Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Sociology

at University of Southampton - Avenue Campus United Kingdom

Explore the development of historical debates and ways of imagining the past. You'll study topics ranging from ancient history to the war on terror. In your third year, you’ll study history abroad at a partner university to expand your knowledge and experience. You’ll graduate with transferable skills that are relevant for a variety of careers.

You’ll look at the different ways historians have approached the human past, and study specific areas in history.

Your course will combine lectures with small group seminars. You’ll learn how to structure an argument, interrogate and contextualise evidence and evaluate historical controversies. In year 2, there’s a chance to work with others students on a group project.

Leading researchers will teach you about topics like the buildings of the Roman Empire and concepts of peace and peacefulness in twentieth-century China.

You'll spend your third year studying at one of our partner institutions abroad. University locations include Croatia, Poland, Norway and France.

As part of this degree you’ll:

• choose from over 100 modules
• access document collections, including the Wellington, Palmerston and Mountbatten papers, and the Parkes archive, one of the largest Jewish documentation centres in Europe
• attend our visiting lecture and seminar programme

Is there a god? What is freedom? What makes a state legitimate? On this BA Philosophy and Politics degree with placement year abroad you’ll explore questions studied by philosophers and political theorists throughout history. Optional modules give you the freedom to pursue your own interests in topics as varied as Chinese politics and Ancient Greek philosophy.

This degree will give you an excellent education in philosophy and politics. In your degree you can:

• Develop an understanding of philosophical questions such as ethics, reason and responsibility
• Explore fundamental and far-reaching issues about human welfare and social justice, political ideals and political realities
• Gain foundational knowledge through core modules on democracy and the modern state
• Learn about subfields of  political theory, comparative politics and international relations
• Gain an advanced knowledge of economic skills and employability
• Learn how to conduct and present dissertations and research

You’ll be taught in small groups in a relaxed and friendly environment, and benefit from the expertise of academic staff whose research feeds directly into the course content.

You can take modules from other disciplines such as anthropology or psychology, studying a language, or choosing from a range of cross-disciplinary modules. These include topics such as social enterprise, risk management, and living and working on the web.

Develop your passion for reading and your talent for languages. Discover new ways to think about literature from around the world. At Southampton, you'll study German language and culture, and English literature together to improve how you understand them. You can examine the linked histories, influences and works of German and English writers. You'll also get to experience a new culture with a year abroad.

This dynamic English and German degree course shows you the connections between literature, language and culture. Our English modules cover writing from around the world and its connection to politics, the arts, identity and more.

In your German studies, you can take modules that feed your love of history and culture, or you may choose to focus on linguistics. You can shape your degree to suit your interests or career aspirations.

You'll spend your year abroad at one of our partner universities in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, among others.

As part of this course you can:

• Use our Centre for Language Study, including a German resources room
• Join one of 40 student-led performing arts groups
• Take part in writing workshops at Nuffield Southampton Theatres
• Use a unique collection of rare books at the Chawton House Library
• Explore experimental writing with our Entropics events
• Get one-to-one tutorials on writing from our Royal Literary Fund Fellows

Become fluent in a major international language, deepen your understanding of Linguistics and spend a year in a French-speaking country. You can complement your language learning with modules on History, Contemporary Society, Literature and Film.

What you learn on this French and Linguistics degree will prepare you for work across the world. French is native to France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and the French Caribbean, and it’s an official language in much of Africa and Asia.

You’ll start at a level that matches your ability in spoken and written French, which helps ensure rapid progress. You’ll also have excellent resources to support you. The Centre for Language Study at Southampton has everything you need.

A module in year 2 prepares you for the following year abroad. You can spend the year in countries such as:

• France
• Switzerland
• Belgium
• Canada
• Guadeloupe
• Martinique
• La Réunion

We have partner universities in the Erasmus exchange programme across France and Switzerland.

Learn how to uncover the secrets of past lives through the study of human and animal skeletons. With this specialist master’s in bioarchaeology, you’ll gain expertise in human anatomy, with unlimited access to our large skeletal collection. You’ll also develop skills in faunal analysis; we have one of the largest reference collections of mammals, birds and fish in the UK.

