Humanities BA(Hons)

Course structure 

You will be taught in small, participatory seminar groups. Every seminar is supported by a preceding lecture.

Your academic work will be supported by workshops that develop your academic and independent research skills.

Year 1
All of our courses in the humanities degree programme share a first year. Students take six modules that develop the skills central to your studies. These include topics such as historical and philosophical inquiry, cultures, democracy, narrative and society

Year 2
In year 2, you'll choose two option pathways from 15 routes offered across the humanities courses, and follow them for the rest of the course. Pathways are a set of modules in a specialised area that give students a deep, critical engagement with the subject.

Final year
Students continue with option pathways chosen in year 2, and undertake a dissertation. You will also take part in an oral exam, presenting your findings for scrutiny in an exam that tests your skills of presentation, communication, discussion and debate.

Our courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis in order to make sure that what you learn with us is relevant and that your course enables you to develop appropriate skills. When you apply to study with us, we will inform you of any new developments in your chosen programme through Student View.

Year 1

In year 1 you take six modules that help develop the skills central to your course.

Modules

• Historical Inquiry

  This module will introduce you to the practice of historical inquiry through an exploration of various approaches to the study of crisis and conflict in the mid-twentieth century. You will explore the dilemmas that the study of conflict poses for global and transnational history; the impact of war and crisis on social, gender and race relations, and the international order; and the ways in which memories of this period act in the contemporary world.

• Philosophical Inquiry

  This module introduces you to key topics in philosophy. Studying moral and political philosophy will enable you to explore questions such as How can I act ethically? and Could a more equal society be built? Philosophy of science and epistemology will empower you to interrogate arguments behind various truth claims encountered today. You will explore Plato, Hume, Kant, Utilitarianism; inquire into the nature of art and freedom; and interrogate philosophy’s historical complicity in sexism and racism.

• Studying Cultures

  This module introduces fundamental concepts and methods in cultural studies. Through a case study of Britain in the counter-cultural period of 1968–74, you will explore conflicts involving questions of ‘race’, national identity, gender, class and youth. Focusing on the distinction between lived cultures and cultural texts, you will relate the practices and values of everyday life to the workings of ideology within narrative forms including girls’ magazines, a novel by Angela Carter and a James Bond film.

• Democracy

  This module introduces you to the histories and contexts within which the concept and practice of democracy developed. You will study classical, republican, liberal, anarchist, Marxist, communitarian and global conceptualisations of democracy, in each case examining their relevance to our current political circumstances. You will explore the cultural preconditions for democratic freedoms and the representation of democratic values in different social and political movements.

• Globalisation, Conflict and the Environment

  This module introduces key concepts, theories and questions in international relations and global studies. You will interrogate and evaluate the political implications of different approaches for the study of key aspects of our contemporary world. You will explore how concepts and theories are applied to contested global issues, such as environmental sustainability and war/conflict. 

• The Politics of Representation

  This module introduces you to political, historical and structural approaches to the study of narrative and representation. You will critically reflect upon how the stories we encounter construct particular visions of our world. Focusing on issues of narrative, ideology, language and semiotics, you will explore textual and visual forms, including television and film, news media, the internet, imaginative fiction and photography.

Year 2

In year 2 you will choose option pathways to follow for the rest of your degree enabling you to explore a wide range of subjects using different critical methods. As well as the pathways, you’ll take core modules and start the research for your final-year dissertation project.

Option pathways*

You'll choose two option pathways to follow throughout the year, OR two options in semester 1 and one option and the placement module – Humanities Placement: Active Citizenship – in semester 2.

• Politics, History and Ideology
• Race and Resistance
• Self and Society
• War, Violence and Mass Killing
• Culture and Conflict
• Terror and Terrorism
• Globalisation, History and Identity
• Global Politics
• Contemporary Global Challenges
• Literature, History and Social Change
• Critical Theory and Radical Politics
• Morality, Politics and the Good Life
• Philosophy and Literature
• Politics of the Past
• Radical Histories

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Core modules

Critical Traditions in Western Thought 1 and 2 explore some of the key debates in history, culture, politics, and philosophy since the Enlightenment. You will also take a project preparation module which prepares you for your final-year dissertation.

Placement

During your second year you can choose to take the Active Citizenship module. This is a 50-hour professional work placement at a not-for-profit organisation.

Your placement could be at a local charity, a non-governmental organisation or a community organisation. Students have taken roles at organisations including Art in Mind, Pathways to Independence and Screen Archive South East.

The university’s Active Student service will help you to find the right placement opportunity, and you will be offered support in putting together your application and your CV and cover letter.

You will have fortnightly academic seminars where you reflect on the links between academic theory and practice, and on the skills you have developed on placement.

Final year

In your final year, you continue studying your option pathways developing and extending the work started in year 2, inviting deeper engaged reflection through seminar discussion and coursework essays on the broader themes you have examined.

You will complete and submit a dissertation, drawing on your subject knowledge and research method skills, as you develop your own extended critical response to your chosen topic. You also take part in an oral exam: drawing from a theme in your dissertation, you will prepare and deliver a presentation and take questions. In doing so you demonstrate your presentation, communication, discussion and debate skills.

Meet the team

Our staff are widely published in global politics, philosophy and history. You will be designated a personal tutor (normally the same throughout the degree) with whom you will meet regularly to discuss your academic progress.

Dr Cathy Bergin, course leader

Cathy has lectured in historical and critical studies at the University of Brighton since 2005 and organises the long-standing Politics, Philosophy and Aesthetics research seminar series. She has a background in literary history and cultural studies and her primary research interests are in the politics of 'race' and colonialism in African-American and Caribbean writing. She is particularly interested in the concept of 'rage' as the expression of black historical consciousness and agency. See Cathy's full profile.

Other staff who teach on the course include: Dr Anita Rupprecht, Dr Michael Neu, Dr Vicky Margree, Dr Vasileios Leontitsis, Dr Christian Hogsbjerg, Dr Anthony Leaker, Dr Robin Dunford and Dr Eugene Michail.

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2023–24.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

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