Social History
Courses in Social History
- Community and Family History Diploma of Higher Education
- English Literature and Social History BA(Hons)
- Sociology and Social History BA(Hons)
The joint degree combinations allow you to engage with two subject areas, opening up different opportunities as you develop complementary skills sets and experience in two areas.
Why study Social History?
You’ll gain a foundation of knowledge about issues and themes from the past by investigating topics and events from a local perspective, gradually developing a complex understanding of theories, key debates and critical thinking. You’ll learn how to prepare clear, detailed arguments from a range of contradictory viewpoints. Studying history will provide you with an academic grounding in a challenging discipline and a range of transferable skills including critical analysis, writing and presenting factual arguments, which you’ll be able to apply to work in areas including cultural industries or the public sector.
What will I learn?
You’ll begin by developing critical understanding of what it means to study history in a university and what we mean by social history.
From the perspective of Hastings and southern England, you’ll look at the main themes in social history, and through these themes you’ll examine the key approaches to the study of history.
In your first year, you’ll investigate social and political change, in context with the academic approach to history.
In your second year, you’ll look at popular culture and leisure, and consider the study of history using personal sources such as letters, diaries and oral history.
In the third year, you’ll study war and social change via the concept of public history, which examines approaches to history by museums, television documentaries and films.
You’ll be able to investigate an area of specific personal interest in depth for the dissertation.
Placements
During your second year, you have the opportunity of a work placement reflecting an area of personal interest, which a member of staff will help you to find.
Who will teach me?
You will be taught by lecturers who are involved in investigations and debate in their subject, ensuring their teaching is contemporary and dynamic. We have an outstanding reputation in this subject for both tuition and student support, especially in the first year while you make the transition to university-level education.
Career options
In studying history, you are choosing an academic discipline that offers a wide range of transferable skills. Successful graduates will have a good foundation to follow careers or further specific training in a variety of areas including work in the public sector, local government, business or the cultural industries. You may also be able to apply for postgraduate teacher training or continue your studies.
Key staff
“Social history fascinates me. I am curious to know how people like me and my neighbours and friends lived in the past. What was it like to live in a Sussex town in 1900? What sort of education would I have had, what sort of jobs would have been open to me?
Hastings is a wonderful place to study history. We know that people have lived here for well over 2000 years. Don’t just imagine the huge changes during that time – investigate them for yourself.”
Nicola Smith, Community History course leader
Study options
Social History is available to students in Hastings as a single subject for a Diploma of Higher Education, or as part of a joint honours degree alongside another subject. In a joint honours degree, half of your time would be spent on community history and the other half on another subject. This means that you have the chance to develop your skills and interests in two areas instead of one.
