BA (Hons) History & Journalism

This core module introduces you to theories of history, methodologies and conceptual problems of advanced historical work from the ancient to the contemporary world. The module will help you acquire some of the fundamental skills involved in historical study – including writing at university level – as well as help you with online research, footnoting and compiling a bibliography. It consists of one lecture and seminar per week.

In this module you will study the historical development of the British media, and their role in the development of modern Britain. You will focus on the way in which power is concentrated and organised around media ownership and production.

A practical introduction for journalism students to the British political system and key aspects of the private sector, during this course you will learn how Government and corporations operate in the public realm, how public relations and press offices work and where journalists can find information. 

The course will introduce you to the practical aspects of researching, reporting, writing and editing for online platforms using a multi-media approach. There are no lectures. Students will learn by doing, and by the end of the course will have produced three pieces of journalism.

This module explores the historical and contemporary role of religion in promoting peace and conflict through a series of case studies drawn from a global context. The approach is interdisciplinary drawing on the fields of history, religious studies, and philosophy in an attempt to address the question of whether religion has been in the past - and remains today - primarily a cause of peace or conflict in society. The regions and periods chosen for study may vary from year to year but will normally include examples drawn from the West, the Middle East, and Asia.

The module is divided into four blocks of five weeks. The first comprises an introduction to the nature of religious belief and its role as a catalyst in promoting peace and conflict, and also explores ethical teachings on pacifism and 'just war' theory. The remaining three blocks are devoted to case studies. Students taking the module should gain an introductory, but insightful, comprehension of religious belief and its role in promoting peace and conflict. They will also be exposed to methodological questions of the kind involved in interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies and be equipped to take more advanced and specialised modules relating to religion in specific historical and contemporary contexts.

The module introduces students to the role played by religions in promoting peace and conflict in the past and their ongoing influence in this respect in the present. It contributes to the department's focus on cultural history in exposing students to the diversity of beliefs in different cultures and the way the interplay of religion and politics has shaped the evolution of societies in Asia and the West. It also makes a contribution to the department's work in the area of intellectual history and the history of ideas. Finally, it provides an initial trajectory for more advanced work on religious and philosophical themes in years two and three.

This module has two broad aims: a) to introduce students to the discipline of political history, by analysing, in a comparative perspective, key modern political ideologies, developments and political leaders; and b) to provide, in addition to a theoretical foundation, a basic understanding of how the modern world has been shaped by dictators (e.g. Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini), wars (e.g. First and Second World War) and revolutions (e.g. French, Russian). The module will be divided into four thematic blocks of five weeks each exploring the following main themes:

• Modern political ideologies
• Wars
• Revolutions
• Dictators

The order of the blocks and the particular lecture topics may vary from year to year, but the four-part structure will ensure that students are exposed to a wide array of methodological and empirical issues critical for the study of political history.

Self, Citizen and Nation introduces students to the importance of intellectual and cultural history as a way of understanding themselves and the world around them. It contributes to the department’s core strengths in the history of ideas, philosophy, ethics, culture and sexuality. The course contributes to the department’s core strengths in intellectual and cultural history and provides an introduction to a number of topics that are explored in second/third-year options.

The course consists of two thematic blocks, each focusing on the relationship between human beings and their surroundings. These blocks may alter on a year-to-year basis but will generally include two of the following topics:

• Humans and the natural world (the human body, human mind, animals and birds, the rural and urban environments)
• Sex and sexualities (socio-economic, political and legal, religious and cultural, individual, and global dimensions)
• Early modern identities (emotions and the soul, the self, religion and identity, ethnicity and nationality, gender and sexuality)

Emotions and bonds (love, anger, fear and wonder). Throughout students will engage with a wide variety of primary source material, including images, philosophical and literary texts, letters and works of self-reflection.

This module will provide the pedagogic bridge between the MC52019A Feature Writing module taken in the Autumn term of level 5 and the Interdisciplinary Final Project module to be taken in the final year. All three are compulsory modules.

