Department of History
Prospective students
Current students
About the department
Research
Lifelong Learning
Three years in the life of a Bristol History student
To give you a feel for how a History student might progress through our degree programme, the following section will outline the progress of a fictional student on our B.A. in History – we'll call her Kate.
Kate arrives at Bristol having studied little except modern European political history. She is keen to broaden her outlook and investigate other periods, approaches and parts of the world. In Kate's case we'll assume that she enjoys the diversity of historical approaches offered at Bristol and so chooses to do a very broad degree. She could, however, opt to specialise to a greater extent than is suggested below, putting more emphasis on, for instance, pre-modern history or extra-European history.
First year
Along with the rest of her year Kate takes a Skills unit ('Approaching the Past') and the three broad Outline units offered in this year: 'Introduction to Medieval History', 'Introduction to Early-modern History; and 'The British Empire: Rise, Fall, and Legacies'. Of the eight different Specials available to her this year, she chooses to take a class on 'Gender and sexuality in Victorian Britain'. She will do an extended Research Project on an aspect of this topic, supported by workshops in her second teaching block.
Second year
This year Kate chooses to investigate 'History as Narrative and Text' as part of her 'Rethinking History' Skills unit. She takes two Lecture-reponse units, choosing to study 'A Consumer Revolution: The Rise of Consumer Culture in Britain c.1750-1950' and 'Politics and Society in Contemporary Britain'. Along with 3-4 other students, she participates in a Group Project researching a topic related to one of these units, supported by workshops in her second term. For her Special, she chooses 'Ancient and Modern Paganism in Britain' from a list of about ten options. She then undertakes a Research Project on on a related topic, writing an extended essay that is based on primary-sources she has herself located.
Third year
Following on from the work she did in her second year, Kate spends a year researching a topic of her own choosing - in this case 'The Rediscovery of the British Druid' - for her Undergraduate Dissertation. This is done under the direction of one of the academic staff in one-to-one tutorials and involves original research done in relevant archives. To equip herself with the skills necessary to conduct research she takes the 'Researching History' unit, which is assessed by through an extended proposal for her dissertation. Alongside this, she also opts to study 'The History of the Book in Europe', one of about six one-term Lecture-Response units on offer in this year. For her Special, she takes 'Designing Victorian Britain'. To complete her degree this year, Kate takes a 'Reflective History' Skills unit on 'History and Myth in Film', one of about ten such units on offer this year .
In choosing to take a fairly broad-based degree, Kate played to the Department's strengths, for our teaching staff conduct research on a very broad range of historical periods, geographical regions and themes. As suggested above, however, Kate could have specialised to a greater extent than she did. She could, for instance, have concentrated on the history of the British empire and Commonwealth, or taken more units in economic or cultural history. To examine the range of history units available in the current year, see Programmes in the Department of History.