Humanities BA(Hons)

International equivalencies

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

Why study with us?

• You will be located in the heart of Brighton’s vibrant cultural quarter joining a unique and intimate learning community.

• You will be encouraged to develop a critical and independent attitude through seminars, individual tutorials, lectures and project work.

• We are committed to small group teaching to develop excellent oral presentation, debating and listening skills. You’ll be able to raise issues, present arguments and voice your particular intellectual concerns while engaging with diverse opinions in productive debate.

• Your final-year project allows you to identify and explore a topic of particular interest to you. You will have regular one-to-one meetings with a supervisor with relevant expertise to discuss your independent research and give you guidance.

• You will gain vital transferable skills including independent research management, as well as communicative abilities, that you can use throughout your career.

• This degree encourages you to challenge received opinions and as such is good grounding for many different industries including publishing, journalism and political lobbying, but equally provides a solid foundation for further study or research.

• Opportunities for activity outside of the curriculum include international conferences with world leading experts; publication in the student blog and in student publications and participation in Humanities Society events.

Course structure 

Year 1
All of our courses in the humanities 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 12 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 our applicant portal.

Year 1

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

Historical Inquiry
This module examines the discipline of history, exploring how historical research and debate can us make more critically engaged members of society. You will consider what historical knowledge is, the ways people remember the past, investigate what causes change and considering how we can interpret sources.

Philosophical Inquiry
This module introduces the discipline of philosophy, exploring what philosophy is and what kinds of question it asks. You will explore how philosophy can help us to address the urgent questions of the contemporary world.

Studying Cultures
What is culture? And what does it mean for something to be ‘cultural’? We consider how you can investigate society and evaluate political theories regarding the relationship between politics, power, communities and individuals through the way people live and the artefacts they produce: from novels and magazines, to films and speeches.

Democracy: From Athens to Baghdad
This module explores how ‘democracy’ is theorised in political and philosophical traditions including Classical philosophy, republicanism, anarchism, liberalism and Marxism.

Approaching Narrative
This module gives you the analytical skills for the study of narratives and other representational forms which are crucial for engaging critically with the world.

Understanding Society in a Global World
On this module you will explore globalisation, while drawing upon the concepts, theories and methods of social science to ask questions about the nature of society in a global world. 

Year 2

In year 2 you will choose two option pathways to follow for the rest of your degree that can 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 choose two from:

• Politics, History and Ideology
• 'Race' and Resistance
• Self and Society
• War, Terror and Democracy
• Culture and Conflict
• Terror and Terrorism
• Globalisation, History and Identity
• Global Politics
• Fictions in History
• Critical Theory and Radical Politics
• Morality, Politics and the Good Life
• Philosophy and Literature
• Radical Histories
• Politics of the Past

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

Core modules
Critical Traditions 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.

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 also 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.

Staff profile

Dr Clare Woodford, course leader

Clare’s research interests include theories of gender, ideology and pedagogy, Marxism and post-Marxism, queer theory, psychoanalysis, democratic struggle, activism and the arts, and performance studies.

Location

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Grand Parade campus map