BA in Anthropology and History
Belfast, United Kingdom
DURATION
3 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline *
EARLIEST START DATE
Request earliest startdate
TUITION FEES
GBP 18,800 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* subject to the availability of places
** international fee
Introduction
This mutually enriching joint programme equips students in identifying historical and contemporary patterns of social organisation, ethnic and cultural divisions, varieties of inequality, and patterns of change over time across diverse societies.
Anthropology is the study of human diversity around the world. In studying anthropology, you will learn how different societies live together and think about such topics as family, sex, religion, art, and economics and gain skills increasingly in demand in a globalized and automated world.
Issues addressed in anthropology modules include:
- Does globalisation mean the end of cultural difference?
- Can a post-conflict society heal?
- How do ritual traditions, musical performances, and art shape cultural identities?
- How do some people become willing to die for a group?
Through classroom modules, optional placements, and your own anthropological fieldwork, you will also gain valuable skills in critical thinking, cross-cultural understanding, researching, interviewing, writing, and presenting.
History explains the modern world by tracking phenomena like gender, race, class, religion, the state, empire, or capitalism back through time. Our historians are able to reach back to the Roman empire, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation and the great modern revolutions across all of Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia, in order to account for our lives today. From their first year, we trust our students to make choices and range widely across all these histories to understand where we have come from. And from the beginning of your degree you will be taught in small groups by expert historians. Our range in time and space, our trust in you to explore and make good choices, and our small group teaching from the first year of the degree, mark us out among our peer universities.
Anthropology And History Degree Highlights
In the Guardian University Guide 2021, Anthropology was ranked 2nd in the UK overall.
Global Opportunities
Undergraduate anthropology students, as part of their training, have carried out ethnographic field research around the world. Projects have focused on orphanages in Kenya; AIDS in southern Africa, education in Ghana; dance in India, NGOs in Guatemala, music in China, marriage in Japan, backpacking in Europe, and whale-watching in Hawaii.
This joint programme also offers students opportunities to travel and study at universities in Europe and North America. Short-term (two weeks) and longer-term (up to one academic year) exchanges are on offer.
Possible examples include:
- George Washington University (Washington DC, USA)
- Aarhus Universitet (Denmark)
- College of Charleston (South Carolina, USA)
- Institut d’Etudes Politques de Bordeaux (France)
- University of Oslo (Norway)
- Universiteit Utrecht (Netherlands)
- Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee, USA)
History field trips may also be offered in particular years or as part of certain modules.
Career Development
- In Anthropology, through the different stages of the dissertation module (preparation and research design, fieldwork itself, and post-fieldwork writing-up), students develop a range of skills (organizational skills, interpersonal skills, information-handling skills, and project management skills) that prepare them for later employment. Many of our students work with NGOs and other organisations (e.g. Operation Wallacea; Belfast Migration Centre) as part of their fieldwork.
World Class Facilities
- The Performance Room includes a variety of musical instruments from around the world, a collection that has grown since the 1970s when Ethnomusicology was first established as an International Centre at Queen’s by the late Prof John Blacking. These instruments, together with the sprung performance room floor, facilitate music and dance ensembles, enabling our unit to remain one of the leading departments in Ethnomusicology.
- The McClay Library brings together library, computing, and media services in one excellent, modern building. It can accommodate more than 2000 readers at a time, and boasts a collection of more than 1,200,000 volumes: books, manuscripts and periodicals collected over 160 years. It is a superb study-space for anthropologists and historians.
Internationally Renowned Experts
- Anthropology at Queen’s has international renown in the following areas: Ethnomusicology and performance; Conflict and borders; Religion; Cognition and culture; Migration and diasporas; Irish studies; Material culture and art; Human-animal relations; The cross-cultural study of emotions.
- History at Queen's enjoys a concentration of excellent expertise in Ancient History, the medieval, early modern, and modern history of Britain, Ireland and continental Europe, the history of the American South from the seventeenth century, the history of twentieth-century Africa and China.
Student Experience
- Studying Anthropology and History together brings together the study of human diversity with the study of change over time. Studying these at Queen’s means you benefit from the Anthropologists' commitment to fieldwork, and the Historians' commitment to small group teaching.
- Year after year, our history students tell the NSS that they are more than 90% satisfied by their teaching. We offer a wide-ranging history curriculum, that attends to historical phenomena like racism traditionally neglected by British and Irish universities. Students play an active role in making their own curriculum. Our historians teach in small groups even at Level 1.
- The School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics received an overall student satisfaction score of 90% in the 2019 National Student Survey.
- Queen's currently has over 3,000 international students from 85 different countries.
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
How do I fund my study?
There are different tuition fees and student financial support arrangements for students from Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales (Great Britain), and those from the rest of the European Union.
