History and American Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University is a thriving and dynamic department which combines innovative high-quality teaching with internationally-acclaimed research in a friendly and supportive learning environment. You can study History or American Studies as a single subject (single honours) degree or you can combine them with another subject (History and English Literature, for example, or American Studies and Politics). You can also study a range of Archaeology modules within your History degree, or opt to take a combined degree in History and Archaeology. The single honours American Studies degree also offers exciting opportunities for study in the USA or Canada.

Whatever your degree combination, the student learning experience is at the heart of our work. All of our undergraduate programmes, whether in History or American Studies, have been consistently highly-rated by external examiners and other quality auditors, including the National Student Survey, while our philosophy of teaching emphasizes active and shared learning. Our students not only learn from our team of expert and experienced tutors and from their own individual research and reflection, but from each other. To this end, we utilize a range of technology-based tools, particularly our Virtual Learning platform and its communication facility, but always in a manner that complements rather than replaces established learning methods such as lectures, seminars and tutorials.

All our lecturers are research-active, writing and publishing on areas as diverse as medieval Queenship and the Vietnam War. In the most recent government-sponsored Research Assessment Exercise the vast majority of the books and articles written by our lecturers were rated internationally excellent, and this expertise in scholarship further informs and enhances the student experience. 

Our educational commitment does not end in the seminar room or lecture hall. On the contrary, we take very seriously the future employability of our students, advising and encouraging them on career choices. Employers value the skills that a History or American Studies graduate brings with them, including the ability to discern the vital from the less important in a mass of data, to think critically, to problem-solve, and to express themselves lucidly and cogently both on paper and orally. 

Our graduates go on to work in a wide variety of areas - print and television journalism, business and management, industry, advertising, law, public administration, finance, education, museums, heritage and leisure

The History programme offers both breadth and depth with modules ranging from the Crusades to the Cold war. We are one of the few departments in the UK university sector to offer a degree that blends in equal measure medieval, early modern and modern history. This said, our students can also, if they wish, focus heavily on one of these three key periodizations.

Beyond this, we also offer modules in Archaeology, both practical and theoretical. Increasingly popular, the Archaeology programme introduces students to the many ways in which analysis of Prehistoric, Roman and Medieval remains found in the British Isles and North-Western Europe enhance our study of the Past. The department is intimately associated with the on-going archaeological dig at the Roman site at Folkestone which has featured recently on television in The Mud Men (The History Channel) and Digging for Britain (BBC).

The American Studies programme is one of the most successful in the United Kingdom – indeed in the most recent National Student Survey our students were ‘100 percent satisfied with the course’. Like the History programme, American Studies emphasizes breadth and depth of study, with modules ranging from the colonial period and the American Revolution to American Indian history and the Presidency of Barack Obama, and focusing not just on history and politics, but on geography, cinema, art and literature, in a genuinely inter-disciplinary learning experience.  

American Studies is also constantly evolving both in time – to keep up to date with events in the United States, from the election (and possibly re-election) of President Obama to the impact of the global economic recession on the USA – and in regional emphasis, with students now able to take modules encompassing Latin America and Canada.

Students on the American Studies programme also have the chance to spend time studying at universities in the United States and Canada, an exciting and valuable learning opportunity whether undertaken for the whole academic year or just a single term. In addition, shorter trips to the United States are scheduled for the Easter vacation, to New York or San Francisco or other major cities.

The History and American Studies Department also houses a thriving postgraduate research community, with degrees ranging from an MA by Research through to M. Phil and Ph.D study.