2026/27 Undergraduate Programme Catalogue

BA English and History

Programme overview

Programme code
BA-ENGL&HIST
UCAS code
QV31
Duration
3 Years
Method of Attendance
Full Time
Programme manager
William Gould
Contact address
W.R.Gould@leeds.ac.uk
Total credits
360
School/Unit responsible for the parenting of students and programme
School of History
Examination board through which the programme will be considered
Relevant QAA Subject Benchmark Groups
English; History

Entry requirements

Entry Requirements are available on the Course Search entry

Programme specification

English and History is an exciting programme, which allows students to explore the human experience from the medieval period to contemporary times from the perspectives of both History and English. This joint honours degree provides a unique insight into the development of the world we live in that combines the study of prose, poetry, and drama with specialist British, European and global history modules across a variety of periods and themes. The programme will allow students to develop their own areas of specialism and a skillset that will be appealing to employers.

The first year (Level 1) lays the foundations for the degree. Core modules will guide students through the transition to university study, helping them to read critically, write effectively, understand literary genres, and develop and broaden their literary and historical skills and awareness. Students will also have the chance to take innovative optional modules in medieval, modern or global history that showcase the latest in inclusive historical scholarship.

At Level 2, students will take two further core modules on the literatures of the environment and human embodiment designed to enhance their intellectual independence and initiative. Students will also choose from a range of optional History and English modules spanning from the early medieval period to the present day. This will allow students pursue their interests across optional modules in both subjects with wide geographic coverage and strong thematic coherence.

After Level 2, you will have the option to spend a year in an industrial placement or at a host University abroad, which would enable you to develop and enhance your transferable skills. Throughout your degree, you will develop your skills in independent research and analysis. You will put these into practice at Level 3 when you undertake an independent piece of research on a topic of your choice.

In the final year (Level 3) students will specialise on the History and English that interests them the most. Students will spend the year working closely with a History tutor on a research-based Special Subject module, focusing on a specific topic in which they engage closely with primary sources. Students will take further optional History and English modules with more advanced thematic content that further hone their skills. Throughout the course, students will develop interpretative and analytical skills, and will become confident researchers. Students will demonstrate these qualities in when they undertake a Final Year Project on a topic of their choice in either English or History.

Year 1

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

Candidates are required to study 120 credits in total.

Compulsory Modules

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL1065Reading Between the Lines20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1110Literature, Culture and Critique20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST1000Exploring History20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST1065Diverse Histories of Britain20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Optional Modules

Candidates will be required to study up to 40 additional credits, either by choosing from the baskets below or via University designated ‘Discovery Modules’.

English Optional Modules
Candidates may study up to 40 credits from the following modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL1070Drama: Text and Performance20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL1221Modern Fictions in English: Conflict, Liminality, Translation20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1261Poetry: Reading and Interpretation20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1855Race, Writing and Decolonization20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

History Optional Modules
Candidates may study up to 40 credits from the following modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST1060Faith, Knowledge and Power, 1500-175020Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST1310The Medieval World in Ten Objects20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST1320Medieval Lives: Identities, Cultures and Beliefs20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST1510Global Empires20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST1520Global Decolonization20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST1530The Making of the Twentieth Century20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MEDV1081Religion and Culture: Medieval Christianity, Judaism and Islam20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Candidates may study up to 20 credits from the following optional History of Science modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HPSC1015Magic, Science and Religion10Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HPSC1030History of Psychology10Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HPSC1046Introduction to the History of Science10Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HPSC1050Darwin, Germs and the Bomb10Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HPSC1080History of Modern Medicine10Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Discovery Modules

Candidates may choose to study up to 40 credits of discovery modules if needed to bring their credits up to 120 credits.

Year 2

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

Candidates must study 120 credits in total.

At Level 2 students must choose at least 40 credits and a maximum of 80 credits of English modules.

At Level 2, students must choose at least 40 credits and a maximum of 80 credits of History modules.

Students should select a maximum of 70 credits and a minimum of 50 credits per semester.

Compulsory Modules

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST2025History in Practice20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Optional Modules

Students must take at least 20 credits of English modules per semester, ensuring that they take no more than 40 credits of English modules per semester.

Students must select at least one of the following modules. They may also select both options, if preferred:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2030Writing Environments: Literature, Nature, Culture20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2045Body Language: Literature and Embodiment20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Student may also select one or more modules from the options below, to fulfil the minimum requirement of 20 credits of English modules per semester.

