My name is Ciara, and I study History and Iberian Studies. In this blog post, I’m going to talk about why I chose to study History as part of my degree!
The Variety
At university, there is far more variety to what you study than at school. This variety means that you have a lot of different modules to choose from, and you get to study what interests you! For me, this means studying the Northern Ireland Troubles in my second year, a topic that I’ve never had the opportunity to study before. The first year modules cover a wide period of time and space, allowing you to study history that you’ve maybe never considered looking at before.
Being in London
I think that London is one of the best places to study history! As a history student, the number of museums and historical places of interest around the city, as well as libraries and archives, make living and learning here really enjoyable. I’m a volunteer at the Imperial War Museum London, a brilliant opportunity which would have been impossible elsewhere!
Learning and Developing Skills
At university, I’ve had the opportunity to learn new skills, and enhance ones that I learnt at school. This includes things such as my research and analysis skills, which I’m constantly improving. Participation in seminars helps to improve verbal communication skills, and provides the chance to interact with other people on the course. The skills learnt studying history will be useful when applying for jobs, as many of them are transferrable.
The People
Now that I’m in my second year at King’s, most of my friends do my course! Studying history, you’re spending a lot of time surrounded by people who most likely have similar interests to you, and who you can talk about history with. I’ve yet to encounter a history student who I haven’t gotten on with. Not only are the other students great, but the department staff are enthusiastic about the topics that they teach, and want you to enjoy it as much as they do!
Job Opportunities
The skills that you learn studying history mean that you are suited to a wide range of jobs once you graduate! Whilst there are jobs available that use history specifically, such as working in museums, or as a teacher, you learn so many transferrable skills when studying history. For example, the writing and research skills that are developed could be useful in a journalism career.
How it is taught
This year all of my seminars are taking place on Microsoft Teams, and my lectures are uploaded onto KEATS, the university’s online learning platform. Last year (a more normal year!) all of these classes took place in person on campus. I really like being able to take ideas that I’ve developed watching the lectures and doing the core reading, and talk about them in my smaller seminar groups. In most of my classes we are split into smaller groups to make presentations in seminars, or to have smaller discussions about the week’s material. Everyone is encouraged to participate and share their ideas!
More information:
To explore the King’s History Department page, click here
To read Gabrielle’s blog post, ‘A Day in the Life of a History Student’, click here
To see what other courses King’s has to offer, click here
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