Curious about studying English Studies and History - BA (Hons)at University of Stirling? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Stirling Campus
Full Time
Sep 2027
4 Year
Texts are all around us – from books and magazines to TV, email and the internet. The ability to analyse them and their often subtle meanings is a skill that can open doors in a wide range of professional fields. English Studies at the University of Stirling offers you the perfect chance to dedicate yourself to reading and enjoying a range of great novels, plays and poems from across the world. Your own creative writing can form part of this degree, too – as we believe it aids your understanding of literary style and technique and develops your imagination. You’ll also have the opportunity to take a range of language-based courses which will inform your understanding and appreciation of literary texts. These are just some of the factors that make our BA a little different from other English courses.
History could not exist as a discipline without concepts. Concepts are the main analytical tools of the historian. They are applied to the raw materials of historical research (the information mined from primary sources),in order togive these materials a legible shape. It is by applying recognised concepts that we can explore common themes in History and understand the causes of historical transformations.
This introductory, survey module aims to provide students with an overview of Scottish medieval history in the period c.1100-1542, through a variety of approaches to the past, in particular viewing Scotland as a European kingdom. The themes covered range from the origins of the Kingdom, the medieval Church, the medeival Economy and Environment, the Wars of Independence, late medieval kingship, medieval cultures and courts, and Renaissance monarchy. Through lectures, small group tutorials, online exercises and reading, it seeks to deepen history-specific intellectual skills already acquired or to assist those studying history as a discipline for the first time in acquiring such skills.
This module introduces students to the study of English literature at undergraduate level by focusing on reading and analysing different genres of literature, including poetry, fiction and drama from Chaucer to the present day. The course has an overarching emphasis on how genres change and develop over time, and how literary texts respond to each other: it will also consider genre itself as a complex and contested area. It thus introduces students to one of the key approaches approaches to literature upon which they will be able to build during the rest of their degree.
This module introduces you to different approaches to literary studies, within a broadly theoretical context. We will be exploring the concept of literary theory and considering how different theoretical positions can shape our responses to literary texts. We will encounter a range of fascinating novels, short stories, non-fiction, poems and drama, from Shakespeare to the present day.
In covering the era of the Renaissance, the Reformation and Revolutions in Scotland, students will focus on the reigns of successive Stewart monarchs and their subsequent succession to the English and Irish thrones as well as the problems associated with regnal union and resistance to an increasingly authoritative style of governance. Alongside the various revolutions of the seventeenth century, the creation of a British commonwealth, the emergence of Jacobitism, and parliamentary union in 1707, Scotland?s contact with Europe and the world will form a core theme throughout ensuring students understand Scotland?s development within a wider context. Political history will be studied in the light of the social, religious, economic, intellectual and cultural developments that lend early modern Scotland its distinct identity.
The module aims to provide students with both knowledge and understanding of how and in what way Britain modernised, and the role and significance of both primary secondary source material in historical research and debate (with a particular emphasis on secondary sources). J. Vernon,Distant Strangers: How Britain Became Modern(2014) provides the start and end point of the module. Vernon argues that modernity did not arise through the traditionally accepted factors such as industrialisation or the enlightenment. Instead he suggests that it was an adaptive response to the creation of ?a society of strangers? that resulted from rapid population growth and increased mobility over longer distances which necessitated new economic, social and political relationships. The module will explore the traditional drivers of modernity using a themed approach in order to examine the validity of Vernon?s argument. Running parallel to the module is a series of podcasts that are designed to provide the student with the basic historical skills necessary to complete the module. These include, secondary sources: what they are, how to analyse them and where to find them; how to write a critical review; how to write an academic essay; how to reference, what is plagiarism and how to understand Turnitin scores
This module deals with Africa between c.1800 and 1945 and focuses on the precolonial nineteethn century, the onset of colonial rule, and the impact of colonial rule on Africa up till 1945. It aims to explore in more depth both the changes and the continuities between pre-colonial and colonial Africa.
This module explores the political transformation of the United States during the nineteenth century, focusing on major national debates and the crisis of the Union that tore the nation apart during the Civil War of 1861-65.
This module examines how the past is put to work in various aspects of economy and societyand will help you understandhow forms of historical enquiry inform specific professional sectors and areas of employment.
