History and Literature

History and literature are disciplines that have always informed each other. History asks what happened, why it happened, and what it means; literature gives voice to the experience of living through events, embodies the assumptions and values of particular times and places, and shapes how societies remember and interpret their past. Studying them together allows you to move between these two modes of understanding, using each to enrich your engagement with the other.

At the University of the Highlands and Islands, this four-year programme allows you to study history and literature at your own pace, making it a flexible option for students with existing commitments. You will engage with historical periods and events, developing the research skills and critical awareness that history demands, alongside close reading of literary texts from different traditions, periods, and forms. The programme asks you to think about how historical context shapes literary production, how literature can be used as historical evidence, and how the stories cultures tell about their past reflect their values and concerns.

The Highlands and Islands setting enriches study with a particular attention to Scottish and Gaelic literary and historical traditions, which are woven into the cultural landscape of the institution itself.

The skills the programme develops are genuinely transferable: careful reading, critical argument, research, writing, and the ability to work with complex evidence. Graduates go on to careers in education, journalism, publishing, archiving, heritage, the cultural sector, and the civil service, among others. Many continue to postgraduate study in history, literature, or creative writing, and some pursue careers in research or academia.

The combination of historical and literary sensibility is also a strong foundation for any career that requires sustained attention to language, context, and meaning.