Major Overview

Description

Its scope spans millennia, its object of study is humanity, its sources are everywhere and everything.

History's endeavour is unashamedly vast, daunting and challenging. In submitting the past to the scrutiny of the present, it explores among so much more the experience of wars, revolutions, conflicts and diasporas, nations, empires, economies, cultures, emotions and people from the most elevated to the lowliest. In History there are no taboo areas and no questions are off limits. Doing History means learning how to learn about the past, it means engaging with its wonders and horrors, and it means joining in its telling and retelling. Doing History immerses you in discovery, debate, discussion, understanding, surprise and awe, and it requires of you rigour, reason, questioning, imagination and passion. By doing History, you become part of the process by which humanity's memory itself comes to be made.

Outcomes

Students are able to:

  1. demonstrate a capacity to understand imaginatively other times, societies and cultures
  2. demonstrate an awareness of the world we live in, through reference to important aspects of humanity's past experience
  3. demonstrate a knowledge of major historical developments in a range of times and places
  4. identify main issues in a body of complex historical material
  5. critically evaluate differences and issues in others' interpretations of historical events
  6. describe and interpret evidence of past human experience, proposing explanations for the content of such evidence with reference to concepts such as power, myth, representation, culture and social structure
  7. independently formulate a logical argument, supported by relevant evidence
  8. express ideas in clear, cogent and correct English
  9. conduct independent research by locating and organising information relating to a specific question or problem; (10) utilise historical resources for research exercises and apply critical and analytical tools to them; and (11) demonstrate a knowledge of the causes of historical change in a range of times and places.
Broadening guidelines

All students studying towards a Bachelor's Degree at UWA are required to Broaden their studies by completing a minimum of four units (24 points) of study outside their degree specific major. Broadening is your opportunity to explore other areas of interest, investigate new disciplines and knowledge paradigms and to shape your degree to suit your own aspirations and interests. Many of you will be able to undertake more than this minimum amount of broadening study and we encourage you to do so if this suits your aspirations. Over the next few months you will find here some broadening suggestions related to your degree-specific major. While we know that many students value guidance of this sort, these are only suggestions and students should not lose sight of the opportunity to explore that is afforded by your Broadening Choices. Advice can also be sought from your Allocated Student Advising Office.

Courses

History can be taken as a degree-specific major in the following degree courses:

Example Study Plan

See study plans for more information.

Units

Key to availability of units:
S1
Semester 1
S2
Semester 2
N/A
not available in 2025 – may be available in 2026 or 2027

Specialisations are optional; students may enrol in a History major with no specialisation.

Level 1

Degree-specific major units

Take unit(s) to the value of 12 points:

Availability Unit code Unit name unit requirements
S2 HIST1001 Clash of Empires
Incompatibility
HIST1101 Old Worlds, New Empires 1250–1750
S1 HIST1003 Love, Belief, and Death in Europe, 800-1800
Incompatibility
MEMS2002 World Views: Religion, Gender and Society in Pre-modern Europe, MEMS1001 Life, Thought and Culture in Pre-modern Europe
S1 HIST1103 Europe to Hell and Back 1890-1945
Incompatibility
Hist1121 'Europe 1890-1945'
S2 HIST1104 The History of Human Rights None
S1 HIST1901 Environmental History
Incompatibility
HIST2201 Environmental History

Level 2

Degree-specific major units

Take unit(s) to the value of 18 points:

