BA (Hons) Contemporary History and International Relations

Political Ideology: How Ideas Shape Politics and Why They Matter?

This module aims to provide you with an introduction to the nature of political ideology.

It will familiarise you with definitional discussions including Marxist, Liberal, and ‘Truth Neutral’ approaches.

It will also explore and analyse a range of indicative political ideologies, including conservatism, socialism, fascism, and ecologism.

You will be introduced to the relationships that exist between political ideology and political myth. 

The United States: An Introduction (1763 – The Present)

This module introduces students to the history of the United States between the middle eighteenth century and the later twentieth century. 

It provides a broadly narrative survey of constitutional, political, social and cultural changes taking place in the US during this time, showing how these dimensions interrelated.

It will conclude by tracing these trajectories through the last half century and discussing the American present. 

Introduction to International Relations Theory and Practice

This module introduces you to International Relations (IR), particularly emphasising the most popular ways of thinking about IR theoretically.

It surveys orthodox and critical theoretical approaches within the academic discipline of IR. The theories are discussed chronologically, beginning with classical theories and continuing to modern and contemporary approaches.

The module also focuses on the historical and social context in which each theory emerged, so you will learn how this discipline has evolved and changed.

The key goal of the module is to emphasise that a thorough knowledge of IR theory is central to explaining, understanding and analysing the most significant ‘real world’ aspects of contemporary global politics, such as war and peace, security and insecurity, intervention and peacebuilding, oppression and global inequality. 

War and Peace: Twentieth-Century Europe and Global Conflict

This module will provide you with an overview of European political, cultural, and military history during the 20th century articulated through a study of its major conflicts and global forces.

The central focus of the module is the international history of the major Great Powers between 1914 and 2001. Its will include a detailed discussion of the debates that surround the origins of the First World War; the peace movements of the 1920s and 1930s; the experience of the Second World War; the origins of the Cold War and the reconstruction of Europe; debates on conflict and intervention in Europe after 1990. 

Introduction to Soft Power: Britain and its Cultural Diplomacy in the Twenty-First Century

This interdisciplinary module examines the role of literature, arts and other cultural forms and processes in conducting international relations.

It is an introduction to the notions of soft power and cultural diplomacy, and how Britain and other states and intergovernmental organisations have used it to exert their power.

The module introduces students to the history and practice of organisations such as the BBC; BBC World Service; the British Council; UNESCO.

You will also gain knowledge of historical case material (such as the Council for Cultural Freedom) as well as an understanding of contemporary practices in cultural policy. 

Introduction to Modern Britain (c1800 – 2000)

This module will offer you a rigorous introduction to many of the defining questions of contemporary British history, applying chronological and thematic approaches and exploring a rich variety of source material. 

How did the arts of representative government and the achievement of a mass democracy in twentieth-century Britain create a distinctive picture of change and reform? How did economic crises, social controversies, shifting cultural movements and religious values redefine the political, social and cultural understandings by which British people lived? And how did Britain’s place in the world at large alter as it declined from an age of empire to an increasing subordination to new superpowers and an awkward relationship with the politics of Europe?

In particular, the course will encourage you to examine the interrelationships between domestic and international relations, national and local experience, and questions of class and identity and public and popular culture. It is a course which seeks to introduce the political, social and cultural movements which gave British history a distinctive identity and to introduce a succession of public personalities who defined its character and narrative, from politicians like David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee and Margaret Thatcher, to public servants, writers and performers like Lord Reith, J.B. Priestley, John Buchan, Gracie Fields and the Beatles.  

Work Placement

The aim of this module is for you to undertake a work placement to apply your academic learning in a related employment setting and for you to gain experience that will be useful in pursuing your career or profession.  Emphasis will be placed upon the development of vocational and employability skills, knowledge of self-reflexive work, an ability to use subject knowledge beyond the classroom and the development of skills for lifelong learning. 

The Enlightenment World, 1688-1789 The Enlightenment World, 1688-1789

This module examines an intellectual revolution that swept across Europe and North America in the eighteenth century. Inspired by Baconian empiricism, John Locke’s philosophy, Newtonian science and devastating attacks on dogma and scripture, a generation of outstanding freethinking ‘philosophers’ sought to make a better world that was freer, fairer and happier by pursuing and promulgating an accurate new rational understanding of humankind and nature.

