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What is History?
How did the world around us end up this way? In seeking to answer this question, the study of History brings together past and present in a constant dialogue. At the same time, there is much to learn from exploring the strange otherness of the past.
History is not a collection of stories that could happen in any time or place – context matters. Simply recognising that things can and have been different helps us to understand our own time better and gives way to History’s most radical idea: that other ways of living and understanding one another are possible.
Why study History?
Our History courses are designed to balance a broad coverage of the modern and early modern history of Britain and the wider world with supporting you in exploring the historical themes and topics that most interest you.
We focus on supporting you throughout your studies and helping you to develop the skills you will need to succeed at university and get started with your own historical research.
Historical knowledge is helpful for careers in teaching, museums, archives and the heritage industry. Meanwhile the research and analysis skills developed in the study of History – finding and collating sources of information, assessing them and making sense of what they can and cannot tell us – are excellent preparation for a wide range of jobs in the civil service, local government, business and charities in the voluntary sector.
History courses
You can study History at undergraduate level as a single subject degree or as part of a joint honours course:
- History (BA Hons)
- History with Secondary Education (QTS)
- History & English Literatures (BA Hons)
- History & War Studies (BA Hons)
- History & Sociology (BA Hons)
- History & Politics (BA Hons)
With the exception of the QTS course, these can all be taken with a Foundation Year.
On our History masters course, you can choose to focus on modern British history, the First World War or the Second World War. There is also a distance learning option for military history and other masters courses which include elements of History:
- MA History
- MA Military History by Distance Learning
- MA Air, Space and Cyber Power Studies
- MA Popular Culture
- MA History (First World War)
- MA History (Second World War: Conflict, Societies and Holocaust)
If you are interested in undertaking an MPhil or PhD in History, please contact the member of academic staff with the closest fit to your area of interest.
Meet the Team
Dr David Hussey - Head of Department for History, Politics & War Studies
D.P.Hussey@wlv.ac.uk - The early modern household, retail and consumption
Dr George Gosling - Senior Lecturer & Programme Leader for History
gcgosling@wlv.ac.uk - Modern British history, charity and welfare, health and the NHS
Dr Simon Constantine - Senior Lecturer in History
smconstantine@wlv.ac.uk - German history, migration
Dr Karin Dannehl - Senior Lecturer in History
K.Dannehl@wlv.ac.uk - Early modern history, retailing, trade and material culture
Prof Keith Gildart - Professor of Labour & Social History
Keith.Gildart@wlv.ac.uk - Working-class history, mining communities, music and youth culture
Dr Rosalind Parr - Lecturer in Modern History
R.Parr@wlv.ac.uk - South Asian history, women's history, anti-colonialism
Prof Johannes-Dieter Steinert - Professor of Modern European History & Migration Studies
J.D.Steinert@wlv.ac.uk - German and European history, migration, the Holocaust, WW2
Prof Laura Ugolini - Professor of History
L.Ugolini@wlv.ac.uk - Gender and masculinity, clothing and consumption, the British Home Front in WW1
You will also find historians working in other subject areas, including War Studies.
Take a look at the latest blogs from across the History and War Studies team...
- The rise of veganism-As Veganuary comes to an end, History and Politics Alumni, Mary Worrall, blogs about the impact of veganism in recent years.
- PhD student wins prestigious funding awards for slave emancipation research
- Make history with our one-of-a-kind teaching course
- Researcher’s project to find the most infamous naval shipwreck of the Victorian Age
- Standing tall and proud on Remembrance Day- History Alumni and RAF Veteran, Sam Kendall, blogs about History and War reflecting on his personal experience, on Remembrance Day.
- Standing tall and proud on Remembrance Day- History Alumni and RAF Veteran, Sam Kendall, blogs about History and War reflecting on his personal experience, on Remembrance Day.
- Learning about Britain’s Black Abolitionists
- Sport – a game changer for mental health
- The war in Ukraine and history
- Dr Howard Fuller: Derek Chauvin trial and significance