English and History

English and History is a combination that works because the two disciplines share more than a love of reading. Both are concerned with how meaning is made and transmitted, how evidence is weighed and interpreted, and how the stories we tell about the past shape the present. English brings the tools of literary analysis and an attention to language; History brings archival practice, historical method, and a concern with causation and change over time.

Together they produce graduates who can read closely, argue carefully, and write well.

At the University of Portsmouth, this three-year full-time programme also offers a placement year and a year abroad, as well as work placement opportunities, giving you structured experience beyond the lecture hall. You will move between literary texts from different periods and historical primary sources, learning to apply the analytical methods of each discipline. The combination might take you from reading the Victorian novel alongside the social history of industrialisation, to examining war poetry alongside the military history of the First World War, to exploring post-colonial fiction alongside the history of empire.

The career destinations of English and History graduates are genuinely broad. Teaching is a well-established route, at both secondary and further education levels. Journalism, publishing, the heritage and museum sector, libraries and archives, law, the civil service, communications, and marketing are all common destinations.

The writing and research skills developed translate well into almost any professional context that values clear thinking and strong communication. Many graduates also pursue postgraduate study, whether a Masters in a specific literary period or historical field, a qualification in education, or research degrees leading to academic careers.