University undergraduates studying in the Monica Partridge building. Friday November 5th 2021.

French and History BA

University Park Campus, Nottingham, UK

Course overview

If you’re passionate about history but also dream of spending time in France and becoming fluent in the language – how do you choose which degree to study: We say, choose both!

This joint honours course allows you to combine your curiosity about human experience with your love of communicating in another language.

With History modules ranging from ‘Central European History’ to ‘Liberating Africa’ and French modules taking you from 'La République Gaullienne' to 'French Cinema - The New Wave' – you’re able to truly personalise this degree around your personal interests or career aspirations.

Many of our students say the year abroad is their course highlight. Not only do you have the opportunity to fully immerse yourself in the French language and culture, but spending time abroad can make you more independent and confident. 

Indicative modules

Mandatory

Year 1

Learning History

Optional

Year 1

French 1

Optional

Year 1

Introduction to French and Francophone Studies

Optional

Year 1

French 1: Beginners

Optional

Year 1

France: History and Identity

Optional

Year 1

Introduction to French Literature: Landmarks in Narrative

Optional

Year 1

French Texts in Translation

Optional

Year 1

Introduction to French Literature: Representations of Paris

Optional

Year 1

Making the Middle Ages, 500-1500

Optional

Year 1

Themes in Early Modern History

Optional

Year 1

Roads to Modernity: An Introduction to Modern History 1750-1945

Optional

Year 1

The Contemporary World since 1945

Optional

Year 2

French 2

Optional

Year 2

French 2 - Beginners

Optional

Year 2

Introduction to French and Francophone Studies

Optional

Year 2

Introduction to French Literature: Landmarks in Narrative

Optional

Year 2

French Cinema: The New Wave

Optional

Year 2

Contemporary Francophone Cinema and Social Issues

Optional

Year 2

On Location: Cinematic Explorations of Contemporary France

Optional

Year 2

Literature and Politics in Modern France

Optional

Year 2

Introduction to Contemporary Science Fiction

Optional

Year 2

Huit Tableaux: Art and Politics in Nineteenth-Century France (1799-1871)

Optional

Year 2

La France en guerre: Memoires de la Premiere Guerre Mondiale

Optional

Year 2

Varieties of French

Optional

Year 2

Nineteenth Century French Narrative

Optional

Year 2

Contemporary Translation Studies

Optional

Year 2

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Optional

Year 2

Consumers & Citizens: Society & Culture in 18th Century England

Optional

Year 2

British Foreign Policy and the Origins of the World Wars, 1895-1939

Optional

Year 2

The Victorians: Life, Thought and Culture

Optional

Year 2

The Second World War and Social Change in Britain, 1939-1951: Went The Day Well?

Optional

Year 2

The Rise of Modern China

Optional

Year 2

Liberating Africa: Decolonisation, Development and the Cold War, 1919-1994

Optional

Year 2

Heroes and Villains in the Middle Ages

Optional

Year 2

Sex, Lies and Gossip? Women of Medieval England

Optional

Year 2

A Tale of Seven Kingdoms: Anglo-Saxon and Viking-Age England from Bede to Alfred the Great

Optional

Year 2

International History of the Middle East and North Africa 1918-1995

Optional

Year 2

Imagining 'Britain': Decolonising Tolkien et al

Optional

Year 2

Kingship in Crisis: Politics, People and Power in Late-medieval England

Optional

Year 2

Sexuality in Early Medieval Europe

Optional

Year 2

Environmental History: Nature and the Western World, 1800-2000

Optional

Year 2

Central European History: From Revolution to War, 1848-1914

Optional

Year 2

Soviet State and Society

Optional

Year 2

The Venetian Republic, 1450-1575

Optional

Year 2

European Fascisms, 1900-1945

Optional

Year 2

De-industrialisation: A Social and Cultural History, c.1970-1990

Optional

Year 2

The British Empire from Emancipation to the Boer War

Optional

Year 2

'Slaves of the Devil' and Other Witches: A History of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe

Optional

Year 2

Rule and Resistance in Colonial India, c.1757-1857

Optional

Year 2

Poverty, Disease and Disability: Britain, 1795-1930

Optional

Year 2

Travel and Adventure in the Medieval World

Optional

Year 2

Enlightenment Literature: An Introduction

Optional

Year 2

Exile and Homeland: Jewish Culture, Thought and Politics in Modern Europe and Mandatory Palestine between 1890 and 1950