In Feature Writing, students learn the basic skills, conventions and requirements of feature writing for journalistic purposes. In this module, students will learn how to use and enhance those skills for more in-depth research and long-form writing with a historical focus. They will learn how to use a blend of historical sources such as public and private archives and online historical databases as well as more contemporary sources to investigate and analyse subjects, themes and ideas from both the past and present for journalistic purposes. This might include researching recently released PRO files for ideas for journalistic work, which could then be explained, analysed and amplified using both alternative historical as well as contemporary sources. Students would be encouraged to use images and other digital material as primary sources as well as for illustration and added value. The module will be delivered through a series of weekly presentations and workshops that will demonstrate different sources of information and their use in a variety of different journalistic work with a historical theme and published in different formats. Special personal skills for extended research work such as in-depth interviewing of sources and recording and the organisation of research material will also be addressed.

Students will be set assignments to test their knowledge of historical themes, subjects and sources and their ability to use that information to create journalistic work. Feedback will be given in class, in writing and in person. Students will be encouraged to examine and critique each other’s work. Individual tutorial support will be given as required. Assessment will be by a portfolio of work aimed at journalistic platforms, which will include one substantial piece of writing. The techniques, skills and methods that students acquire during this module will prepare them for the Interdisciplinary Final Project, which will focus on a major piece of research and the creation of a journalistic product with a historical theme.

The module investigates the nature of media law and ethical regulation for media practitioners primarily in the UK, but with some comparison with the situation in the USA and references to the experiences of media communicators in other countries. The students are directed towards an analysis of media law, as it exists, the ethical debates concerning what the law ought to be, and the historical development of legal and regulatory controls of communication. The theoretical underpinning involves a module of learning the subject of media jurisprudence- the study of the philosophy of media law, media ethicology (the study of the knowledge of ethics/morality in media communication), and media ethicism (the belief systems in the political context that influence journalistic conduct and content). The module evaluates media law and regulation in terms of its social and cultural context. It is taught in one and a half hour lectures and one-hour seminars that involve the discussion of multi-media examples of media communication considered legally and/or morally problematical. Media Law and Ethics is a dynamic subject with dramatic and significant changes and developments occurring from year to year addressing acute issues in journalism, current affairs and politics. As a result, the module content is substantially revised year after year in response to these developments.

You will learn how to produce longer pieces of in-depth journalism – known as features – on this module. Skills taught include interviewing, colour writing and how to structure longer pieces.

This course offers a general overview to the history of the Middle East from the decline of Ottoman rule in the area in the late 19th century until the present. The course focuses on political, social, and cultural trends that shaped the history of the region vis-à-vis the intervention of foreign colonial powers, the rise of nationalistic and Islamic movements and the place of the region as a geo-economic strategic place in the 20th century.

The module is divided in two parts. During the first ten weeks, we will look at the history of the Middle East from an overarching perspective, discussing key elements and concepts that will helps us convey a holistic picture of the region. The second part will be dedicated to the study of specific case-studies that will inform a more nuanced understanding of the different areas. The goal of the course is to go beyond stereotypes that overburden our understanding of the region and its peoples.

This module explores the tragic history of East-Central Europe’s minorities from the late nineteenth century to the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. It examines how the multi-ethnic empires and national or nationalising successor states which covered the area between Berlin, Kiev, Bucharest and the Baltic not only sought to rule but also reshape their highly diverse populations.

The module considers how the concept of ‘minority peoples’ developed: who was categorised as a ‘minority’, what criteria were used and why was the existence of minorities considered to be such a ‘problem’? It studies the diverse and increasingly radical solutions that states pursued; Habsburg Austria’s attempts to arbitrate between peoples, German, Hungarian and Russian efforts to assimilate minorities and, in the aftermath of the First World War, widespread programmes of exclusion, expulsion or even ultimately annihilation.

The module focuses not only on state plans but also on minorities’ actions, aspirations and relations with their neighbours of different language, culture, religion or ethnicity. It explores, for example, Czech activists’ plans for autonomy and independence, Polish nationalists’ rival schemes for a resurrected Poland and the spread of a Ukrainian national-identity. It examines how, as state borders shifted, majorities like Germans or Hungarians might suddenly find themselves as minorities, and how they and the nation-states from which they were separated reacted. It considers how Jews responded to the intensifying anti-Semitism characterising the period. Finally, it investigates how individuals marked as members of minorities experienced state action, from discrimination to deportation and extermination. 

In this module we will explore the history of modern revolutions. Examples will include the American, French, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions, but also mid-20^th century anti-colonial revolutions and history still in the making—the ‘Arab Spring’. We will scrutinise various definitions of revolutions, compare their course and causes, examine revolutionary symbols and rituals, identify winners and losers, analyse the ideas underpinning revolutions and try to grapple with the disturbing phenomenon of extreme violence in the name of extremely good causes. 

