Staffordshire University
Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2DE

See below for

The University

Special features of History at Staffordshire

Applications

Degree courses and options

Contacts

The University

Staffordshire is is a leading post-1992 University located in the heart of the city of Stoke-on-Trent and, therefore, within easy reach by road and rail of all parts of the UK. The Railway Station and A50 are both adjacent to the College Road campus. With some 15,000 students it is a large and bustling institution that caters for students from all over the UK and abroad. Located at two sites (Stoke and Stafford) there is a thriving student life and accommodation is among the cheapest in the country. But, of course, the quality is high.

Why study at Staffordshire?

The University has a well-earned reputation for the quality of its courses and the abilities of its teaching staff. We have an initiative called Building a Learning Community which uses the very latest and sophisticated virtual learning environments. It is aimed at teaching not only high quality courses but delivering them in innovative and exciting ways.

History at Staffordshire

he Department has a high reputation. We use our teaching and our research to advance your learning experience. History at Staffordshire is taught by a small group of seven historians several of whom are internationally recognised as leading scholars in their fields - Professor Owen Ashton is a recognised and much published British social historian, Dr. Barbara Bush (Reader in Imperial History) is a recognised and major historian of imperialism, and Professor Alun Munslow is one of the UKs leading ‘postmodern historians’ and is also UK Editor of the acclaimed history journal Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice. The courses offered include British and USA history, Irish history, Imperial history, European history and we address issues of race, class and gender. All modules cover the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and we concentrate on social and cultural history.

Applications

Entry requirements guidelines (2001): We normally make offers to candidates of CCC at GCE A level.

UCAS application course codes. Load the free UCAS CD-Rom. Tel. 01242 223707. E-mail. app.req@ucas.ac.uk

UCAS address: Rosehill, New Barn Lane, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL52 3LZ

Department website: www.staffs.ac.uk/history

The details: History degree courses and options

The Degree Courses and Options History at Staffordshire can be studied through single, joint and combined routes.

Level 1
Core Modules
Approaches to History - introduces you to major historical developments that have helped to shape contemporary societies since the 16th Century. It explores the interaction between social, cultural, economic and political change and the ways in which individuals and communities have responded to wider historical developments.

Making History: Local and Global Perspectives - considers the role of the historian in society, and develops skills in the handling of evidence and the evaluation of historical argument through work on a project involving local history and wider issues, with use of multi-media electronic learning resources.

World History 1800-1914 - provides a survey of the nineteenth century in a predominantly political and economic sense, dealing with the spread of European-based ideologies and state power.

World History 1914-1990 - considers themes and patterns, continuities and discontinuities in twentieth century history. War, ‘modernity’ and ‘civilization’, the impact of W.W.I and W.W.II, and the fall of Communism are some of the issues covered.

Option Modules include:
The Black and Asian Presence in Britain: 1780-1945
American History, 1776-1996
The American Experience: 1870-1920
Eighteenth Century Ireland: Settlement and Society
Europe in the Age of Revolutions 1750-1850
The Rise of Consumer Society in 18th Century England
Irish Migration to North America 1700-1920
The Making of a Nation: American History 1787-1865

Level 2
Core Modules
Concepts in History - introduces students to essential concepts in historical thought. It examines class, race, gender, nationalism and imperialism, and discusses the way in which they have been defined and their influence on historical research and interpretation.

Dissertation Preparation Plan (for Single Honours and Majors) - in this module we aim to explain how you can produce a large-scale, coherent, and in-depth examination of a historical topic as preparation for your Level 3 dissertation. In itself this is a fascinating historical exercise but, as always, we are also developing your essential transferable skills.

Option Modules include:
Land, Politics and Society: Ireland 1848-1921
Culture and Imperialism, 1880-1939
Race and Culture in Britain, 1945-1990
The Age of Reform the USA: Ethnicity, Class and Gender 1890-1919
Industrialization, Class and Culture: The Early Victorians 1837-1851
Leisure, Class and Culture in Modern Britain 1851-1939
Propaganda, Society and the State
Culture and Power in the Enlightenment and the French Revolution: 1740-1800
European Lives: Politics, Gender and Society in Europe 1850-1950

Level 3
Dissertation - this is an 8,000 - 10,000 word dissertation for those students on a Single Honours, Major or Joint History Award. It is an opportunity for you to explore a topic of your own choosing and, working with a specialist historian, to undertake detailed research and produce an extended written Dissertation.

Option Modules include:
Archive and Museum Placement (Work Experience)
Nationalism vs. Yugoslavism: The Life and Death of Yugoslavia 1918-1991
Modern Italy: Politics, Culture and Society c.1917-1996
Transatlantic Radicalism and Socialism 1870-1900
War and Social Change in Twentieth Century Britain
Deconstructing History
The Third Reich: Problems of Perspective, Interpretation and Understanding
The Struggle for Liberation in Southern Africa 1890-1994
Africa and the World 1890-1900: From Colonialism to Crisis
The Troubles: Northern Ireland 1968-1985
Women and the Shaping of Irish Society, 1850-1918

What do we look for in you?
What we look for in students is an interest in understanding the nature of the past, and how we can come to terms with it today. Our priority is less with paper qualifications than with inquiring minds. This is reflected in the fact that we do not insist on you having taken history at A Level. This means we assume you have no prior knowledge of history as a subject taught post-16. Of course, if you have A Level history that is no obstacle! What we do want, however, are people who wish to learn how to deal with the present and cope with the future through an understanding of change over time, who wish to develop themselves and their capacities, who seek insight, knowledge of values and reasoned judgement. These are what we hope you want, and they are the outcomes we wish to produce through the study of history at Staffordshire.

Contacts

For further information please contact either

Professor Alun Munslow (Head of History) School of HSS, Staffordshire University, College Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2DE, e-mail a.munslow@staffs.ac.uk, tel: 01782 294352/or School Office 01782 294415
or
Dr. Pauline Elkes, History Admissions Tutor, School of HSS, Staffordshire University, College Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2DE, e-mail p.elkes@staffs.ac.uk, tel: 01782 294806/or School Office 01782 294415