Optional

Year 2

A Protestant Nation? Politics, Religion and Society in England, 1558-1640

Optional

Year 2

The Tokugawa World: 1600-1868

Optional

Year 2

The politics of memory in postwar Western Europe

Optional

Year 2

Rethinking the Tudors: Monarchy, Society and Religion in England, 1485-1603

Optional

Year 2

Commodities, Consumption and Connections the Global World of Things 1500-1800

Optional

Year 2

The Early Modern Global Spanish Empire (1450-1850)

Optional

Year 2

In the Heart of Europe: Histories of Modern Poland

Optional

Year 2

Villains or Victims: White Women and the British Empire c.1840-1980

Optional

Year 2

Gender, Sexuality and British Imperial Expansion: trans and queer lives in global context, 1750-1870

Optional

Year 2

France and its Empire(s) 1815-1914

Optional

Year 2

Conquerors, Caliphs, and Converts: The Making of the Islamic World, c.600-800

Mandatory

Year 3

Year abroad

Mandatory

Year 4

French 3

Optional

Year 4

La République Gaullienne: 1958 to 1969

Optional

Year 4

The Everyday in Contemporary Literature and Thought

Optional

Year 4

People and Propaganda: Representing the French Revolution

Optional

Year 4

French Documentary Cinema

Optional

Year 4

Difficult Women

Optional

Year 4

Contemporary Francophone Cinema: The Personal and The Political

Optional

Year 4

French Documentary Cinema

Optional

Year 4

Citizenship, Ethnicity and National Identity in Post-War France

Optional

Year 4

Dissertation in French Studies

Optional

Year 4

Language Attitudes and French

Optional

Year 4

Subtitling and Dubbing from French into English

Optional

Year 4

Communicating and Teaching Languages for Undergraduate Ambassadors

Optional

Year 4

Sexuality and Society in Britain Since 1900

Optional

Year 4

Faith and Fire: Popular Religion in Late Medieval England

Optional

Year 4

The Black Death

Optional

Year 4

British Culture in the Age of Mass Production, 1920-1950

Optional

Year 4

Overseas Exploration, European Diplomacy, and the Rise of Tudor England

Optional

Year 4

'Slaves of the Devil' and Other Witches: A History of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe

Optional

Year 4

The British Civil Wars c.1639-1652

Optional

Year 4

Alternatives to War: Articulating Peace since 1815

Optional

Year 4

Windrush and the (Re)Making of a Nation: Myth and Memory

Optional

Year 4

Zero Hour: Germany, Poland, and post-war reconstruction in Europe, 1945-1955

Optional

Year 4

Britain in the Age of the French Revolution: 1789-1803

Optional

Year 4

Victorians in Italy: Travelling South in the Nineteenth Century

Optional

Year 4

Samurai Revolution: Reinventing Japan, 1853–78

Optional

Year 4

The Chimera: British Imperialism and Its Discontents, 1834-1919

Optional

Year 4

Disease and Domination: The History of Medicine and the Colonial Encounter

Optional

Year 4

The past that won’t go away: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

Optional

Year 4

Plague, Fire and the Reimagining of the Capital 1600-1720: The Making of Modern London

Optional

Year 4

Slavery, Caste and Capitalism: Labouring Lives in Global History, 1750-2000

Optional

Year 4

Napoleonic Europe and its Aftermath, 1799-1848

Optional

Year 4

The 1960s and the West, 1958-1974

Optional

Year 4

Russia in Revolution 1905-21

Optional

Year 4

The Reign of Richard II

Optional

Year 4

'World wasting itself in blood': Europe and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)

Optional

Year 4

Rebels Against Empire: Anticolonialism and British Imperialism in the Mid-20th Century

Optional

Year 4

European colonialism and the boundary of the human in the long eighteenth century

Optional

Year 4

From Serfdom to Stalin: Rural Life in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, 1853-1932

Optional

Year 4

The Hundred Years War: Europe at War, c. 1337-1453

Optional

Year 4

The Agony and the Ecstasy: Drugs for Pleasure and Pain in the History of Medicine

Optional

Year 4

Cultures of Power and the Power of Culture in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany

Optional

Year 4

Italy and the Second World War

Optional

Year 4

The three faces of Eve: Jewish Christian and Muslim women in Medieval Iberia

Optional

Year 4

Crisis, What Crisis? The West, c. 1970 to 2000

Optional

Year 4

A historical journey through Italy's links with the wider world

Optional

Year 4

Politics, culture, and sexuality in Renaissance and baroque Rome

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About modules

The above is a sample of the typical modules we offer, but is not intended to be construed or relied on as a definitive list of what might be available in any given year. This content was last updated on Wednesday 4 September 2024. Due to timetabling availability, there may be restrictions on some module combinations.