This module considers how ideas of Africa (its people, environment, history) were expressed through the writings of both prominent and lesser-known figures in Africa and the Diaspora.

Through the examination of texts – ranging from slave narratives to autobiographies, speeches, essays, plays and novels – we explore how those ideas took shape within their particular historical and regional contexts.

This module examines the long and varied history of black Britain, from the Romans through to Black Lives Matter. The module focuses on the histories of people of African origin and descent in Britain, although those histories will be situated in wider explorations of immigration, emigration, race and identity. The module considers themes and topics such as Blackamoors and black Tudors, the transatlantic slave trade, abolitionist movements, black Georgians and Victorians, the First and Second World Wars, postwar immigration and the ‘Windrush generation’, policing and politics in the 1970s and 80s, discussions around race, whiteness and Black Lives Matter. Where possible, the module examines these topics from the black British perspective, rather than via the more ‘traditional’ colonial and imperial perspectives. The module takes a multidisciplinary approach, applying social, cultural, political, postcolonial, sociological and anthropological thinking and engages with a wide range of source materials, including visual and material culture alongside oral histories and textual documents.

This module looks at the ways in which experiences, identities and social issues have been represented on the screen in Britain, in order to explore the social and cultural history of Britain in the 20th century and the ways in which social 'problems' are identified and responded to by different groups in society.

This module examines the significance of empires in history through a comparative survey of the vast land empires of Asia and ‘modern’ European maritime empires. The module begins with an examination of the varying understandings of empire, imperialism and colonialism. It questions how empires develop, thrive and fall. The first term highlights the different component parts of empire – including bureaucracy, ideology, military strength, and culture through a study of land empires in ancient and early modern India and Eurasia. The second half of the course shifts to explore ‘modern’, European imperialism, beginning with the Portuguese and Dutch maritime empires and the rise of the English East India Company. We then focus on different themes within ‘modern’ European imperialism, including ideology, race, religion, and nature. The module concludes with the question of the enduring legacies of empire today and asks how we might begin to redress some of these issues.

TThe course presents a history of early modern Europe through consideration of the individual and collective beliefs and mentalities that constituted the way people understood their world and the way they wanted to change it.

This crucial period of history from the Reformation to the Enlightenment was a time of political, social, economic and religious upheaval, and the ideas that circulated were closely bound up with this upheaval. Many of the ideas that we consider on the course are ordinarily considered to be outside the parameters of the doctrines of the established Church from 1450 to 1750; they include heretical ideas, beliefs based on concepts of magic and the occult, and radical apocalyptic and prophetic thinking.

A 60-hour placement, normally one 6-hr day a week for 10 weeks, in a partner institution from the museums, archives or heritage sector.

Ten 2-hr lecture/seminar blacks, held weekly in term 1, addressing various issues related to public history and how concepts of the past are constructed in the public sphere, including ‘what is public history?’; the role and nature of choices about how to represent and catalogue the past; differences between museums, archives and heritage sites; audiences and publics; presentation of the past.

Seminars also include input from Goldsmiths Careers and involve trips to important museums, walks, and archives in London.

Lectures and seminars in term 1 will take the form of a two-hour block. They will be held either at Goldsmiths or involve a trip to a museum or archive where students will experience different aspects of public history in practice and have the opportunity to learn from curators and archivists.

Term 1 Lecture/seminar schedule:
1. Introduction
2. Black History Month walk
3. CV workshop (careers)
4. Jewish Museum visit
5. Public history lecture/seminar 1
6. LMA visit
7. Public history lecture/seminar 2
8. Queer history visit (V&A/Bishopsgate?)
9. Preparing for your placement workshop (careers)
10. Public History conclusion

This module explores changing regimes of sexuality and experiences of intimacy in various historical periods and geographical regions. It puts specific emphasis on historicising sexual categories and identities and asks, when, how and why the binary conception of gender and the homo-hetero-distinction came to dominate modern understandings of sex in the West.

