History & Welsh History Degree
History & Welsh History Degree - 3 year Degree (VVC2)
History & Welsh History Degree
The History & Welsh History degree scheme is designed for those students who wish to pursue and develop their interests in the history of Wales in tandem with more diverse interests in the histories of other cultures and countries. The last thirty years have witnessed a remarkable growth of interest in the study of Welsh history and the Department has played a prominent role in stimulating shifts in historical perspectives.
No prior knowledge of Wales, or the Welsh language, is required. The university library has a first-rate collection of Celtic literature and historical works, while the National Library of Wales boasts unparalleled resources which include manuscript and documentary collections, specialized texts and works of reference. Aberystwyth is a major centre of Welsh and Celtic scholarship and the Department plays a prominent role in the development of historical studies in the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies.
If you're a Welsh speaker many Welsh history degree modules can be taken through the medium of Welsh.
History & Welsh History Degree Year 1
As a student on the History & Welsh History degree scheme you will divide your time equally between studying the history of Wales and a choice of other historical subjects.
As with all history students, you'll be expected to take the ‘core’ Introduction to History module that seeks to ease the transition to undergraduate studies by providing an introduction to key historical skills and approaches. You'll also be able to study introductory modules on Welsh History, such as Turning Points in Welsh History. Otherwise, you will choose modules from the full range of the department’s modules on Welsh history, including:
- Conquest, Union and Identity in Wales 1250-1800
- Power, Protest and Society in Modern Wales 1850-1997
The remaining modules will be taken from the full range of history modules, including:
- Soldiers, Saints and Serfs: England, 1042-1154
- The Making of the American Nation, 1783-2000
- Cradle to Grave? Welfare and Society in Modern Britain
- The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union
History & Welsh History Degree Years 2 and 3
The department offers you different types of modules in the second and third years to build on the principles learnt in the first year.
History & Welsh History degree students will choose from a range of Welsh history modules, including:
- Wales since 1945
- Crime, Riot and Morality in Wales, 1750-1850
- Romantic Wales, 1740-1847
The remaining modules will be taken from the full range offered by the department, including:
- War and Society in History
- Mass Politics in Modern Europe, 1789-1945
- Media and Society in 20th Century Britain
- British Society and the French Revolution
You will also take a ‘core’ module, taken by all history students, which covers the way in which the meaning, methods and writing of history have changed over time.
History & Welsh History Degree Dissertation
Finally, the degree programme culminates in a dissertation, which provides an opportunity to research an area of your choice in the field of Welsh History or across history in general. Recent Welsh History dissertations include:
- The Cistercian Communities in Medieval Mid and South Wales
- The Effect of Industrialization on the Working Patterns and Social Cohesion of Merthyr Tydfil
- Cinema in a South Wales coalfield during 1920s
- How did the Second World War affect the Tywyn area?
History & Welsh History - Module Example
Wales since 1945
This module enables students to explore the major social, cultural and political changes that have taken place in Wales since the end of the Second World War. At one level, it will address the ways in which one region of the United Kingdom was transformed by structural economic change, and how its people responded to that process. At another, it will examine the means by which political and cultural institutions moulded new, and at times contradictory, forms of national identity. Finally, concepts of political representation and leadership will be placed in the context of current historical and sociological writing on modern Wales.