discipline. This module puts you at the heart of tackling them.

You'll choose one of two pathways. Oxford Stories explores how narratives shape people, places and communities. Curiosity and Critical Thinking examines the role of evidence and information in contemporary challenges.

Working alongside academics, fellow students and external partners, you'll engage in projects that develop critical, creative and transferable skills needed to address real-world issues. You'll learn to analyse problems, consider multiple perspectives and apply your knowledge beyond your subject area.

Through collaboration and reflection, you'll deepen your understanding of yourself, your subject and the wider contexts in which you will live and work.

The second in a series of three modules running throughout the programme, Professional Development in Practice builds on your first year and prepares you for life beyond graduation.

In this module, you'll be introduced to key social, political and economic changes that made twentieth-century Britain. You will learn about the relationship between crisis and renewal, and will be encouraged to think critically about the nature of change and how, why and when this came about to forge the Britain we know today. You’ll explore how the politics of change and how key developments in the British state, society and economy, and the country’s place in the world, were contested, represented and resisted by some and championed by others.

The module aims to empower you to think independently about Britain’s twentieth-century past and twenty-first-century present and the relationship between the two. It can sometimes seem like Britain is experiencing unprecedented change and crisis; but Britons have lived through similarly challenging times in the past century.

How is the digital revolution changing the way we understand the past, and what does that mean for historians today?

This module explores how digital technologies are transforming historical research, from the archives we access to the methods we use to analyse and present our findings. You'll develop core skills in finding and interrogating primary sources, engaging with digital repositories and archives, and applying digital methods of analysis to historical questions.

Along the way, you'll grapple with the bigger debates: who gets to store and share historical data, whose voices are included in digital archives, and how historians navigate the ethical challenges of an increasingly digital discipline.

The skills you build here, particularly in interpreting complex information and data, are transferable to careers that rely on digital resources and emerging technologies, including AI.

This module offers you the opportunity to study magic and witchcraft as central topics of social and cultural history. Covering more than 2,000 years of the history of magic, it invites you to investigate persecutions of so-called witches in their various political, social and religious contexts from Roman Antiquity to the present.

The module discusses witchcraft in the broadest sense of the word: from medieval concepts of heresy and the pact with the devil to the rise of demonology, from the British and European witch hunts of the Reformation age to the Satanic panic of the late twentieth century.

We also explore the contexts of spirit beliefs, learned magic and folk magic and discuss how organized religion and the states dealt with magic and (alleged and real) magicians. The module will develop your skills in using primary sources as well as introducing you to the most important debates in the history of witchcraft.

What causes people to commit crimes? And how have we punished criminals in the past? In this module, you’ll gain a fascinating insight into crime in the British Isles, as you examine:

• gendered criminality
• property crime
• the history of violence
• attempts to regulate morality.

You’ll explore:

• the birth of the prison
• social crimes and social justice
• moral and anti-social crimes
• theories of punishment.

You’ll also look at the substantial changes in law enforcement that occurred in early modern Britain, giving you the key critical knowledge to study crime history.

How did Jack the Ripper - the mass murderer of vulnerable women - shape Victorian culture? And how did Victorian Britain create the Jack the Ripper phenomenon? In this module, you’ll dive into the criminal underworld of the nineteenth century. You’ll investigate a time where public ideas on crime clashed with those of the authorities. You’ll explore:

• attitudes towards the morality and immorality
• the origins of the concept of the criminal class
• the introduction of policing
• the development of punishment.

And you’ll ask who the real Jack the Ripper was, exploring suspects and theories.

GenAI; the worldwide web; social media: we are living through a time of great change in how we generate and consume information, but we are not the first society to do so.

Learn how information revolutions that have shaped the creation, consumption and communication of knowledge over the past 500 years. You'll explore how new technologies - from printing presses and cameras to computers and artificial intelligence - have transformed the way humans understand and interact with each other and the wider world, for good and ill.

You will learn about how information has been:

• generated, stored and circulated
• created new forms of public discussion, identity and community
• used and abused by state and non-state actors

We'll think critically about the political, social and cultural impact of new information technologies and how they relate to the exercise of power and freedom, highlighting how they have profoundly shaped what we understand by knowledge, truth and facts.

This module aims to deepen your understanding of how certain individuals and groups of people have been targeted, stereotyped and stigmatised because of their different ethnic origin, sexual orientation or disability. The emphasis is on the role played by the medical and social sciences (e.g. anthropology, psychiatry, and psychology) in shaping the emergence of a dehumanising language about people considered to be ‘different’.

Certain groups of people such as Black people, Jews, women, the lower classes and individuals with learning disabilities have been repeatedly and traumatically targeted throughout modern history. You'll evaluate how the meaning of stigma has changed during the last three centuries, and look at how commonalities can be detected across countries.

In this module, you'll study the period of crisis that characterized Western European society from the close of the nineteenth century to the outbreak of World War II.