Availability Unit code Unit name unit requirements
S2 GEND2902 Masculinity, Nostalgia and Change
Prerequisites
Successful completion of
GEND1901 Beyond 'Gender Wars'
or ENGL1902 Reading Bodies
or GEND2903 Sex, Gender, Technology and Science
or GEND3901 Feminist Thought
or GEND3904 Queer Theory
or Successful completion of
36 points
Incompatibility
GEND2902 Men and Masculinities in History HIST2902 Masculinity, Nostalgia and Change
S2 HIST2005 Hitler, the Holocaust and the Historians
Prerequisites
a Level 1 History unit
or EURO1101 Europe Now: Cultures and Identities
or GEND1901 Gender in Australia
Incompatibility
HIST1122 History, the Holocaust and the Historians.
HIST2237 German History from Bismarck to Hitler
N/A HIST2006 Imperial America—1845 to Present
Prerequisites
12 points of Level 1 units
Incompatibility
HIST2240 Cowboy Colonialism: the American West.
HIST2275 The USA from Civil War to Superpower.
HIST2277 The USA since 1945
N/A HIST2007 Thinking History: The Future of the Past
Prerequisites
a Level 1 History unit
or EURO1101 Contemporary European Culture in Historical Perspective
or GEND1901 Gender in Australia
N/A HIST2008 White Supremacy
Prerequisites
a Level 1 History unit
or EURO1101 Europe Now: Cultures and Identities
or GEND1901 Gender in Australia
Incompatibility
HIST2249 White Supremacy.
HIST3349 White Supremacy
N/A HIST2011 Britain and Ireland: The Making and Breaking
Prerequisites
Successful completion of
12 points Unit(s) from any discipline
Incompatibility
HIST2244 Britain 1750–1900: the First Industrial Nation.
HIST3344 Britain 1750–1900: the First Industrial Nation
N/A HIST2013 Medieval and Early Modern Women
Prerequisites
any Level 1 History unit
or GEND1902 Reading Bodies
or ENGL1902 Reading Bodies
or GEND1901 Gender in Australia
Incompatibility
HIST2219 Medieval and Early Modern Women
S1 HIST2015 Looking for Australia: From the Deep Past to Federation None
N/A HIST2017 The History of Sport: Belonging and Identity, Protest and Celebrity
Prerequisites
12 points of Level 1 units
S2 HIST2021 Who Do We Think We Are? Doing Family History None
N/A HIST2202 Civilisation and Barbarism in European Culture
Incompatibility
EURO2201 Civilisation and Barbarism in European Cultural History
N/A HIST2215 Australian Underbelly: A Criminal History
Prerequisites
Successful completion of
two level 1 6 points Unit(s)
S1 HIST2224 American Outlaws: Crime and Punishment in the United States
Prerequisites
Completion of 12 points
N/A HIST2345 Renaissance, Reformation, Revolt: Europe 1450–1650
Prerequisites
a Level 1 HIST
or GEND unit
or EURO1101 Europe Now: Cultures and Identities
Incompatibility
HIST2012 Renaissance, Reformation, Revolt: Europe 1450–1650
N/A HIST2917 Russia and the Soviet Union 1900-2000
Prerequisites
Successful completion of
two level 1 Unit(s) from the Bachelor of Arts
Incompatibility
Successful completion of
HIST3002 Russia and the Soviet Union in the Twentieth Century

Level 3

Degree-specific major units

Take the following unit:

Availability Unit code Unit name unit requirements
S2 HIST3001 History in 4D
Prerequisites
Two Level 2 History units
or two Level 2 units in the Archaeology major (except ARCY2005 Rock Art Field Unit)
Incompatibility
HIST2220 Making History
Degree-specific major units

Take unit(s) to the value of 12 points:

Availability Unit code Unit name unit requirements
S1 GEND3901 Feminist Thought
Prerequisites
Successful completion of
GEND1901 Beyond 'Gender Wars'
or ENGL1902 Reading Bodies
or GEND2902 Masculinity, Nostalgia and Change
or GEND2903 Sex, Gender, Technology and Science
or GEND3904 Queer Theory
or Successful completion of
48 points
N/A HIST3004 Twentieth-century Britain
Prerequisites
a Level 2 History unit
or EURO2201 European Civilisation
or GEND2902 Men and Masculinities in History
Incompatibility
HIST2245 Britain in the Twentieth Century
N/A HIST3005 African American History: Freedom Struggles from Plantation to Prison and Beyond
Prerequisites
12 points of Level 2 units.
Incompatibility
HIST2279 Twentieth-century African–American History.
HIST3379 Twentieth-century African–American History
S2 HIST3007 Crime and Punishment in Britain 1600–1900
Prerequisites
Completion of 12 points of Humanities units
or permission of the unit coordinator.
or any one of: EURO2201 European Civilisation.
GEND2902 Men and Masculinities in History.
LAWS1110 Crime and Society.
or LAWS2223 Criminal Justice Systems
Incompatibility
HIST2248 Crime and Punishment in Britain 1700–1900
S1 HIST3010 Introduction to African History
Prerequisites
a Level 2 History unit
or EURO2201 European Civilisation
or GEND2902 Men and Masculinities in History
Incompatibility
HIST2247 Introduction to African History
N/A HIST3012 Rights, Rule and Power: From Magna Carta to the French Revolution
Prerequisites
a Level 2 HIST unit
or EURO2201 European Civilisation
or GEND2902 Men and Masculinities in History
N/A HIST3014 Intimate Strangers: Journeys in Indigenous Australian History
Prerequisites
a Level 2 History unit
or EURO2201 European Civilisation
or GEND2902 Men and Masculinities in History
or any Level 2 unit from the Indigenous Knowledge, History and Heritage major
S1 HIST3017 Mysticism, Melancholy and Madness
Prerequisites
Any Level 2 History
or Level 2 Medieval and Early Modern Studies unit
or EURO2201 Civilisation and Barbarism in European Cultural History.
.
Incompatibility
MEMS2215 Mysticism, Melancholy and Madness
N/A HIST3302 Imagining the Nation in European Cultural History
Prerequisites
any Level 2 unit from the Bachelor of Arts.
Incompatibility
EURO2203 Imagined Homelands—Survey.
EURO3302 Imagining the Nation in European Cultural History
N/A HIST3456 History of Christianity
Prerequisites
Completion of 12 points of level 2 units.