With these questions in mind, the module explores themes including:

• colonial histories of sexuality
• the enforcement of sex morals
• trajectories of prostitution and sex work
• the history of pornography
• gay, lesbian and other sexual emancipation movements
• techniques and policies governing reproduction
• the role of sex as path to joy and happiness in many contemporary settings

By comparing different situations and experiences the module enables students to comprehend the problematic ways in which binaries like male/female, homo/hetero or active/passive shape contemporary understandings of sexuality.

It also allows them to critically assess how every sexual regime is informed by and dependent on historically specific political, economic and cultural conditions.

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Covering the period 1954-1975 this module analyses the history of the USA, at home and abroad.  A central theme is the impact of the Vietnam War on the USA, but it also examines American politics and society throughout the period.  It begins with the Geneva Conference of 1954 which marked a shift in the nature of the US involvement in Vietnam after French withdrawal.  It considers the escalation to full military involvement and eventual ‘Vietnamisation’ of the conflict, prior to the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975.  Such issues are placed within the context of American foreign policy in the era of the Cold War more widely, with attention paid to both the Cuban Missile Crisis and détente.

In politics, the course covers five presidencies (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford) with a further central issue throughout being that of civil rights.  Within the politics strand, it will also consider the legacy of McCarthyism, the role of the American labour movement, feminism, environmentalism, and the nature/consequences of the Watergate scandal. 

Linked to consideration of mainstream politics will be attention to the counter-culture.  Part of that will address the anti-war movement covered within material on the Vietnam War, but it will also address beatniks, hippies and drugs.  Popular culture, including film, television, advertising and sport, linked to other issues will also be examined.  Popular music will be used throughout the twenty lectures as emblematic of the times.

This module examines the visual and material culture of Europe between 1450 and 1700. It investigates the role of images and artifacts in art and in daily life, focusing on the complex ways in which they acquired various meanings from their producers and consumers. Considering paintings and architecture along with tapestries, prints, everyday furnishings, clothing and food, the module explores visual and material objects in the context in which they were created and looks at the social relationships between their makers, sponsors and users.

The module offers an introduction to the theories and methods of visual and material culture and addresses a wide range of issues including: the marketplace and the birth of consumer culture; religion, politics and visual culture; the development of print and the rise of the printed image; global connections, colonialism and exotic goods; scientific imagery; fashion, gender and representations of the body.

Throughout the module, students will be encouraged to think about the centrality of images and artifacts to the making of history and develop critical approaches to past and present visual and material worlds.

Buddhism has had a profound influence not only on Asia, but also on western culture.

This module is made up of two parts: the first half will comprise of a brief history of Buddhism in India, SE Asia, China, Japan, Tibet and the West.

In the second half we will focus on five  themes: Buddhist visual art; Buddhist literature and film; gender in Buddhism; health and well-being; Buddhism in London (a visit to a Buddhist centre in London). 

This 15-credit module will explore the wave of revolutions that re-shaped Latin America in the second half of the twentieth century, capturing the attention of the world. The engagement of the United States in the Second World War enabled reform movements to push back against authoritarian regimes that had been supported by the US, demanding democratic elections and land reform. But the challenge to US hegemony did not go unanswered. From the 1950s onwards the US government and media viewed political change in Latin America through the prism of the Cold War. Reformists and radicals alike were regarded as “Communists”, proxies for Soviet ambitions in the Americas. Revolutionary upheaval was met by brutal repression.

Students will examine key moments in Latin America’s revolutionary decade and how they were connected: the CIA backed overthrow of the Guatemalan government in 1954; the Cuban revolution five years later; the dirty wars of the 1970s in Chile and Argentina and the upheaval in Central America in the 1980s. Students will explore the conditions that gave rise to this turbulent period in Latin American history, the influence of the Cold War, the role of the Catholic church and the fate of the revolutionary blueprints for change.

In addition to secondary sources, students will read original pieces of reportage describing and analysing events. Formative assessment will be a piece of mock reportage demonstrating their understanding of the causes of revolutionary change in Latin America. 

London’s history is examined through the work of writers who have lived in London, who have written about the city, or who have used London as the background or setting for their work. As well as secondary literature on the city’s development, a range of primary texts from Shakespeare to Orwell will be studied.

By the end of the module you will have a good knowledge of London’s history, an appreciation of the works of a number of important writers, a sense of different historical periods and knowledge of the variety of locations that make up the textual map of London.

