Film & TV and History BA (Hons)

Core modules

The Historian's Craft

This module explores the role of the historian, and the purpose of history as a discipline, examining how historical narratives develop, and why historians rarely agree. You will be introduced to a range of source collections and guided through how to critically examine and analyse this material as historical evidence.

Putting Film and TV into practice

This module explores the vibrant and varied theoretical landscape that shapes our understanding of the big and small screen. It draws upon canonical work in film theory and television studies, as well as theories that attend to more marginal screens, texts, audiences, and industries, enabling you to theorise classical Hollywood cinema and popular TV genres, as well as films and shows from alternative filmmaking and televisual perspectives and practices.

Transformation: Agency and World

This second-year module enables you to develop your understanding and practice of interdisciplinary study through a focus on the role and value of the humanities for understanding and engaging with sustainable futures and the future of work, beginning with addressing challenges we face in the present and actions we might take. Interrogating local, national, and global sustainability frameworks from a multi- and interdisciplinary perspective, the module provides an opportunity for you to bring together both of your subjects to address questions of sustainability and enterprise in a variety of sectors and contexts. The module enables you to reflect on your own place within these debates and their relation to your academic, personal, and professional development. As part of the module all students will complete an 80-hour work placement experience. You will be assessed through a professional portfolio and placement report.

Optional pathways

Pathway 1: Extended work-like experience

Get the experience you need for after you graduate, and really understand how the things you study translate into the world of work with a work placement. Your highly experienced Employability Team will help you find a placement to suit your career goals from our huge network of companies, charities, institutions, and beyond.

Pathway 2: An international exchange

Travel the world, meet new friends, and have experiences you will remember for the rest of your life.

Our flexible curriculum has been designed to allow some amazing opportunities for you. Your second year of study is divided into two semesters, giving you the opportunity to take part in an international exchange. You could study with one of international exchange partners in Australia, Europe, USA, Canada, Thailand and many, many more.

Our dedicated team will support you in finding and arranging a suitable exchange. And don't worry about the cost, they will help you apply for any grants or loans you may need, as no one should miss out on the chance to broaden their horizons.

Pathway 3: Taught modules

Interdisciplinary optional modules typically include:

Intercultural Communication at Work

Gain the knowledge, skills and strategies to build your intercultural communication competence. Analyse and reflect on the impact of culture(s) on your values, assumptions, perceptions, expectations, and behaviours. Build successful verbal and non-verbal communication strategies in different intercultural settings.

People and Planet: pasts, presents, and futures

In this module you will develop an understanding of the human impact on the environment from the 15th Century to the present as a form of slow but sustained violence enacted against the planet. It will also explore how such long-term change can interact with social justice in the present day.

History optional modules typically include:

Fascism Past and Present

With an emphasis on topics as diverse as propaganda, racism, gender roles, and sport, this module examines and contextualises the advent of fascism and its effects on European culture and society. We will study the fascisms of yesterday and of today in order to understand how dictatorships are born and how they operate. We will explore how democracy is valued and respected by many, while challenged and undermined by others.

Money Matters: Finance Past and Present

Use the skills and knowledge developed by Humanities students to examine how human behaviour and historical trends have impacted economic systems across national, international and global arenas.

History Online: Researching and Presenting the Past

Drawing from an exciting range of specialised historical topics, you will choose two preferred areas of focus to work independently and at your own pace in designing and delivering creative magazine projects for diverse audiences. By working critically with primary and secondary source material, immersing yourself in online learning methods, and demonstrating core digital and project management skills, you will evidence levels of creativity, ambition and competences sought after in graduate level professional work environments.

Film & TV optional modules typically include:

British Cinema

This module looks at British cinema from 1960 onwards from a variety of perspectives. It considers how ‘British cinema’ is defined and its purpose in terms of representation and diversity in the face of the dominance of Hollywood. We study topics including the Bond franchise, Swinging London, social realism, the British gangster film, Hammer horror, the costume drama, Thatcherism on screen, New Scottish cinema and ‘the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. We also visit Broadway cinema for a screening and industry talk.

Analysing British Television

This module explores in-depth the specific characteristics of the British TV landscape. It introduces students to the story of British television. It surveys important factors and influences that have historically shaped British television industries and institutions, as well as forms and genres. Second, it explores different televisual mediation of class, gender and race/ethnicity. Third, it explores the key genres which enable us to make sense of British television both in the past and in the present.

Film Programming

This module gives you the opportunity to devise, plan and run your own pop-up film event. Working in groups, and alongside experienced industry professionals, you will be responsible for identifying an event theme, selecting and curating event content, and delivering your film event at one of a series of city venues. Across the module you will gain industry-ready skills in research and curation, pitching and collaboration, licensing and copyright, venue management and setup, PR and promotion, and event production and management, alongside a unique insight into Notts film culture.

Core module

Major project

For your major project in your final year of your studies, you can choose to undertake a project in either one of your two Joint Honours subjects.