Students can select a maximum of one module (20 credits) per basket.

English Basket 1

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2029Renaissance Literature20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2144Life, Love and Death from Chaucer to Marlowe20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

English Basket 2

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2065Postcolonial Literature20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2090Modern Literature20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

English Basket 3

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2095Other Voices: Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Literature20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2096The World Before Us: Literature 1660–183020Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

English Basket 4

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2055American Words, American Worlds20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2080Contemporary Literature20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

English Basket 5

Please note that some of the modules in this basket have pre-requisites for enrolment.

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2034Cursing and Courtesy: (im)politeness in English20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2037Forensic Approaches to Language20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2049Language of the Media20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2051Language in Society20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note these are optional modules and run subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose a module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.

English Basket 6

Please note that some of the modules in this basket have pre-requisites for enrolment.

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL2023Power of Language20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2032Children, Talk and Learning20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2033Crime Fiction Stylistics: Crossing Languages, Culture, Media20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2039Keywords: the words we use and the ways we use them20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2047Trial Discourse: The Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-191320Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2048Dialect Hunting20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2143Writing in the Age of Digital Media and AI20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2181Digital Discourse: language, social media, AI20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note these are optional modules and run subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose a module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.

Candidates may select up to 20-60 credits of optional History modules from the baskets listed below. Candidates may not take more than one option from each basket. 

Basket 1: Medieval and Early Modern History 

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST2035Medieval Masculinities: Sex, Violence and Learning 1000-120020Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2083Voices of the People: Language and Speech in the Early Modern World20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2090Sin in Spanish America, 1571-170020Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2105Medieval Romans and the shape of Afro-Eurasia today20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2170Patient Voices: Medicine and Healthcare in the Middle Ages20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2260Digital Methods for History, Art and Literature20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 2: Modern History  

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST2011Mud, Blood and Poetry: The Cultural History of War in Britain20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2309Communist Eastern Europe, 1945-8920Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2360Bass Culture in Modern Britain20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2420Nationalism, Colonialism and 'Religious Violence' in India, 1857-194720Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2432Lost Colonists: Failure and the Family in Southern Africa, 1880-193920Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 3: Cross Listed with BA International History and Politics

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST2140Imperial Germany 1871-191820Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2152Spain, 1898-1936: Disaster, Reaction and Reform20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2301The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, 1921-199320Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2557Thinking About History20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST2565Histories of Black Britain20Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST2658Mao Zedong and Modern China, 1949-Present20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 4: Medieval and Early Modern History 

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST2037Dread and Despair? Living with Disability in the Middle Ages20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST2045Transformations of the Roman World20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST2073Most Christian Kings: France, 1515-171520Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST2220The Body, Disease and Society in Europe, 1500-175020Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST2580Slavery Studies Through Autobiography20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MEDV2085Medieval Narratives in the Modern World: Nationalism, Terrorism, Popular Culture20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 5 Modern History  

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST2103Later Victorian England: Politics, Society and Culture20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST2315Mughals, Merchants and Mercenaries: 'Company Raj' in India 1600-185720Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST2353America and the Sixties20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST2430The History of Africa since 190020Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST2434The Global Caribbean, 1641-184820Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it. 

Discovery Modules

Students may also take up to 20 credits of Discovery modules as needed to bring their overall credits for level two up to 120 credits.

Year 3

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

Students must study 120 credits in total.

At Level 3, students must choose at least 40 credits and a maximum of 80 credits of English modules.

At Level 3, students must choose at least 40 credits and a maximum of 80 credits of History modules.

Optional Modules

Candidates will be required to study one of the following final year projects:

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL3005Textual Editing Project40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)PFP
ENGL3041Final Year Project40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)PFP
HIST3075Public History Project40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)PFP
HIST3500History Dissertation40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)PFP

Candidates will be required to study 40 credits from one of the following Special Subject modules. These modules will vary year on year.