There is currently a growing demand for communicating historical information and research beyond the traditional text-based formulas. In this module, along with an overview of the history of Asian medicine, students will learn how to utilise new media in order to communicate historical information. The module will focus on creating short historical clips using iMovies; Students will acquire hands-on experience of adapting historical narratives to short clips which could be posted on YouTube. Related topics to be addressed: internet-based image copyrights; researching digital manuscripts and historical images.

The module will also deal with blogging for historians and writing for Wikipedia. We will meet one historian-blogger and have one session with a Wikipedian.

This 15-credit module offers a historical perspective on the headlines and shows how historians can use their knowledge and skills to evaluate and critique the news. Each week we will examine a story or an issue currently making the news. Having been introduced to the historical background through lectures and readings, you will evaluate how newspapers, television, and online news outlets make the news, and discuss what a historical perspective might add. By completing this module you will have gained a solid understanding of how historical knowledge can inform current debates, and why mass media coverage of news stories sometimes glosses over such historical questions.

Because the module’s aim is to focus on the current headlines, it is not possible to offer a definitive list of subjects. However, likely topics include the question of ‘fake news’, mass migration, the rise of the far right and populist movements across the world, Brexit (and the Irish Border), Russia and the west, and Black Lives Matter. Through these topics, you will be introduced to a number of crucial topics for understanding the relationship of media to history: media’s framing of events, its use of language, its employment of stereotypes, and its use of experts.

The novel gained respectability as a literary genre in 19th-century Britain and became a key vehicle for the exploration of social problems. Women writers especially, though not exclusively, seized the opportunity fiction offered to contribute to social and political debates. Furthermore, with developments in the publishing industry making novels increasingly cheaper as the century progressed, and with literacy rates simultaneously improving, fiction was read by an ever-widening audience.

This module will examine the use of fiction as a historical source through exploration of the way in which key issues in British history during the long 19th century were portrayed in fiction. Focusing each week on a selected novel we will consider themes such as industrialisation and the Condition of England, the Poor Law, the Woman Question, slavery, radicalism, religious dissent, anti-Semitism, and domestic service. These fictional texts will be compared and contrasted with other, non-fictional, primary sources and the relevant historiography. The module will conclude with a consideration of ‘neo-Victorian’ fiction (modern historical fiction set in the nineteenth century) and the extent to which the themes and approaches selected by modern authors coincide with fiction written during the period.

Public protest can take many different forms and be a manifestation of a wide and diverse range of ideologies; from a lone individual scaling a building to protest about family access rights to a march of millions voicing their opposition to their country’s involvement in an overseas war. Furthermore, public protest has a profound impact on the physical space in which it takes place and raises questions about who controls public spaces and the right to voice opinions or take action. It also raises debates about the legitimacy of direct action or violence in the pursuit or defence of ideologies versus personal or national security and the preservation of public order. Who protests, what motivates them to do so, why do they choose the methods that they do and what are the ideologies that fundamentally underpin their actions? What have been the major currents of popular public protest in Britain in the last two-hundred years? Are protesters criminals or freedom fighters, reformists or revolutionaries, ringleaders or pawns, thugs or victims? When does a protest become a riot and what are the pressures or motivations that lead to violence or escalation? All of these stimulating debates, and more, will be explored in depth during this stimulating and provocative investigation of the topic.

This module will take both a theoretical and case-study based approach to engaging with the subjects of social movements and public protest. The period covered will range from the April 1834 demonstration in support of the Tolpuddle Martyrs at Copenhagen Fields near Kings Cross, right up to the 2003 anti-war march to Hyde Park, often described as the largest public protest event in British history. As the perceived seat of power and, historically, the most densely populated and socially and culturally diverse city in Britain, London has, since the mid-eighteenth-century, been the central focus of modern social movements and the theatre within which many of the most significant protest actions of the modern period have taken place. Consequently, while the theoretical elements of the module will be generic, the case-studies will all relate to London-based movements or actions, including; Chartism, the women’s suffrage campaigns, anti-fascism/racism movements and protests against war or in support of peace.

The module is broadly structured into two sections but with considerable interplay between the two. The first part is an outline and overview of the theoretical approaches to the study of social movements, public protest, spacial geopolitics and violent disorder. The second part adopts a thematic approach and examines case-studies of some key social, cultural and political social movements and their public protest activities in and around London. This will allow you to not only understand the political or ideological basis of such movements but also to discover how that translated into direct action in the capital.