Fascism and Post-Fascism in Europe

This course will explore the ideology of fascism, studying its formation, its implementation, and the ways in which it has developed since its inception.  The development of fascism in the early twentieth century will be studied, looking at its roots in conspiratorial thinking and its violent expression in Italy and then in Germany. 

While discussing the fascist threat to democracy and pluralism, we will also question how its appeal was constructed.  We will look at how cultures of violence and opposition sustained political fascism in the interwar period, and at how literary and cultural scenes sustained ideological fascism after the war. Understanding the relationship between the ideology and the political movement will help to unravel the often surprising lingering influence of fascism in contemporary politics.

Contemporary Issues in International Relations: Global Security Challenges

This module will allow you to apply IR theories to understand twenty-first century global challenges. Its overarching focus is on the tension between the nation state as a sovereign legal entity vis-à-vis global challenges that do not respect or fall within that sovereign space but rather challenge its very meaning. Thus, some of the issues concerned in this module are terrorism, cyber-security, bio-security, migration, corruption, trans-national crime; their causes, consequences, and contemporary expressions. The question of how western states engage with these challenges is explored and questioned further.

Russia and China: An Introduction To 'Post-Communism'

This module introduces YOU to the history and politics of the two major powers, Russia and China, and explores, comparatively, their journeys into versions of post-Communism.

The module provides a historical backdrop to help understand the evolution and collapse of ‘communist’ ideology and practice in each state.

It acknowledges the new state-society dynamics in each state, offering an introduction to politics and society in twenty-first-century Russia and China.

The module also discusses how we might define and understand post-communist foreign policies.  

Culture, Media and Society

This module investigates the hidden architectures of meaning and their profound influence on the structures of modern life.

You will move beyond surface-level consumption to explore the universal narrative frameworks and functional archetypes that provide a “grammar” for storytelling across literature, film, and digital platforms.

The curriculum examines the transition from stable systems of logic to more fluid, open-ended interpretations, investigating how cultural myths are embedded within signs and how the traditional “authority” of a text is often superseded by the active interpretation of the reader.

This offers a crucial lens through which to view the construction of “truth” and how institutional language regulates social norms and defines the boundaries of public discourse. 

In this module, you will dissect the moral and political dimensions of the relationship between cultural producers and their audiences.

Rather than viewing the public as a passive collective, the course explores the dynamic cycle of communication where messages are encoded with specific ideological values and subsequently decoded by individuals.

This analysis highlights how a person’s unique social, ethical, and situational background allows them to accept, negotiate, or entirely subvert intended meanings.

By applying these frameworks to a diverse range of texts, from classical books to contemporary media, the module challenges assumptions about representation and power, empowering you to critique how information shapes personal identity and the broader collective landscape. 

A Global History of the Cold War

The Cold War almost immediately evolved into a global conflict, which also impacted and was influenced by the so-called Third World or Global South and decolonisation.

During the 1950s, the Third World increasingly gained the attention of the superpowers and their allies, and while by the 1960s, it stood at the centre of the East-West rivalry, by the 1970s, it had become the main battlefield of the Cold War.

Yet the peoples and rulers of the southern hemisphere were not merely passive recipients of the policies of the intervening powers but, unlike in traditional historiography, were also able to influence the course of the Cold War and the policies of its principal actors.

The module thus aims to show that the Cold War was a conflict of global reach, and while it led to a “long peace” in the northern hemisphere, it brought death and destruction to large parts of the southern hemisphere.

You will also learn that the Cold War cannot be reduced to a bipolar conflict between the Americans and the Soviets and their respective European allies, but that also peoples, rulers, and countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America played a part in it – voluntarily and involuntarily. 

Liberal Political Philosophy and Its Critics

The module investigates the historical development of the liberal political tradition in order to assess its ability to address contemporary political issues.

You will become familiar with central figures in the development of liberalism, key critiques of this approach and representative examples of alternative approaches to politics.

Engaging with arguments that may include feminist political philosophy, political philosophy of race and/or post-colonial theory allows you to explore the limits of the Western philosophical canon.

