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CHH300
Dissertation/Project
The Combined Honours dissertation/project is a compulsory 40-credit module that runs across TB1 and TB2 in the final year. The dissertation/project module is an opportunity for students to research an area in which they are especially interested. Students will conduct research on a subject of their choice which has been designed in consultation with a member of staff. Students will be encouraged to develop multidisciplinary dissertations/projects. Expert supervision will be available throughout the year in group seminars and individual meetings
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HI-M38
Past and Present: Themes in History
This module offers you an in-depth engagement with key debates, theories, and methodological approaches that have shaped the discipline of history from the Enlightenment to the present. It is designed to provide you with a critical understanding of historiography as both a body of scholarly literature and a dynamic, reflexive practice central to historical inquiry. Through a close reading of foundational texts, schools of thought, and recent historiographical interventions, students will interrogate how historians construct arguments, use evidence, and navigate epistemological challenges.
You will engage with topics such as empiricism, Marxism, the Annales School, postmodernism, gender and postcolonial critiques, microhistory, memory studies, and global history. Emphasis will also be placed on the ethical and political dimensions of historical representation and the role of the historian in public discourse.
By the end of the module, you will be expected to demonstrate an advanced conceptual grasp of historical theory, critically assess differing historiographical traditions, and apply these insights to their own research practices. The module fosters independence of thought, originality in interpretation, and methodological self-awareness.
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HI-M39
Managing Historical Research
During this module you will be guided through the process of formulating a viable, original, and academically sound research proposal in the discipline of History. You develop your own research project idea with the guidance and support of your supervisor. Through a combination of seminars, independent research, and supervisory meetings, you will engage with historiography, methodology, source evaluation, and research ethics. By the end of the module, you will have produced a fully developed research proposal suitable for submission to support an MA dissertation.
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HIH121
Europe of Extremes, 1789-1989
The nineteenth century saw the rise of a western European civilization, characterized, as Eric Hobsbawm has noted, by capitalist economics, liberal politics, and the dominance of a middle class that celebrated morality and science. In the twentieth century this civilization faced unprecedented challenges from new political ideologies, and from a working class demanding the right to govern in its own name. The result was an eruption of violence not seen on the continent for centuries; in its wake, the Cold War divided the Europe with an Iron Curtain, and saw the continent become the client of two world superpowers ¿ the USA and the Soviet Union. This team-taught module relies on the specialist knowledge of its tutors to examine economic, political and social themes in the history of nineteenth and twentieth-century Europe.
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HIH122
Making History
How do historians study the past? Why do their accounts of the past differ, and why do they change over time? This module will help you to understand the various concepts, methods, and approaches that academic historians use when writing history and generating historical explanations. By the end of it, you will understand how and why professional historians disagree on many topics, and you will be equipped to evaluate competing interpretations of the same past events and processes.
The module also trains you in the fundamental skills required to study history as an undergraduate, and gives you an opportunity to learn more about the interests and expertise of the history staff you¿ll be working with at Swansea. It will help you make the transition from being taught history at school or college to studying history at university, and it will introduce you to the many different kinds of history you can explore in the course of your degree.
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HIH293
The Global First World War
To what extent (if at all) did the First World War transform modern societies? This module engages with this key question by examining the totality of the First World War ¿ a conflict viewed by many as the first `total war¿ - and its impact on the modern world. The causes, course and consequences of the conflict are explored though a range of approaches: military, political, economic, social, cultural, technological, moral and legal.
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HIH3300
History Dissertation
The History dissertation is a free-standing, 40-credit module that runs across both semesters of Level Three. Candidates conduct research upon a subject of their choice, devised in consultation with a member of staff teaching for the degrees in History, and concerning a topic that falls within staff research and teaching interests.
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HIH3340
The Lights that Failed: the League of Nations and International Peace 1919 -1939
This module focuses on the history of the League of Nations, the world¿s first ever intergovernmental organisation. Founded in the aftermath of the First World War, its primary function was to preserve international peace through the promotion of greater international cooperation between states. The League failed in its primary aim but had a great influence on the twentieth and twenty first centuries through its influence on organisations that followed, such as the United Nations.
This module is not a simple institutional history of the League. Instead, it uses the League of Nations as a way of exploring some of the key themes in the interwar period (1919-1939) that still shape the world today. These include gender, humanitarianism, race, public opinion, disarmament, war and peace, as well as many issues pertaining to relations between different nations. Students will be encouraged to explore different themes through the study of a wide range of primary sources.¿
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HIHX213
City University, Hong Kong
This Module is delivered at City University Hong Kong, for those students who participate in an Exchange Programme.
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WS-M94
From Swords to AI: War, Technology and Culture
This module examines military conflict through the dual lenses of culture and technology. Because the field is vast, our approach is organized around key questions that allow us to move across historical periods, analytical levels, and disciplinary boundaries.
We will explore how cultural values and technological innovations have shaped not only the conduct of war but also how societies understand violence, power, and leadership. Readings will range from historically grounded analyses to contemporary accounts of soldiering, allowing us to interrogate how narratives of conflict are created and sustained.
We will begin with foundational debates on war, violence, and human nature: why do humans wage war, and why societies fight the way they do? Is war primarily a cultural or political activity? Can the pursuit of peace itself give rise to war? How do societies become militarized¿and to what ends? Another central concern will be the role of technology: how has it influenced strategy, policy, and the experience of warfare? To what extent does technology determine victory in modern conflicts, and how transformative are new military technologies in practice?
Our case studies will move from the Napoleonic wars of the early nineteenth century to insurgency and drone warfare in the twenty-first, tracing continuities and ruptures along the way. By the end of the module, you will be equipped to engage critically with historical and contemporary debates on the interplay of culture, technology, and war¿and to reflect on what these debates reveal about humanity, violence, and the future of conflict.