We’re ranked Top 30 in the world for archaeology (QS World University Rankings, 2019).

Your specialist bioarcheology learning will cover:

• analysing human bones to understand age, sex, diet, health and migration
• identifying mammals, birds and fish through skeletal remains
• understanding fossilisation and bone modification
• interpreting archaeology from collections of remains

Beyond your specialist modules you can personalise this MSc bioarchaeology degree to your areas of interest through a range of optional modules.

This archaeological science master's is a very practical degree, but you don’t need prior knowledge of biology or anatomy. You’ll spend a lot of time in our dedicated archaeology laboratories and you’ll have access to specialist isotope labs and a scanning, imaging and micro-CT suite.

You’ll work closely with experts in our Centre for Learning Anatomical Sciences and benefit from opportunities to apply your learning in real-world settings.

There's an opportunity to apply your learning on a 4-week placement, where you’ll gain valuable real-world experience of the archaeology sector and heritage industry. Previous placements have included Historic England, Wessex Archaeology and The Nautical Archaeology Society.

We bring expertise together from across the University, including Medicine, Humanities, the National Oceanography Centre, Engineering and Winchester School of Art, to enable you to gain both scientific skills and cultural understanding.

This bioarchaeology master's offers a balance between vocational and research skills. During your dissertation you’ll be able to embed with one of our research groups to do original research on a topic that you choose. There is the possibility that this work will be published.

Southampton is close to the World Heritage sites of Stonehenge and Avebury and we have research projects engaged with both sites, as well as a range of other archaeological projects across the Globe.

From the Aztecs and Maya to Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire and the medieval world, you'll study the story of human activity and the origins of civilisation on BA Archaeology with Year Abroad. Through the latest techniques and technologies, you'll investigate how our ancestors lived, from the earliest human origins, to Neolithic Britain, Ancient Egypt and the Medieval Middle East.

Archaeology is the study of the human past through its material remains, such as its:

• Buildings
• Monuments
• Artefacts
• Biological remains
• Written sources
• Landscape

Whether in the laboratory on a dig, you'll develop transferable skills through exploring questions about people in the past and in the present. This archaeology bachelor degree with year abroad explores world archaeology, on topics such as:

• Excavation and field survey techniques
• Underwater archaeology
• Artefacts analysis
• Museums, heritage and public archaeology

You'll have the opportunity to experience fieldwork, including at least 3 weeks of fieldwork as part of an active research project.

We have a purpose-built archaeology building, equipped with the latest science-based laboratories. You'll gain hands-on experience with archaeological artefacts and materials, and receive practical training for a career in archaeology.

You'll spend a year abroad at one of our partner institutions such as the University of Malta or the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona. This will give you the chance to discover theories and findings in exotic locations and boost your career opportunities.

This degree gives you the opportunity to study a minor subject alongside the main programme.

We’re also offering up to 10 bursaries of £1000 each to incoming students (subject to criteria). These are from the Terry Mason Bursary and the University of Southampton Archaeology Bursary Fund.

Explore the evolution, biology and behaviour of humankind through the study of our Stone Age ancestors. With this specialist master’s in palaeoanthropology you’ll gain expertise in the analysis of stone tools and hominin skulls to understand our evolutionary journey. You’ll work closely with experts in our Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins (CAHO) and benefit from opportunities to apply your learning in real-world settings.

We’re ranked Top 30 in the world for archaeology (QS World University Rankings, 2019).

Your specialist palaeoanthropology learning will cover:

• handling and interpreting stone tools
• the role of evolutionary models, experimental testing, primatological data and ethnographies in the study of human origins
• developing methods to interrogate meaning from collections of stone tools
• using SPSS statistical analysis software

Palaeolithic symbolism and language, migration and responses to environmental change
Beyond your specialist modules you can personalise this palaeonthropology MSc to your areas of interest.

We bring expertise together from across the University, including Medicine, Humanities, the National Oceanography Centre, Engineering and Winchester School of Art, to help you gain both scientific skills and cultural understanding through a range of optional modules.

This is a very practical degree, but you don’t need prior knowledge of biology or anthropology. You’ll be based in our dedicated John Wymer Laboratory, with its own specialist library and large collection of stone tools and hominin skulls. Staff, PhD students and MSc students work in the same space, creating a lively learning environment. As a student on this course you automatically become a member of the CAHO research group.

