Economic & Social History/Celtic Studies

Economic and social history is a discipline that sits uniquely at the boundary of history and the social sciences. Rather than focusing primarily on political events or individual actors, it examines the structures, systems, and everyday experiences that shaped how people lived, worked, consumed, and organised themselves over time. It draws on methods and concepts from economics, sociology, and historical demography, applying them to questions about industrialisation, migration, poverty, inequality, trade, and the long-run development of societies.

Celtic Studies adds a further dimension, exploring the languages, literatures, and cultures of the Celtic-speaking peoples of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and beyond, opening up a tradition that is often marginalised in mainstream historical accounts.

At the University of Glasgow, this part-time programme allows you to pursue both subjects alongside other commitments, building your knowledge gradually across a flexible timetable. You will study how people in the past lived and worked, how economic and social structures emerged and changed, and how those changes have affected the development of the world today. In Celtic Studies, you will engage with the languages and cultural production of Celtic communities, examining literary texts, historical records, and oral traditions.

The programme includes a year abroad, offering you the opportunity to study within a different academic context and to deepen your engagement with the Celtic world or with international dimensions of economic and social history.

Graduates from economic and social history programmes find careers in research, archiving, heritage management, policy analysis, journalism, education, and the public sector. The ability to work with historical data, construct evidence-based arguments, and understand long-run social and economic processes is valued in a wide range of professional contexts. Celtic Studies graduates contribute to language preservation, cultural organisations, public broadcasting, and community development.

Further study at postgraduate level, including research degrees in history, Celtic studies, or economic history, is a common route for those wishing to pursue specialist expertise.