Scholarships
Each year, we offer a range of scholarships and prizes for new students.
International Scholarships
Curriculum
Course Structure
Introduction
Anthropology at Queen’s is constructed around four innovative, engaged themes:
- What Makes Us Human?
- Modules may include: Being Human: Evolution, Culture, and Society; World on the Move; How Society Works.
- Conflict, Peacebuilding, and Identity
- Modules may include: Us & Them: Why We Have Ingroups and Outgroups; Why Are Humans Violent? Understanding Violence, Conflict, and Trauma; Migration, Mobilities, and Borders.
- Arts, Creativity, and Music
- Modules may include: Being Creative: Music, Media, and the Arts; Radical Music: Understanding Sounds of Defiance across Disciplines.
- Morality, Religion, and Cognition
- Modules may include Apocalypse!: The End of the World; In Gods, We Trust: The New Science of Religion; Human Morality; Love, Hate, and Beyond.
Introduction 2
The History part of the program develops sequentially over the three-year degree. At level 1, we teach the basics of interpreting primary and secondary sources, writing and presenting in a convincing manner, and all the most basic tools of the historian. These skills are taught in small groups by professional historians who have published on the subject about which they teach. At level 2, we invite our students to range much more widely in time and space: modules at this level cover developments over much longer periods of time. At level 3, students narrow their focus once more, specializing in modules taught by scholars and experts in their subject areas. Students can also choose to write a history dissertation at this level: a substantial original piece of research based on the close study of primary sources.
Stage 1
Anthropolgy
- Being Human: Evolution, Culture and Society
- A World on the Move: Anthropological and Historical Approaches to Globalisation Us and Them:
- Why Do We Have In-groups and Outgroups?
- Being Creative: Music, Media, and the Arts
- Understanding Northern Ireland
History
Modules at Level 1 offer a systematic introduction to the discipline of History, partly by sampling some of the many different approaches that historians take in studying the past, and partly by an exploration of some of the major questions of theory and method with which they are concerned, Ireland and Britain: People, Identity, Nations Remembering the Future: Violent Pasts, Loss, and the Politics of Hope
Stage 2
Anthropology
- How Society Works: Key Debates in Anthropology
- Skills in the Field: Dissertation Preparation
- Hanging out on Street Corners: Public and Applied Anthropology
- Business Anthropology in the Digital Age
- Sex and Gender: Biology, Desire, and Equality
- Why Are Humans Violent? Understanding Violence, Conflict, and Trauma
- Human Morality
- Radical Music: Understanding Sounds of Defiance across Disciplines
- Apocalypse! The End of the World.
History
Modules at Level 2 are generally survey modules seeking to convey a sense of the principal events, trends, and developments in a particular country or region over a fairly long time span.
Examples include:
- Greece and Macedon 404–337 BC
- Politics and Society in 20th-Century Ireland
- The American South 1865–1980
- The Expansion of Medieval Europe 1000–1300
- Politics and Society in 20th-Century Ireland
- The Making of Contemporary Britain: 1914 to the Present
- The American South 1619-1865
- The Roman Origins of the East
- Europe between the Wars, 1919-1939
- Life, Love, and Death in England and Ireland, c.1350-1650
- The American South, 1865-1980
- Revolutionary Europe, 1500-178
- History and Society
- Greece and Macedon 404-337 BC
- Roman Empire (AD 41-235)
- International Module
- Politics and Society in 19th-Century Ireland
- Visualizing China's encounter
Stage 3
Anthropology
- Dissertation in Social Anthropology: Writing-Up
- The Politics of Performance: From Negotiation to Display
- Human-Animal Relations
- In Gods, We Trust: The New Science of Religion
- Love, Hate and Beyond: Emotions, Culture, Practice
- Music and Identity in the Mediterranean
- Ireland and Britain: People, Identity, Nations
- Remembering the Future: Violent Pasts, Loss, and the Politics of Hope
History
Taught modules at Level 3 are more specialized, offering the opportunity to study a short period or a particular theme or problem in detail, working from documents as well as secondary sources.
Examples include:
- Family, Gender and Household in Ireland
- c1740–1840
- Popular Culture in England 1500–1700
- The American Civil War and
- Reconstruction
- The Peasants‘ Revolt 1381
- The Russian Revolution
- Popular Culture in England 150
- That Vast Catastrophe
- The American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860-1877
- The Soviet Union 1921-1991
- Rome Under The Early Emperors
- The Irish Revolution, 1917-1921
- Kings, courts, and Culture in Carolingian Europe
- Gender, Family, and Household in Ireland, c. 1740-1840
- Crime & Punishment 19th Century Ireland
- Britain and the Cold War, 1945
- The War of Ideas 17 C Ireland
- Modern America: Since 1964
- The Irish Country House
- Interpreting Voices Of The Past
- Anglo-Normans In Ire 1169-1366
- Society and Politics in Belfast 1780-1914
- The Origins of Protestantism
- Evangelical Protestantism in Ulster: From the United Irishmen to Ian Paisley
- Dissertation
- After Slavery: Race and Labour
- Modernity in Missions:
- Age of anxiety: Irish Culture
- The British republic
- Norman Conquest of England
- Kings and Saints in Early Ireland
Note that this is not an exclusive list and these options are subject to staff availability.
