BA History and ...

Program Overview

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From the Crusades to the contemporary Middle East; the Mughal Empire to Gandhi; slavery to Muslim societies in West Africa, History at SOAS offers its students a unique window on the world in order to develop your understanding of the fascinating histories relating to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

The BA History combined honours degree combines History with another discipline or language and takes three or four years to complete depending on the subject involved.

Students will also engage in subject matters ranging from economics, religion and culture to frontiers, cities, and gender. The two-subject degree additionally allows you to create a specialist niche for yourself within a specific regional, cultural or disciplinary context.

Why study History combined honours at SOAS?

We're ranked 12th in the UK for history (QS World University Rankings 2023).

Develop a specialist niche alongside your History degree by utilising the global expertise of one of our other departments.

Our unrivalled focus in the study of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East will help you shape a more critical understanding of history.

Develop an in-depth understanding and appreciation of the history of Africa and Asia.

Our academic staff are African and Asian history specialists.

We are specialists in the delivery of languages. Your command of a language from SOAS will set you apart from graduates of other universities.

Program Outline

Students take

120 credits

per year composed of Core and Optional modules.

This Joint Honours programme enables students to design their own intellectual journey, whilst maintaining a strong grasp of the fundamentals of History.

When selecting modules, some students choose to focus mainly on one region (Africa, Near and Middle East, South, Southeast or East Asia) or topic (e.g. Islam, violence and warfare, gender, modernity).

Others choose to range more broadly, exploring various topics and regions. Depending on the choice of the second subject, students will have the opportunity to develop an in-depth knowledge of one particular region or to put more emphasis on the exploration of particular themes and problems, exploring them in a comparative context.

Important notice

The information on the website reflects the intended programme structure against the given academic session. The modules are indicative options of the content students can expect and are/have been previously taught as part of these programmes.

However, this information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability is subject to change.

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Year 1

Students will take the following

two compulsory modules below

, plus a

module of 30 credits

from the

regional introductions

list,

plus

TWO second subject modules of 30 credits

OR

a language module of 30 credits

Module	Credits
H101 Approaching History (15Cr)	15
H103 Colonial Curricula: Empire and Education at SOAS and Beyond	15

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Year 2

Core module

Students will take the below core module, plus a

thematic module of 30 credits

and a

H2 intermediate module of 30 credits

, plus

2 second subject modules of 30 credits

OR an

approved open option of 30 credits

Module	Credits
H201 Historical Research: Approaches and Methods	15

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Year 3

Compulsory Module

Students will take one

H3 special subject module of 30 credits

plus

H500 Dissertation in History

OR an

H2 Intermediate module of 30 credits

plus

TWO second subject module of 30 credits

OR an

approved open option of 30 credits

Module	Credits
H500 Dissertation in History	30

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Regional introductions

Module	Credits
H110 Introduction to the History of Africa	15
H120 The Confucian World	15
H130 Introduction to the Early History of the Middle East	15
H140 Introduction to the History of South Asia	15
H150 Introduction to the History of Modern East and Southeast Asia	15
H160 The Middle East in the Modern World	15

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Thematic modules

Module	Credits
H211 Cities in History	15
H212 Frontiers in History	15
H213 Gender in History	15
H214 Violence in History	15

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H2 Intermediate

Module	Credits
H234 Colonialism and Culture in Modern South Asia	15
H235 Nationalism and Identity in South Asia	15
H236 State and Society in Mughal India	15
H250 The Red Sea World: Reimagining Space	15
H248 Rethinking Middle East History	15
H270 Culture and Society in African History, 1900 to the present	15
H280 Atlantic Slavery and its Legacies in West Africa	15
H294 - Race, Segregation, and Apartheid in Twentieth-century South Africa	15
H295 - Southern Africa to 1910: colonial rule and social change	15
H296 From Courtesans to Suffragettes: Women in Chinese History, 1600s-1910s	15
H297 Democracy in China	15
H278 Muslim Societies in Africa	15
H293 - Empire and Globalisation in the early modern Muslim world	15
Islam in Britain	15
H299 Islam in China	15
Modernity, Nation and Identity in Japanese History (1853-1945)	15
The Other Korea: North Korea since 1945	15
From Palestine to Israel (UG)	15

