Do you want to develop a deep understanding of human experience in Europe and its associated cultures from earliest times to the very present? Do you want to explore issues of memory, truth, curiosity and understanding that have fascinated people at all times and at all places? This programme will bring students to the heart of vital questions about society, history, culture and life itself, and deep into the array of texts that are the result of millennia of lives lived.

Students will not only encounter written words but gain key skills in interpreting evidence of every kind – material, oral, visual and aural – through dynamic lectures and small group tuition. Key modules from the three cognate subjects of Classics, English and History will be consolidated by small-group tuition in thematic cross-disciplinary modules on issues such as cultural transmission, intertextuality, history of ideas and political thought.

First Year

You will take a dedicated inter-disciplinary module, Interpreting Evidence, and you will choose from the full range of modules in Classics, English and History, including:

• Classical Greece
• Age of Augustus
• War and the Hero (Homer and Virgil)
• Classical Myth
• Contemporary Irish Writing
• Literary Genre
• How to Read Poetry
• Writing the Body
• Critical Reading/Creative Writing
• Modern Europe
• Creating History
• Modern Ireland
• Rome To Renaissance.

Second Year

You will take an interdisciplinary core module based in UCD Special Collections and choose from the full range of modules in Classics, English and History, including:

• Alexander the Great
• Greek Tragedy
• Heracles the Hero
• Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians
• The Oedipus Myth
• Pompeii
• Eating and Drinking in Antiquity
• Magic in the Ancient World
• Reading Medieval Literature
• Irish Literature in English
• Modern American Literature
• Renaissance Literature
• Romanticism
• Victorian to Modern Literature
• Twentieth-Century Drama
• History Today
• French Revolution
• Islam & Christianity
• Northern Ireland
• Early Modern Europe.

For detailed information on subject content click here.

Third Year

You will choose from a range of options that will enable you to broaden your horizons and enrich your academic experience:

• Apply for a competitive internship in an area that interests you and/or relates to your area of study.
• Study abroad for a trimester/year to develop your language skills and immerse yourself in a new culture.
• Deepen your knowledge by studying a full range of Classics, English and History modules.

Fourth Year

Undertake a research dissertation drawing on the disciplines studied and choose from a range of modules including:

• Modern Japan
• Orwell’s Twentieth Century
• Making Shakespeare
• Apocalypse Then: Old English Literature
• Magic in the Ancient World
• Pompeii

A strong focus on the fluent articulation and analysis of ideas means students on this course will gain numerous transferrable skills, highly valued by employers. 

This programme prepares students for graduate study in many areas, including: Classics, English, History, Film, Drama, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Education, Archives.

Graduates can find employment in:
 

• Broadcasting and Journalism
• Business
• Civil Service
• Law
• Publishing
• Public Relations
• Politics
• Research
• Teaching
• Marketing
• Policymaking
• Tourism
• Heritage

Graduates are also eligible to apply for UCD MA programmes in History, which include specialisms in Irish, European, International and Medieval History, Public History and History of Medicine.

“Classics, English & History at UCD was a fantastic choice for me. I had always been interested in these subjects and now I get to study each of them in depth, as well as interdisciplinary modules to really analyse how they impact each other. I have gained research and critical thinking skills and learned about a wide range of topics from each discipline. I also spent a trimester on an internship in the Little Museum of Dublin gaining hands-on professional experience. The academic, professional and personal growth opportunities I’ve been able to explore over my time in UCD have made my learning experience here so enriching.”

Niamh Scully, Student