When you begin studying at university, you will probably find that you cover material much more quickly than you did while studying for your A levels. The key to success is preparing well for classes and then taking the ideas you encounter further in your own time.

Lectures – provide an overview of what you are studying, using a variety of audio and visual materials to support your learning.

Seminars and workshops – give you the chance to explore and interact with the material presented in lectures in a friendly and informal environment. You will be taught in a smaller group of students, with discussion focusing on a text or topic you've previously prepared.

Workshops are more practical, perhaps through exploring texts, working with digital materials, or developing presentations.

Tutorials – individual and small-group tutorials let you explore your work with your module tutor, perhaps discussing plans for an essay or presentation, or following up on an area of a module which has interested you.

eLearning – our virtual-learning system, Moodle, offers 24-hour access to teaching materials and resources.

Peer mentoring

All new undergraduate students can opt into our peer mentoring scheme. Your peer mentor will help you settle into life at Nottingham, provide advice on the transition to university-level study and help you access support if needed.  

The majority of the language teaching you will experience on this degree will be led by native speakers.

Class sizes vary depending on topic and type. A weekly lecture on a core module may have 50-60 students attending while a specialised seminar may only contain 10 students.

Teaching quality

Our staff know that studying complex subjects can sometimes seem challenging (they've all been where you are!). Their contributions to high quality teaching and learning are recognised through our annual Lord Dearing Awards. View the full list of recipients.

Teaching methods

  • Lectures
  • Oral classes
  • Seminars
  • Tutorials
  • Workshops

You will be assessed by a wide variety of methods, consisting mainly of coursework and exams, but you may also be tasked with commentaries, dissertations, group work, in-class tests, portfolios and presentations.

Each module has its own methods of assessment and we strive to make these as varied as possible so that everyone can perform to the best of their abilities. When choosing optional modules, you will be able to see how the module is assessed in advance.

Assessment methods

  • Commentary
  • Dissertation
  • Essay
  • In-class test
  • Oral exam
  • Portfolio (written/digital)
  • Presentation
  • Written exam

As well as scheduled teaching you’ll carry out extensive independent reading and research. A typical 20 credit module involves between three and four hours of lectures and seminars per week. You would ideally spend 8-10 hours doing preparation work.

Class sizes vary depending on topic and type. A weekly lecture on a core module may have 50-60 students attending while a specialised seminar may only contain 10 students.

Studying languages can open up a world of opportunities. From banking to charities and from teaching to MI5, businesses and organisations across the globe seek to employ language specialists.

During this degree you’ll be able to choose from a wide range of modules, allowing you to tailor your studies around personal interests. In doing so you’ll start to identify potential career paths and begin to discover your areas of professional interest.

In addition to language skills, you’ll develop transferable skills highly sought after by employers such as confident communication skills, strict attention to detail and the ability to work within different cultures and organisational styles.

Combining language studies with history will help you develop critical reasoning skills, becoming an innovative problem solver able to communicate effectively.

Find out more about careers of Modern Language students

Average starting salary and career progression

78.8% of undergraduates from the Faculty of Arts secured graduate level employment or further study within 15 months of graduation. The average annual starting salary for these graduates was £23,974.

HESA Graduate Outcomes (2017 to 2021 cohorts). The Graduate Outcomes % is calculated using The Guardian University Guide methodology. The average annual salary is based on graduates working full-time within the UK.

Studying for a degree at the University of Nottingham will provide you with the type of skills and experiences that will prove invaluable in any career, whichever direction you decide to take.

Throughout your time with us, our Careers and Employability Service can work with you to improve your employability skills even further; assisting with job or course applications, searching for appropriate work experience placements and hosting events to bring you closer to a wide range of prospective employers.

Have a look at our careers page for an overview of all the employability support and opportunities that we provide to current students.

The University of Nottingham is consistently named as one of the most targeted universities by Britain’s leading graduate employers (Ranked in the top ten in The Graduate Market in 2013-2020, High Fliers Research).

My [language] studies have helped me to develop excellent communication skills, as well as helping me to hone my reading, writing, listening and speaking skills for both my target languages.  I have also become a much more resilient learner, being able to persevere when things start to get tough and independently solve issues where possible.

Charlotte Allwood

French and Contemporary Chinese Studies BA

Course data

Open Day June 2022