History and Anthropology

History and anthropology share a fundamental curiosity about human life across time and across cultures, and together they offer an unusually rich lens on the world. History trains you to work with evidence from the past, to question sources critically, and to understand how societies change and why. Anthropology takes the present and the recent past as its territory, using ethnographic methods and cross-cultural comparison to examine how different communities organise their lives, make meaning, and respond to power.

Studying both together deepens your understanding of what it means to be human in ways that neither discipline achieves alone.

At the University of Sussex, this three-year full-time programme draws on more than fifty years of anthropological teaching and research that has consistently engaged with real-world problems. You will study periods and societies from across global history, developing skills in archival research and historical argument, while also encountering the ethnographic methods and theoretical debates that have shaped modern anthropology. Sussex's interdisciplinary tradition means the two subjects are taught in genuine dialogue with each other.

This programme includes a foundation year, a sandwich year offering professional experience, a year abroad at a partner institution, and opportunities for work placement. These structural elements give you multiple chances to test your learning in new contexts and to build a professional and international perspective alongside your academic one. The typical tariff for entry is 120 points.

Graduates of history and anthropology go on to varied and rewarding careers. Development and humanitarian organisations, museums and cultural institutions, journalism, teaching, heritage management, and the civil service are all fields where this combination is valued. Many graduates also pursue postgraduate study in history, social anthropology, development studies, or law.

The skills you develop, including cross-cultural awareness, source criticism, qualitative research, and the ability to construct and communicate complex arguments, are transferable across a wide range of professional environments.