English and History

English and history is a joint honours degree that explores human experience across both its written and its historical dimensions, developing two disciplines that have been in productive dialogue for centuries. At the University of Leeds, the BA English and History is a three-year full-time programme that includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and work placement, giving you extensive professional and international experience alongside a challenging and stimulating academic curriculum. As the current description notes, the degree allows you to explore the human experience from the medieval period to contemporary times from the perspectives of both disciplines.

The English strand develops your skills in reading, analysis, and writing, engaging with literature from across periods, genres, and traditions. You will learn to read texts closely and critically, to situate literary works in their historical and cultural contexts, and to engage with the major theoretical debates that literary study has generated. The history strand develops your capacity to work with primary and secondary sources, to think critically about evidence and argument, and to construct well-reasoned accounts of the past that are honest about the complexity of what can be known.

The two subjects reinforce each other: literary texts are historical documents as well as aesthetic objects, and historical understanding deepens your reading of literature in ways that purely formal analysis cannot. The year abroad and the professional experience available through the sandwich year add dimensions of international perspective and practical competence that strengthen your development as a well-rounded graduate.

Graduates of English and history programmes move into careers in journalism, publishing, teaching, the civil service, the law, arts administration, heritage management, public policy, and the voluntary sector. The analytical, research, and communication skills that both subjects develop in combination are among the most transferable of any humanities degree. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in English literature, history, law, journalism, or professional programmes.

The combination of close reading, archival research, and critical writing abilities that Leeds's programme develops provides a strong and versatile foundation for a wide range of careers.