Undergradute student studying in the George Green library, University Park. November 5th 2021.

Modern European Studies BA

University Park Campus, Nottingham, UK

Course overview

 

Do you feel there is more to the past than just the UK’s perspective? Are you ready to examine history through the lens of other cultures, other ideologies and other languages?

 

This course allows you to combine your passion for language learning with your curiosity for exploring the past. Through combining one or two European languages with history you’ll gain access not only to additional source texts, but also a whole new way of understanding the societies and cultures of contemporary Europe.

 

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 language and culture of your chosen country/countries, but spending time abroad can make you more independent and confident. Taking yourself out of your comfort zone won’t only benefit your degree, it’ll shape the person you are to become.

Indicative modules

Mandatory

Year 1

French 1

Mandatory

Year 1

French 1: Beginners

Mandatory

Year 1

Introduction to French and Francophone Studies

Mandatory

Year 1

German 1

Mandatory

Year 1

German 1: Beginners

Mandatory

Year 1

Introduction to German Studies

Mandatory

Year 1

Spanish 1

Mandatory

Year 1

Spanish 1: Beginners

Mandatory

Year 1

Modern Latin America

Mandatory

Year 1

Portuguese 1: Beginners

Mandatory

Year 1

Culture and Society in Brazil, Portugal and Portuguese-speaking Africa

Mandatory

Year 1

Russian 1

Mandatory

Year 1

Russian 1: Beginners

Mandatory

Year 1

Serbian / Croatian 1: Beginners

Mandatory

Year 1

Learning History

Mandatory

Year 1

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

Mandatory

Year 1

The Contemporary World since 1945

Optional

Year 1

France: History and Identity

Optional

Year 1

Introduction to French Literature: Landmarks in Narrative

Optional

Year 1

Contemporary France

Optional

Year 1

Introduction to French Literature: Representations of Paris

Optional

Year 1

Deutschland Heute

Optional

Year 1

Reading German History: Nation and Society

Optional

Year 1

Introduction to Translation and Interpreting Studies

Optional

Year 1

Sex, Gender and Society in Modern Germany

Optional

Year 1

Language Meaning, Variation and Change

Optional

Year 1

German National Socialism (1933-1945): Hitler and the Third Reich

Optional

Year 1

Portuguese 1: Beginners

Optional

Year 1

Literature in Spanish

Optional

Year 1

Modern Latin America

Optional

Year 1

Culture and Society in Brazil, Portugal and Portuguese-speaking Africa

Optional

Year 1

The Clash of Empires: History of the Balkans from Alexander the Great to Napoleon

Optional

Year 1

From Tsarism to Communism: Introduction to Russian History and Culture

Optional

Year 1

Serbian / Croatian 1: Beginners

Optional

Year 1

The Soviet Experiment

Optional

Year 1

Language, Meaning, Variation and Change

Mandatory

Year 2

French 2

Mandatory

Year 2

French 2 - Beginners

Mandatory

Year 2

Introduction to French and Francophone Studies

Mandatory

Year 2

German 2

Mandatory

Year 2

German 2 - Beginners

Mandatory

Year 2

Leben und Arbeiten in Deutschland: Introduction to Contemporary Germany

Mandatory

Year 2

Spanish 2

Mandatory

Year 2

Spanish 2: Beginners

Mandatory

Year 2

Russian 2

Mandatory

Year 2

Russian 2 - Beginners

Mandatory

Year 2

Portuguese 2: Beginners

Mandatory

Year 2

Serbian / Croatian 1: Beginners

Mandatory

Year 2

Serbian / Croatian 2

Optional

Year 2

French Cinema: The New Wave

Optional

Year 2

Contemporary France

Optional

Year 2

Art and Contemporary Visual Culture in France

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

Sociolinguistics: An Introduction

Optional

Year 2

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

Optional

Year 2

Life and Demise of the GDR

Optional

Year 2

The Language of German Media - Linguistic and Journalistic Perspectives

Optional

Year 2

Introduction to Literary Translation

Optional

Year 2

Reason and its Rivals: From Kant to Freud

Optional

Year 2

Nationalist Socialist Germany

Optional

Year 2

Reading German History: Nation and Society

Optional

Year 2

German National Socialism (1933-1945): Hitler and the Third Reich

Optional

Year 2

Portuguese 2: Beginners

Optional

Year 2

New World(s): Contacts, Conquests and Conflict in Early Modern Hispanic History and Culture