Learning and Teaching
Examples of the opportunities provided for learning in this course are:
E-Learning technologies
Information associated with lectures and assignments is often communicated via a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). A range of e-learning experiences is also embedded in the degree program through the use of, for example, interactive support materials, podcasts, and web-based learning activities.
Fieldwork
Single-honors anthropology students have the opportunity to study research methods and carry out anthropological fieldwork for an 8-week period. This crucial period of skill formation and research forms the basis of a dissertation they write up in the first semester of their third year.
Lectures
Lectures introduce foundation information about new topics as a starting point for further self-directed private study/reading. Lectures, which are normally delivered in large groups to all year-group peers, also provide opportunities to ask questions and seek clarification on key issues as well as gain feedback and advice on assessments.
Self-directed study
This is an essential part of life as a Queen’s student. It is during the self-directed study that a student completes the important private reading, engages with e-learning resources, reflects on feedback, and completes assignment research and preparation.
Seminars/tutorials
A significant amount of teaching is carried out in small groups (typically 10-12 students). These sessions are designed to explore in more depth the information that has been presented in the lectures. They provide students with the opportunity to engage closely with academic staff, to ask questions of them, and to assess their own progress and understanding with the support of their peers. During these classes, students will be expected to present their work to academic staff and their peers.
Assessment
A variety of assessment methods are used throughout the program. These include:
- coursework essays (submitted during or at the end of the semester)
- oral presentations by individual students
- video logs
- artwork and performance workshops
- weekly online commentaries on set readings
- written examinations
- dissertations.
Feedback
As students progress through their course at Queen’s, they will receive general and specific feedback about their work from a variety of sources including lecturers, module coordinators, placement supervisors, personal tutors, advisers of study, and peers. University students are expected to engage in reflective practice and to use this approach to improve the quality of their work.
- Face-to-face comment. This may include occasions when you make use of the lecturers’ advertised "office hours” to help you to address a specific query.
- Placement employer comments or references.
- Online or emailed comment.
- General comments or question-and-answer opportunities at the end of a lecture, seminar, or tutorial.
- Pre-submission advice regarding the standards you should aim for and common pitfalls to avoid. In some instances, this may be provided in the form of model answers or exemplars which you can review in your own time.
- Comment and guidance provided by staff from specialist support services such as Careers, Employability, and Skills or the Learning Development Service.
- Once you have reviewed your feedback, you will be encouraged to identify and implement further improvements to the quality of your work.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Studying for an Anthropology degree at Queen‘s will assist you in developing the core skills and employment-related experiences that are increasingly valued by employers, professional organisations and academic institutions. Through classroom modules, optional placements and your own anthropological fieldwork, you will gain valuable skills in critical thinking, cross-cultural understanding, researching, interviewing, writing, and presenting.
Employment after the Course
Career pathways typically lead to employment in:
- User Experience
- Consultancy
- Civil Service
- Development, NGO work, International Policy, Public Sector
- Journalism, Human Rights, Conflict Resolution, Community Work
- Arts Administration, Creative Industries, Media, Performance, Heritage, Museums, Tourism
- Market Research
- Public and Private Sector related to: Religious Negotiation, Multiculturalism/Diversity
- Teaching in schools
- Academic Teaching and Research
- Human Rights, Conflict Resolution, Community Work, Journalism
Employment Links
A growing number of internship opportunities will match dissertation students with organizations and institutions relevant to their career paths by building on local and international staff networks and professional connections.
Current placement partners include
- Operation Wallacea, which works with teams of ecologists, scientists and academics on a variety of bio-geographical projects around the globe.
- Belfast Migration Centre offers students of the module ‘Migration, Displacement and Diasporas’ internship opportunities in their ‘Belonging Project’.
Professional Opportunities
International Travel
As part of undergraduate training, students have the opportunity to use practice-based research skills during eight weeks of ethnographic fieldwork in areas of their specialization, which can entail working with organizations around the globe.
Degree plus award for extra-curricular skills
In addition to your degree program, at Queen's, you can have the opportunity to gain wider life, academic and employability skills. For example, placements, voluntary work, clubs, societies, sports, and lots more. So not only do you graduate with a degree recognized by a world-leading university, you'll have practical national and international experience plus a wider exposure to life overall. We call this Degree Plus. It's what makes studying at Queen's University Belfast special.