BA Film Studies and History

BA Film Studies and History aims to develop your understanding and awareness of the rich possibilities of this creative medium and encourages you to approach the study of film from a range of historical and theoretical perspectives.

Film Studies

You will expand your experience of film through taught units and screenings that focus on both classical and contemporary films, covering a wide range of film cultures from around the world. 
You will study mainstream and non-mainstream films in order to broaden your understanding of the history of film, as well as the debates and issues that are informing and generated by current practice in film and shaping its future.
As you enhance your skills of close analysis, you will also develop an understanding of how film engages with socio-cultural and political concerns, placing the films you study in their historical context as well as thinking about current debates and future challenges for cinema as a medium.
The course emphasises historical and theoretical approaches to studying film rather than practical production. 
History

We offer one of the most diverse history courses in the UK, with our course units covering almost all of human history, including British, European, American, Asian and African history, and ranging from the classical era (Greece and Rome), through the medieval and modern periods, to the late 20th century.
We offer a wide variety of approaches to history, from political and economic history, to gender, social, cultural, and colonial history.
You will benefit from studying in the historically rich city of Manchester; itself is a living history book - from Peterloo to the anti-slavery movement, and from Roman and Anglo-Saxon forts to medieval monuments.
You can draw on the abundant library, archive and museum holdings of the local area, including Chetham's Library, The Museum of Science and Industry, The People's History Museum and the Working Class Movement Library.
You will also have access to one of only five National Research Libraries, including the special collections of The John Rylands Library, as well as the exclusive holdings of Manchester Museum.
Our course content is directly informed by our world-leading research - the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (a UK-wide benchmark for research excellence) ranked History at Manchester 4th in the UK for the quality of our research outputs, with 82% of our overall research activity recognised as `world leading' (4*) or `internationally excellent' (3*).