History with Global History

History with a focus on global history is a degree that deliberately looks beyond the national and European frameworks that have traditionally dominated historical scholarship. It asks what the past looks like when we take seriously the experiences and perspectives of people across the full breadth of the world, examining how empires, trade networks, migrations, religious movements and cultural exchanges have connected distant places and how the processes we call globalisation have deep historical roots. At Goldsmiths, a college known for its cosmopolitan, critically engaged approach to the humanities, this global orientation is a natural fit.

This three-year full-time programme develops your skills as a historian through engagement with a wide range of topics, periods and geographical contexts. You will study the history of connections and exchanges between different parts of the world, examine how historical processes have operated at global as well as local and national scales, and develop the critical skills to read historical sources from diverse traditions. You will work with primary sources, develop skills in historical argumentation and encounter the theoretical and historiographical debates that have shaped how historians think about global interconnection and comparison.

Graduates from history programmes are consistently valued by employers who need people who can research, analyse, contextualise and communicate well. The civil service, journalism, publishing, policy, international organisations, education, heritage and a wide range of other sectors recruit history graduates. The global orientation of this degree is particularly useful for careers with an international dimension, and the cultural breadth developed through the study of world history is an asset in any professional context that involves engagement across national and cultural boundaries.

Many graduates also go on to postgraduate study in history, area studies, international relations or related humanities disciplines.