We'll consider a wide range of topics dealing with social, political and cultural developments in transnational and comparative perspective, which contributed to the prevailing sense of crisis that befell Western society during this time.

How did the United States become the global superpower it is today? In this module, you’ll trace the transformation of America from a British colony at war with itself, to the most wealthy and powerful nation on the planet. You’ll examine the political history behind the rise of the United States, and America’s growing actions and ambitions on the world stage, from the American Civil War through to World War Two.

In this module, you’ll have the chance to do some work experience closely linked to your History course. You’ll have help to find a placement that will support your goals. Past placements have included:

• The Ashmolean Museum
• The Oxford Preservation Trust
• The Royal Air Force Museum.

The time spent in the placement will be about ten working days. After your placement, you’ll reflect on what you’ve learned. You’ll produce a review of achievements and deliver a poster presentation. You’ll also gain practical experience - from crafting a CV to the specific responsibilities involved in your working role - that will help kickstart your career after Oxford Brookes.

What historical questions matter most to you? In this independent research project, you'll pursue an original piece of historical research on a topic of your choice, supported by individual supervision and drawing on the knowledge and skills developed throughout your degree.

You'll investigate, analyse and interpret historical evidence, developing your ability to manage a substantial project and communicate complex ideas effectively. You can choose to present your findings through a traditional dissertation or an alternative, public-facing format, such as a museum guide, educational resource, policy analysis or community history project.

As the culmination of your studies, this module enables you to demonstrate intellectual curiosity, initiative and historical expertise while developing the research, communication and project management skills valued across a wide range of professional and academic settings.

How can understanding the past help us navigate the future? In this final-year module, you'll draw on the knowledge, skills and experiences developed throughout your degree to reflect on the value and relevance of history in a changing world.

Through practical experiences, independent activities and critical reflection, you'll deepen your understanding of how historical study informs professional, civic and cultural life. You'll develop greater self-awareness, identify your strengths and aspirations, and build confidence in applying the analytical, research and communication skills gained through your studies.

The third in a series of three modules running throughout the programme, Applied History: Reflection, Practice, and Professional Futures provides a capstone experience that helps you consolidate your learning, showcase your achievements and prepare for the opportunities and challenges beyond graduation.

This module explores how the past is represented, interpreted and used in public life, from museums and archives to film, media, policy and popular culture.

You'll examine what public history is, how it has developed, and the debates that continue to shape it, including questions of memory, identity, diversity and decolonisation. Through case studies and real-world examples, you'll consider how historical narratives are created and contested, and what it means to represent the past ethically and responsibly.

You'll engage with the practical dimensions of public history, exploring careers and professional pathways across the heritage, museums, archives, education, media and policy sectors. Guest lectures, projects and site visits in the community will help you understand how historical skills are used beyond academia.

By the end of the module, you'll have a clearer sense of how your historical expertise connects to contemporary society and the range of opportunities it opens up.

This module offers the opportunity to undertake focused, advanced study of maritime, imperial and transatlantic histories, exploring how Britain and other global powers have shaped and been shaped by the sea, empire and international relations since 1600.

You will examine topics such as:

• Blue, White and Green Nation: Britain and the Sea since 1600
• Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century
• The Unravelling of Imperial Russia
• The Soviet Revolution, 1914-1941
• Land of the Free: Slavery and Servitude in American History.

Through close work with primary sources and current historiography, you will develop a critical understanding of how global political orders emerge, evolve and break down.

Building on earlier study, you will refine your ability to analyse complex historical processes across national and imperial boundaries, developing advanced research skills and historiographical awareness within a globally connected framework.

This module offers the opportunity to undertake focused, advanced study of histories of violence, identity and belief, focusing on how societies have understood and represented ideas of difference, justice, race and morality across time.

You will examine topics such as:

• Forensic Medicine in Western Society
• Evil in European Thought and Culture: from Candide to Eichmann
• Race and Racism: A Global History
• Civil War in Comparative Perspective.

These themes invite you to interrogate how societies define humanity, legitimacy and otherness, and how these definitions shape historical change.

Through engagement with primary evidence and historiographical debate, you will develop advanced analytical skills and a critical awareness of how cultural, scientific and ideological frameworks influence historical interpretation.

This module offers the opportunity to undertake focused, advanced study of environmental, religious and geopolitical histories, examining how belief systems, ecological change and military conflict have shaped societies from the early modern period to the contemporary world.

You will examine topics such as:

• Dealing with Disasters: Environmental Change in Europe since 1500
• God, Man, Spirit: Christianity in Western Society, 1500-1800
• Religion and Magic in Everyday Life
• The United States and the Vietnam War
• American Grand Strategy in the Age of Civil War and Reconstruction.

Together, these areas explore how humans interpret and respond to uncertainty, crisis and global transformation.

You will develop advanced skills in analysing change over time across environmental, cultural and political contexts, engaging critically with primary sources and scholarly debates to deepen your understanding of historical complexity.