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H3 Special subject

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Year 2 and Year 3

Module	Credits
H337 Histories of Partition: India and Pakistan 1947 (I)	30
H343 Reform, Resistance and Revolution: the Ottoman Empire 1876-1909 (I)	30
H382 Opium and Empires: Eastern Asia's Narcotic Trade and Culture in Global Context	30
H380 South African Apartheid: Origins, Experience and Aftermath	30

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Recommended pre-entry reading

JR McNeill and WH McNeill,

The Human Web: A Bird’s Eye View of World History

(2003)

John Darwin,

After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires

(2007)

CA Bayly,

The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914

(2004)

Benedict Anderson,

Imagined Communities

(1991)

John Iliffe,

Africans: The History of a Continent

(2007)

Albert Hourani,

A History of the Arab Peoples

(1991)

Barbara D and Thomas R Metcalf,

A Concise History of India

(2002)

MC Ricklefs et al.,

A New History of Southeast Asia

(2010)

Charles Holcombe,

A History of East Asia

(2017)

J Black and DM MacRaild,

Studying History

(2007)

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Contact hours

Modules are taught through a combination of lectures and tutorials, usually one hour a week of each. Sometimes, one follows the other in a two-hour bloc. Sometimes, the tutorial is at a different time or on a different day than the lecture.

Tutorials are sessions in which students are expected to present reports and take a lead in discussions.

Depending on the size of the class, some intermediate and advanced level modules are less strictly divided between a formal lecture and a tutorial discussion, and instead, the topic is briefly introduced by the lecturer, followed by a seminar discussion. Advanced level modules, which are usually taught in one two-hour bloc, often take this format.

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Introductory modules

These are assessed through a combination of essays, oral presentations on selected readings or topics and a three-hour examination, taken in Term 3. Introductory modules are not open to second- and third-year history students.

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Intermediate level modules

These provide specialised study in the history of particular regions, building on the introductory courses. With the exception of the Group Study Project (see below), they are assessed by: (a) two or three essays, and (b) a three-hour examination, taken in Term 3.

For intermediate modules the weighting of assessment between essays and examination varies, with coursework essays counting for between 25 per cent and 60 per cent of the total mark. For the specifics of each module see the individual module unit listings. Group Study Projects are assessed on the basis of three written reports (see below).

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Advanced level modules

These aim to introduce students to the reading and use of original historical documents, so-called ‘primary sources’. The 300 level modules are taught modules, assessed in the same way as intermediate level modules, i.e., a varying combination of essays and a final examination. For each 300 level module there is an attached 400 level module, for which there are no additional classes and which involves the writing of a 10,000-word dissertation on a topic arising from the content of the 300 level module. There is no final examination for 400 level modules; assessment is on the basis of the dissertation alone.

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The Independent Study Project (ISP)

These can be taken by final-year students only. Like the Special Subject dissertation, its aim is to provide an opportunity for students to conduct original historical research on their own initiative, to engage in in-depth analysis of particular subjects and to use a range of primary historical sources. It too involves no formal classes and is assessed by a single 10,000-word dissertation (including notes but excluding bibliography).

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SOAS Library

SOAS Library

is one of the world's most important academic libraries for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, attracting scholars from all over the world. The Library houses over 1.2 million volumes, together with significant archival holdings, special collections and a growing network of electronic resources.

With specialised historical knowledge, an understanding of cultural sensibilities and skills in research and analysis, graduates from the Department of History are well respected by employers across private and public sectors.

Recent graduates have been hired by:

Al Jazeera

Amnesty International

Bank of England

BBC

Blackstock PR

Bonhams

British Council

British Library

Dataminr

Ernst and Young

Goldman Sachs

Google

HSBC

International Committee of the Red Cross

KPMG

Middle East Consultancy Services

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Cyprus

Natural History Museum

Publicis Media

UNESCO

United Nations Development Programme

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