History and Sports Studies

History and sports studies is a genuinely original combination, bringing together two disciplines that illuminate human experience from strikingly different angles. History is one of the most established academic disciplines, developing skills in the analysis of evidence, the construction of causal argument, and the understanding of how the world came to be as it is through the decisions and contingencies of the past. Sports studies examines sport as a social, cultural, economic, and political phenomenon, asking how sporting practices and institutions are organised, how sport reflects and reinforces social hierarchies, and how it can be a site of community, identity, and social change.

At the University of Stirling this four-year full-time programme develops your skills in historical analysis alongside your understanding of sport's social and cultural dimensions. You will engage with historical evidence and methodology across a range of periods and themes, and you will examine sport through the lenses of sociology, cultural studies, and management, developing a comprehensive and critical understanding of how sport functions in society both historically and in the present. The programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study both history and sport in an international context and to bring comparative perspective to both disciplines.

Graduates from history and sports studies programmes work in education, heritage, sports development, sports administration, community sport, journalism and media, public relations, event management, and the voluntary sector. The historical and analytical skills developed through the degree are valued in a wide range of contexts, and the sports studies component provides specific preparation for roles within the sport and leisure industry. Many graduates also pursue postgraduate study in history, sport management, or sports development, or go into teacher training if they want to bring both disciplines to secondary education.