Modern History with Persian

Modern history and Persian is a combination that positions you to engage seriously with the past 500 years of global history while developing the language skills to access one of the world's most significant and underrepresented linguistic traditions. Modern history encompasses the political, social, economic, and cultural developments that have shaped the contemporary world, from the Reformation and Atlantic slave trade through industrialisation and empire to the conflicts and transformations of the twentieth century. Persian is the language of a civilisation with a literary and intellectual heritage of extraordinary depth, spoken today in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and with a long history as a language of learning, poetry, and statecraft across Central and South Asia.

At the University of St Andrews, you will study modern history by analysing historical events and processes from the past five centuries with a range of chronological, geographical, and thematic approaches. You will learn to work with primary sources, construct historical arguments, and engage critically with historiographical debates. Alongside this, you will develop your Persian language skills, gaining the ability to read historical and contemporary texts in the original and to access a scholarly tradition that is too often overlooked in Western academic environments.

The programme runs over four years and includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to deepen your language skills and engage with historical and cultural contexts that you have been studying, enriching both strands of the degree.

Graduates from history and language programmes move into a wide range of careers. The combination of historical analysis and Persian language is particularly valuable in diplomacy, international relations, intelligence, journalism, and research focused on the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. Other common paths include education, the civil service, publishing, heritage, and cultural organisations.

Postgraduate study in history, Middle Eastern studies, international relations, or a related field is a natural route for those wishing to continue their research.