This module examines an epoch, Europe between 1789 and 1914, that began with huge optimism but ended in the despair of the first global war. The optimism was born out of two revolutions: one political that originated in France, and one economic, known as industrialisation. These ?twin revolutions? made constant social change and intellectual fermentation the characteristic features of the era.Kings, Churches, and Empires tottered, while new words that made sense of these changes, such as nationalism, constitutionalism, liberalism, feminism, and socialism, emerged for the first time. The contemporary resonance of these words shows why studying this period is so important for understanding our modern world.
The overall purpose of this module is to introduce students to the concept of technical innovation in literary studies, within a broadly historical context. The module is structured around the concept of revolutions, both literal and literary, and covers a broad historical sweep, from the Peasants? Revolt to the present day, and will focus on understanding literary and historical context as integral to the understanding of literary texts. The module will build on the close reading and theoretical skills obtained in ENGU901 and ENGU902.
This module will provide you with an understanding of the (changing) historical reputations of the lives of significant individuals ranging from William Wallace, the Scottish medieval figure, to Nelson Mandela, the radical 'freedom fighter' and statesman. Through lectures and participation in seminars you will learn how to appreciate the role played by historiography, politics and popular culture in sustaining, validating,questioning and reinventing the reputations of historical figures. Participation in this module will allow you to enhance skills in written communication, analysing and investigation, library research, evaluating sources, constructing arguments, planning and organising, time management and discipline knowledge.
This module offers the opportunity tostudy key events from Scotland?s past which still have a bearing on present-day politics and culture, in a location, here at Stirling,close to many of the key sites of the period. Your studies will be led byan acknowledged expert publishing in the field. It also takes a much-misused topic and sets it within its proper British Isles and European context.
Is history just another text? To what extent is literature history? How do the stories we tell about ourselves alter the material facts of our lives? This core module sets out to explore these questions by studying aspects of Scottish literature, history, and identity since the defining moment of the Union of the English and the Scottish Parliaments in 1707. Writing and History: Scotland and Empire examines the pressures that produced some of Scotland?s finest writing in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, partly opposed to and partly in step with the concept of Great Britain. It deals with the competing narratives, the contradictory accounts, and the exchanges between centralising and marginalising forces raised by this experience.
This module will provide you with the technical tools and vocabulary to describe in detail how language choices produce particular effects, create meanings and convey ideologies in literary texts. Alongside the acquisition of skills, the module will encourage you to reflect on what it is that makes texts literary, as well as broader debates about the benefits and limitations of stylistic analysis. Whilst the module will be largely focused on stylistic analysis, you will also learn the role of context in a literary stylistic approach.
This module is an introduction to literary theory, and it invites you to question what we think we?re doing as readers, writers and critics. It will both sharpen your existing skills and open you to a whole new set of questions and debates, ranging across a wide terrain of fresh and sometimes challenging ideas. Where does ?meaning? come from? How does a literary text represent the world? What difference does difference (class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality) make to our reading of texts and cultural practices? Why are some texts valued more than others? The module introduces a selection of the most influential movements in literary and cultural theory of the past century, from the seminal linguistic theories of Saussure, to the readerly prohibitions of the New Criticism, and intense cultural debates sparked by figures such as Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Judith Butler. We will also consider some of the practical implications of theory for literary analysis and interpretation. You will need to engage closely with the primary theoretical texts in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. You will be taught by experts who research in this area.
Students will have only optional modules in this year.
Students have the opportunity to study optional modules in this year.
The module aims to strengthen students' dissertations, by focussing on the key skills needed for effective writing and research, including: skills in written English; using library, archive and IT resources, distinguishing and choosing appropriate methodological approaches to research, considering ethical and legal issues such as plagiarism or the use of questionnaires, formulating a research proposal, writing a literature review and a research proposal.
The Final Year Project involves the writing of a substantial dissertation, the culmination of the various Honours degree programmes offered by the Division of Literature and Languages (English Studies).
The History dissertation is an extended piece of research and written work that provides students with an opportunity to identify and investigate a particular topic of interest and explore it systematically. With the agreement and guidance of a member of staff, in the role of supervisor, each student defines a topic, conducts the research, analyses the information and writes the dissertation.This is the capstone of your studies and something you will be justifiably proud of in years to come.
All students taking a History Special Subject in their final year should register for HISU977. In early June, students will be sent an email by the History Programme Director, Dr Michael Penman (m.a.penman@stir.ac.uk ). The email will contain instructions on choosing a final year Special Subject?the course to be studied over two semesters. Students will be able to select from a list of options (detailed below), and can rank their choices in order of preference.
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