Film and Television Major Project

The Film and Television Major Project offers you the chance to create a project on a film and/or television topic you are inspired by. This could be a written dissertation, a visual essay or podcast for instance. Taught sessions and tutors help throughout the process. You are free to choose your topic and develop your ideas around areas of interest. Recent projects range from witchcraft on film, queer youth in American cinema and female rage in the horror film to masculinity in Breaking Bad, satire in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, sexuality in Sex Education and Squid Game and the K-Wave.

History Major Project

Apply your skills by choosing a historical issue to research independently and communicate your findings through your choice of research product. Supported by group workshops and a dedicated supervisor, you’ll explore your chosen theme creatively, and develop key skills throughout the process by pitching your ideas and presenting your findings at an exciting showcase event. Ultimately, you’ll design, manage and produce your own distinctive piece of historical research.

Humanities Research Project

The Humanities Research Project provides you with the opportunity to work with and further develop the combined knowledge and skills you have gained across your academic subjects to create a substantial and independent piece of interdisciplinary research. Supervised by academic staff, you will develop your own research topic, approach to the research and to the research outcome, delivered either through a 10,000-word dissertation or a substantial creative project with an accompanying 4,000-word essay. You are encouraged to approach your research project entrepreneurially; how might your research project contribute to future career opportunities and/or further study?

Transformation: Agency and Social Change

This final-year module challenges you to consider the role and value of interdisciplinary research through your academic subjects in advocating for and achieving meaningful social change at different scales. Building on your first- and second-year studies, you will conceptualise, develop, and deliver your own interdisciplinary approach to a live brief focused on an aspect of social change, considering the role of issues such as ethics, justice, power, rights and inequalities, reflecting on the role that is played, or could be played, by humanities disciplines in addressing these global issues. The module also provides you with an opportunity to bring together and reflect on your personal, academic and professional development throughout your degree. For this module you will be assessed through a creative project based on a live brief, and a piece of reflective writing focused on planning for your future beyond undergraduate study.

History optional modules typically include:

Women and Gender in the Pre-Modern World

The medieval period encompassed a spectrum of significant changes for women and men, yet women and other social groups who lacked access to the power and learning of elite men often struggled to make their voices heard in historical sources. This course will explore a range of ‘hidden histories’ impacted by sex and gender and will examine how scholars have changed approaches to evidence in order to better understand peoples lived experiences and learn about individuals and groups who challenged social norms.

The Apocalypse in History and Culture

Explore the concept of the apocalypse in history, examining its social, cultural and religious dimensions across medieval and early modern landscapes. You will encounter the apocalyptic traditions and prophetic voices that defined their age and engage critically with diverse primary sources such as art and imagery, letters, literature and philosophies. The module will show how End Times visions from history still resonate today and can be identified within contemporary fears of apocalyptic and dystopian futures.

Legacies and Memories of Conflict

This module focuses on the theme of conflict, its impact, and how it is remembered. Through an exploration of a range of conflicts (for example, World War 2, Israel-Palestine, Algeria, Northern Ireland), you will uncover what happened, why, and what the consequences have been. You will then examine how each of these conflicts have been remembered over time and across the different case-studies. The over-arching aim will be to understand the extent to which memories of conflict help us better make sense of our world today.

The Global Struggle for Civil and Human Rights

This module will examine the long struggle for civil and human rights within their national and transnational contexts. This will include the Black Freedom Struggle, civil rights in Northern Ireland, and anti- and de-colonial movements and moments across the globe. We will explore continuities between contemporary and historic struggles, engaging with present-day movements and current sites of activism, such as social media.

History Online: the Value and Values of History

Explore a diverse range of historical subjects based on the latest research and your personal interests.

Film and TV optional modules typically include:

American Television since 1950: from broadcast to narrowcast

This module examines American television from the 1950s to the present. It follows key developments in the industry, such as the formation of the classic network system, the arrival of cable and the development of on demand and streaming services, each of which has characteristic sorts of programming associated with it. We focus on key genres and cycles during this period to investigate how television responded to changes in wider American society.

Rubbish Film

Rubbish, garbage, trashy – we all occasionally use these words to describe films. Salvaging such throwaway responses, this module explores questions of equality, sustainability, climate change, industry and innovation through rubbish and its relationship to film. From films made from rubbish, and films that take garbage as their explicit thematic concern; to fake found footage films, bad biographies, the ‘dirt’ of B movie cinema, and Hollywood’s penchant for ‘recycling’ via superhero sequels and franchise reboots, you will come to understand the wastefulness of film without getting your hands too dirty.

American Cinema Since 1949: Margins and mainstreams

1949 marks the enactment of key legislation which had some far-reaching effects on American cinema over time. This module covers the period from that date to the present, identifying key trends in the industry as it responds both to these changes and to changing American social contexts in a wide variety of ways. We examine both mainstream Hollywood cinema, the independent sector, and the increasingly complex relationships between the two.