Optional

Year 2

Modern Spanish and Spanish American Literature and Film

Optional

Year 2

Luso-Hispanic Cinemas

Optional

Year 2

Nations and Nation Building in the Lusophone World

Optional

Year 2

History of Yugoslavia and Successor States since 1941

Optional

Year 2

Repression and Resistance: Dissidents and Exiles in Russian Culture

Optional

Year 2

Gulag Archipelago: Stalin’s Prison Camps

Optional

Year 2

Screening Russia: Film and Society from the Tsars to Putin

Optional

Year 2

Serbian / Croatian 1: Beginners

Optional

Year 2

Serbian / Croatian 2

Optional

Year 2

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

Optional

Year 2

Communities, Crime and Punishment in England c.1500-1800

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

The Stranger Next Door: Jews and Christians 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

Germany and Europe in the Short 20th Century, 1918-1990

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

Race, Rights and Propaganda: The Politics of Race and Identity in the Cold War Era, 1945-1990

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

Work placement

Mandatory

Year 3

Year abroad

Mandatory

Year 4

French 3

Mandatory

Year 4

German 3

Mandatory

Year 4

Russian 3

Mandatory

Year 4

Spanish 3

Mandatory

Year 4

Portuguese 3

Mandatory

Year 4

Serbian / Croatian 2

Mandatory

Year 4

Serbian / Croatian 3

Optional

Year 4

La République Gaullienne: 1958 to 1969

Optional

Year 4

Individual and Society

Optional

Year 4

The Everyday in Contemporary Literature and Thought

Optional

Year 4

People and Propaganda: Representing the French Revolution

Optional

Year 4

Citizenship, Ethnicity and National Identity in Post-War France

Optional

Year 4

Contemporary Representations of Travel

Optional

Year 4

French Documentary Cinema

Optional

Year 4

Language Contact and French

Optional

Year 4

Difficult Women

Optional

Year 4

Language Contact and French

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

Vergangenheitsbewältigung und Nationale Identität: Geschichte und Gedächtnis nach dem Holocaust

Optional

Year 4

German Colonialism: History, Literature, Memory

Optional

Year 4

Twentieth Century German Theatre: From Avant-garde to Virtual World

Optional

Year 4

Translating Culture: Cultural Issues in Translating between English and German

Optional

Year 4

Business and Society in Spain

Optional

Year 4

Making the Cuban Revolution: Ideology, Culture and Identity in Cuba since 1959

Optional

Year 4

Literature and Film under Franco

Optional

Year 4

Culture and Society across the Portuguese-speaking World

Optional

Year 4

Brazilian Slave Society

Optional

Year 4

Translation, Power and Gender in the Spanish-speaking World

Optional

Year 4

Russian Interpreting

Optional

Year 4

The World of Orthodox Sainthood

Optional

Year 4

Dissertation in Russian and Slavonic Studies

Optional

Year 4

Brotherhood and Unity: Yugoslavia on Film

Optional

Year 4

Language Project in Russian and Slavonic Studies

Optional

Year 4

The Collapse of the Weimar Republic

Optional

Year 4

Culture, Society and Politics in 20th Century Russia

Optional

Year 4

The History of a Relation: Jews in Modern Europe

Optional

Year 4

The British Civil Wars c.1639-1652

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

Life During Wartime: Crisis, Decline and Transformation in 1970s America

Optional

Year 4

Imperial Eyes: the Body in Enlightenment Thought, c.1730-1830

Optional

Year 4

After the Golden Age: The West in the 1970s & 1980s

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

Alternatives to War: Articulating Peace since 1815

Optional

Year 4

A Green and (un) Pleasant Land? Society, Culture and the Evolution of the British Countryside

Optional

Year 4

The Past That Won't Go Away: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

Optional

Year 4

From Revelation to ISIS: Apocalyptic Thought from the 1st to 21st Century

Optional

Year 4

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

Optional

Year 4

Transnationalising Italy: A History of Modern Italy in a Transnational Perspective

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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 October 2023.

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.  

Class sizes vary depending on topic and type. A lecture may have up to 100 students attending with seminar groups of typically 12 to 20. Most are taught in English with some classes including use of the target language. Language classes are mainly delivered in the language and include oral classes.

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

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
  • Portfolio (written/digital)
  • Presentation
  • Written exam

As well as scheduled teaching you’ll carry out extensive self-study such as preparation for seminars and assessments, as well as language practice. As a guide 20 credits (a typical module) is approximately 200 hours of work (combined teaching and self-study). An average week will have between 12-15 hours of classes.

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.


“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.


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).

University undergraduates studying in the Monica Partridge building. Friday November 5th 2021.Megan Mahoney (blue top); Jane Israel (denim jacket); Sara Bintey Kabir (yellow top) and Khaqan Khan (red jumper).

I’ve found studying two subjects so rewarding. You get to study things from different perspectives which you probably wouldn't be able to do as much as a single honours student. If you want to study more than one subject, you aren't being indecisive and you won't regret it! 

Ellie Abbey

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