Dissertation – History

The aim of this module is to enable you to produce a dissertation which, as the culmination of your undergraduate studies, will enable you to engage with, and participate in, research and scholarship appropriate to their object of study. 

France and the Modern World

This module is intended to introduce students to the key themes and trends in Modern French History.

We will study the post-war development of a major European nation, looking at the ways in which it sought to reassert its strengths in international politics.

We will also look at how this impacted on its people, analysing aspects of French society and culture to track major changes in national identity.

We will make use of primary sources to illustrate these themes, and the sources studied will be provided in translation (both from published collections and the tutor’s own research) as a source pack. No foreign language skills are necessary to undertake this option.   

Britain and Europe: Brexit – Before, During and After

This module explores the history and contemporary politics of Britain’s relationship with continental Europe.

It provides an extensive political and historical backdrop to the cognate Law modules that explore EU Law.

It will chart in place the reasons for European integration and the expansion of the ‘European Union’ from the 1950s to the present day.

The module also investigates the rise of populist politics and the idea of Euroscepticism.

In doing so, it highlights the processes associated with the ongoing ‘Brexit’ arrangements, as well as internal contemporary shaping of the EU itself.    

The Bloodlands: History and Politics in Contemporary Ukraine and East Central Europe

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 came to many political observers as a shock and created an urgency for understanding this country.

While the Russo-Ukrainian war began in 2014 with the Russian annexation of Crimea and direct involvement in Donbas, the origins of the war stem from imperial collapse in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Contextualising the current war beyond the post-Cold War proxy conflicts and NATO expansion argument by turning to Ukraine’s history, this module will examine Ukraine and Russia’s ideas and cultures as well as domestic and international politics.

In today’s politics, defined by the proliferation of nuclear weapons, conflicts over natural resources and a resurgence of populist nationalism, Ukraine has become a vital battlefield between many domestic and external actors and the outcomes of the war will be felt far beyond its borders. 
 

Not only are there a few books about the political history of Ukraine, but these books mainly focus on the Ukrainian nation’s emergence as a through-line.

Borrowing the title from the eponymous monograph on Eastern Europe by Timothy Snyder, this module aims for a different approach.

While it will touch upon the importance of the medieval history of Ukraine and the early modern period, it will primarily focus on the history of Ukraine in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and conclude with the current war.

Drawing on a wide array of primary sources, secondary works and the latest scholarship, the module seeks to contextualise Ukraine as a complex actor in European history and politics since 1991.  

The Politics of International Photojournalism and the Reporting of War

This module offers an inter-disciplinary survey of the history and practice of war photography.

It will allow students to understand historical and contemporary image making in relation to multiple and global wars and conflicts. While cognizant of nineteenth century photographic traditions, the primary focus will be from the Second World War to contemporary conflicts of the twenty first century, including conventional warfare, asymmetrical warfare and terrorism.

The module will also explore notions of photo-journalistic independence, photojournalism in the service of formal military organizations and street level image making. Key war photography to analyse will include works associated with Second World War (D-Day); French and British wars of decolonization; Cold War, including Vietnam War; 9/11 and subsequent conflicts. In addition to understanding the field students will explore the ethical curatorial position of exploiting war photography and supreme personal risks run by photographers.

The final sessions of the module will consider the role of photography in comparison with documentary film and television. 

Music Hall to Social Media: A Historical Analysis of Modern British Culture

This module provides students with an opportunity to analyse examples of British cultural activity since 1900. 

The module discusses a series of key movements of cultural production, for example, ‘Music Hall in the Great War’; ‘Cold War fictions’; or ‘Thatcherism/responses to Thatcherism’. 

It aims to show students the range and complexity of cultural work ‘at play’ in the period and to allow them to place examples of British cultural production in their artistic, political, and historical context. 

This module offers students a route of progression from the level 4 modules in contemporary British history/cultural history.   

Dictatorship and Dissent: The Soviet Union, Fascist Italy and Nationalist Germany

This module analyses the interrelationship of themes of political power, religious and cultural life in the context of three ‘totalitarian’ states in first half of the twentieth-century Europe: the Soviet Union 1917-41, Fascist Italy 1922-42 and the Third Reich 1933-45.

It will provide a survey of various social, political and cultural movements and interests in these locations, encouraging students to identify for themselves themes of particular interest for their own research.