History and Language (French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish),BA (Hons)

This BA History and Language is a carefully structured, wide-ranging course combining history, culture and language study. Alongside developing the critical and analytical skills for assessing historical evidence and questioning conventional wisdom on the past, you will also learn to formulate and communicate your own ideas effectively in English and in your chosen language of study.

Why choose this course?

• Birkbeck has one of the very few schools in the UK to include archaeologists, classicists and historians working on every period from prehistoric humans to Ancient Greece to medieval, early modern and modern societies.
• It offers you modules that will hone your broader analytical, critical and writing skills, train you in collaborative discussion and debate, and develop your research skills.
• As well as the chance to pursue your interests in British, Irish, European and global history, and explore themes within histories of ‘race’, migration, gender and sexuality, you will have the opportunity to take modules from allied disciplines like politics and geography.
• You will also become competent in a modern foreign language, choosing from French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean or Spanish, and study the culture associated with that language.

What you will learn

You will acquire wide-ranging knowledge of the history of different nations, periods and civilisations, learn how to assess historical evidence critically and master the process of scholarly argumentation and writing.

You will gain skills in:

• critically analysing narratives about the past and its role in the present across a range of contexts
• understanding and interrogating primary and secondary sources in discussion and writing
• navigating archives, collections, oral history sources and libraries.

The language component of this course complements these skills by training you in one of a range of important modern languages and the cultures in which they are spoken. It will equip you to reach near-native standard in French, German, Italian or Spanish, and upper-intermediate or advanced level in Japanese, depending on your starting level. If you opt to study Korean, your final degree award will be a ‘with’ degree, so for example BA History with Korean, because we currently offer this language up to intermediate level only.

This dual competence will help ensure your access to an extensive range of careers and fields of further study, including academic research, curatorship, journalism, translation and creative writing.

How you will learn

History teaching on this course combines lectures from our leading academics who will introduce you to the critical ideas, debates and figures of the past, with seminars where you will pursue collaborative knowledge alongside your fellow students.

Language teaching gives you plenty of opportunities to participate actively and interact with your peers as well as with our experienced tutors. It is also delivered in the target language, allowing you full immersion in your chosen linguistic area.

This course is available to study full- or part-time with classes taking place in the evening.

Foundation Year

If you opt for the Foundation Year route, this will fully prepare you for undergraduate study. It is ideal if you are returning to study after a gap, or if you have not previously studied the relevant subjects, or if you didn't achieve the grades you need for a place on your chosen undergraduate degree. Find out everything you need to know about Foundation Years.