At Stage 3, History undergraduates take a 60-credit special subject module. This is a module that runs through both terms of the academic year, and it is a really exciting opportunity to study a topic in more depth. The topics of the modules closely reflect the expertise of the historian who is teaching the module – and often the module informs current research that the lecturer is undertaking. This means that students are often examining sources and case studies that are fresh from the archives, sometimes never-before discussed or translated. This makes Special Subjects incredibly dynamic, taking students to the frontiers of new historical research and thinking.
The variety of special subjects on offer for students reflects the wide range of expertise of our lecturers. This year’s Special Subject modules include:
- HIST6024: Napoleon and Europe, 1799 – 1815
- HIST6029: The Great War: British Memory, History and Culture
- HIST6058: Saints, Relics & Churches in Medieval Europe c.500-1500
- HIST6060: After Stalin: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union
- HIST6075: Sex, Health and Deviance in Britain since 1800
- HIST6081: Elizabethan Court and Realm, 1558-1603
- HIST6086: Loyalists: The Wrong Side of American Independence
- HIST6099: Terror, Murder and Bloodshed: the Renaissance in Italy and beyond, c. 1400 – c.1550
- HIST6107: Conquests, Cultures and Identities: England AD 850-1100
- HIST6112: Gandhi: Myth of the Mahatma, 1893-1948
- HIST6117: The Eternal Nazi: Global Legacies of the Third Reich
- HIST7002: The International History of the Vietnam Wars
From early medieval England to Soviet Russia, and from Revolutionary America to Ghandi’s India, students are exploring diverse times and places.
Special Subject groups meet for two two-hour seminars per week. These regular meetings are a great way to explore these pasts as a collective, and they are an important opportunity to learn from one another, debate, and exchange ideas. Special Subject modules also often include field trips that make the most of the unique resources in and around Kent.