Basket 1 Medieval & Early Modern History

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST3001Conquest, Convivencia and Conflict: Christian and Muslim Spain, 711-121240Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3071An Animal History of Byzantium, c. 1000-120040Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3498Early Modern Media: Printing and the People in Europe c.1500-c.180040Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3687The Later Elizabethan Age: Politics and Empire40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 2 Modern History – International

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST3235Dividing India: The Road to Democracy in South Asia, 1939-195240Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3330Europe in an Age of Total Warfare40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3332The Spanish Civil War, 1936-193940Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3590White Africans: Intimacy, Race and Power40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3695The Korean War40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3930The First World War: A Global Conflict40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 3 Modern British History

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST3076Bodies on Display: Histories and Ethics of Human Exhibition in Britain40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3392Eastern Subjects: British Attitudes to India, 1757-185740Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3440The Photographic Age: Photography, Society and Culture in Britain, 1839-194540Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3685Georgians at War40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 4 Modern World History

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST3018Pieces of A Man: the art, politics and life of Gil Scott-Heron (1949 – 2011)40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3220Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3240The Harlem Renaissance40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3390The Soviet Sixties: Politics and Society in the USSR, 1953-196840Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 5 International History and Politics - Britain & Europe

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST3747The Iron Lady Abroad: Margaret Thatcher and UK Foreign Policy from 197940Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 6 International History and Politics - Global

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST3015Indonesia from Revolution to Dictatorship (1945-1967)40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3026People, Water and Sand: An Environmental History of the Middle East40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
HIST3888The Global Vietnam War40Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Candidates who choose HIST3500 (History Dissertation) or HIST3075 (Public History Project) must chose 40 credits from the following baskets of English optional modules.

Candidates who choose ENGL3005 (Textual Editing Project) or ENGL3041 (English Final Year Project) may choose 20-40 credits form the following baskets of English optional modules.

Only one choice per basket is allowed. These optional modules will vary year on year.

English Optional Modules - Basket 1

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL3031Sex and Suffering in the Eighteenth-Century Novel20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3033Writing and Gender in Seventeenth-Century England20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3034Romantic Lyric Poetry20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3039Performance Writing20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3046Parts, Periodicals, Newspapers: Literature and the Nineteenth-Century Press20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3073Turks, Moors and Jews: Race and Identity in Early Modern Drama20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3114Forming Victorian Fiction20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3321Angry Young Men and Women: Literature of the Mid-Twentieth Century20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3477Cursing and Courtesy: (im)politeness in English20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3479Forensic Approaches to Language20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3482Language Policy, Planning, and Politics20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3491Language of the Media20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3579Law and Literature: Transgression, Justice, and Interpretation20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3680Postcolonial London20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
FOAH3001Global African Writing20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolment. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

English Optional Modules - Basket 2

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
ENGL3008Writing Modern Sexualities20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3027Shakespeare20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3061Heart Disease in Contemporary Literature20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3062Charles Dickens Then & Now20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3065Page, Publication and Audience20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3068African American Narrative20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3072Narratives of Witchcraft and Magic20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3164Imagining Posthuman Futures20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3181Digital Discourse: language, social media, AI20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL32111Gender, Culture and Politics: Readings of Jane Austen20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3391September 11 in Fact and Fiction20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3394Bowie, Reading, Writing20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3396Fictions of the End: Apocalypse and After20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3462Slavery and Antislavery in the Atlantic Imagination20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3475Children, Talk and Learning20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3476Crime Fiction Stylistics: Crossing Languages, Culture, Media20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3481Keywords: the words we use and the ways we use them20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3485Trial Discourse: The Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-191320Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3489Dialect Hunting20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolment. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Candidates who choose ENGL3005 or ENGL3041 may choose 20-40 credits from the following baskets of History optional modules.

Only one choice per basket is allowed. These optional modules will vary year on year.

History Option Basket 1 - Semester 1

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST3100Colonial Bodies: Life and Death in British India, 1757-190020Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST3450American History, American Historians20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST3790Gender and Slavery in Latin America, 1580-188820Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MEDV3411Medieval Women Mystics: Visionaries, Saints and Heretics20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolment. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

History Option Module Basket 2 - Semester 2

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST3074The Slave Trade, Slavery and Britain’s Atlantic Empire20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST3530Mapping the Middle Ages: Space and Representation from the Pacific to the Atlantic20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MEDV3010Medieval Origin Stories: From the Trojans to the Turks20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolment. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Cross listed with BA International History and Politics

CodeTitleCreditsSemesterPass for Progression
HIST3710Nazism, Stalinism and the Rise of the Total State20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST3880'Parasites' and 'Cockroaches': Genocide in the Twentieth Century20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
HIST3920People and Protest: Transnational Activism in the 20th Century and Beyond20Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
HIST3999Doomed to Failure? European Great Power Politics from Bismarck to the Outbreak of World War I20Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolment. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Discovery Modules

Candidates may study up to 20 credits of Discovery modules if needed to bring their overall credits for Level 3 to 120 credits.

Last updated: 07/05/2026 15:16:29

Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team