You’ll have the opportunity to apply your skills on a 4-week placement, where you’ll gain valuable real-world experience of the archaeology sector and heritage industry. Previous placements have included Historic England, Wessex Archaeology and The Nautical Archaeology Society.

This  Palaeoanthropology course offers a balance between vocational and research skills. During your dissertation you’ll be able to embed with one of our research groups to do original research on a topic of that you choose. There is the possibility that this work will be published.

Southampton is close to the World Heritage sites of Stonehenge and Avebury and we have research projects engaged with both sites, as well as a range of other archaeological projects across the Globe.

If you’d prefer a less specialised archaeology master’s degree, or you’d like to focus on a different specialism, you can choose from our 3 other Archaeology MSc pathways. When you join us you’ll have 2 weeks in which you can change pathway if you wish.

Is there a god? What is morality? What does it mean to be human? On this joint BA Philosophy and English degree you’ll examine concepts like these from philosophical and literary perspectives. You’ll broaden your knowledge and understanding with a placement year at a university abroad.

You’ll have the freedom to pursue your own interests in subjects as varied as scriptwriting and Islamic philosophy.

In your degree you can:

• Learn about philosophical questions such as ethics, reason and responsibility
• Explore philosophy and literature through diverse times and places, from Viking to Victorian eras, from Eastern to African settings
• Study themes like the Islamic Golden Age, classical Indian philosophy, and holocaust literature
• Study abroad at one of our partner institutions
• Explore contested narratives, for example, race and culture in American literature

At Southampton you’ll learn in small groups in a relaxed and friendly environment. You'll benefit from the expertise of academic staff whose research feeds directly into the course content.

You can take modules from other disciplines such as anthropology or psychology, studying a language, or choosing from a range of cross-disciplinary modules.

Learn about the ancient world and find ways to understand the foundations of how we live today. On BA Ancient History and Archaeology, you'll develop specialist knowledge in your chosen areas of study and learn in an engaging and supportive research environment. Your research and archiving skills will prepare you for further study, or for a variety of career options. These include heritage management and archaeological research.

Studying archaeology and ancient history will give you an insight into both subjects and you'll be able to explore the topics that interest you through optional modules.

You'll have the choice of a wide range of historical topics, from Ancient Egypt to the rise of Islam in the Middle East. You can also learn what happened during the conquests of Alexander the Great and at the end of the Roman Empire.

The complementary subject of archaeology is the study of the human past through its material remains. These include buildings, monuments, artefacts, biological remains, written sources and landscape. On this ancient history and archaeology degree you can:

• Learn from experts in the ancient world (including history, archaeology, ancient and modern languages and literatures, philosophy and film)
• Use cutting-edge technology to discover and map new sites, or develop research skills
• Do at least 3 weeks of field work, including excavating archaeological sites or collecting archaeological material from ploughed fields
• Challenge yourself by learning Latin and Ancient Greek

This BA Philosophy, Ethics and Religion degree provides you with the opportunity to explore deep  and far-reaching issues. You will engage with questions that have puzzled great thinkers for millennia, and are still relevant today: How should we live? What can we really know? Can religious beliefs be justified? And what is their role in society? How can we apply philosophy to real world problems such as global poverty?

You will explore these fundamental issues using the philosophical method of reasoned argument and critical scrutiny. You’ll investigate ethical questions and the nature of religion in society, across a wide range of fields including anthropology, history, and politics.

Our broad curriculum allows you to approach topics from multiple perspectives, with the flexibility to pursue your own interests. You can also take modules outside your main degree subject, to diversify your learning.

• Develop an understanding of basic philosophical arguments in matters of ethics, reason, and responsibility
• Study questions such as the duties of affluent people towards those living in poverty around the world
• Learn about the ethics of global poverty, science and technology, plus moral questions, and the nature of moral judgments
• Apply philosophical thought to language, morality, sex and other important aspects of life

You’ll learn in small groups in a relaxed and friendly environment. You can also take modules from other disciplines such as anthropology or psychology, study a language, or choose from a range of cross-disciplinary modules