American and Canadian Studies Joint Honours

Description

A Joint Honours degree programme involves the study of two subjects to Honours degree level. If you study a subject in a Joint Honours programme, you work at exactly the same level and to the same academic standard as students taking that subject in a Single Honours programme. Joint Honours students are simply required to choose fewer topics from the range of options available in each half of the programme

From the analysis of North American film to study of the workings of Washington, from examining the War on Terror to considering slavery and its legacy, from reading modern American literature to exploring the Musical this multidisciplinary degree explores the politics and culture of the United States and Canada within the broad context of history, literature and society.
At its core, this programme revolves around the study of North American history and literature and then branches out to explore politics, culture and film. These elements combine to give you a rounded understanding of North American life.

You can take American and Canadian Studies as part of a Joint Honours combination, in which each subject makes up 50% of the course. Joint Honours programmes combined with a modern language are four years in duration with a study year abroad. Joint Honours programmes combined with English or History are three years in duration, unless you choose to enrol on the four year programme, which enables you to spend a year in North America. All other Joint Honours programmes last for three years and cannot include a year abroad.
You follow survey courses in:

• Foundation of American History
• Literature and Culture
• Canadian Studies

You can also choose courses from a broad list of options such as:

• Contemporary Canadian Writing
• African-American History
• US Foreign Policy

This diversity of options allows you to integrate your American Studies with the other elements of your degree, such as the examination of different English literary traditions, Hispanic studies in the context of Latin American history, or visual culture from art to film.

Detailed Course Facts

• English

Course Content

First year

You take three foundation courses:

• American History to 1890, which includes examination of social, political and cultural themes
• Literature up to 1890, which analyses literary, visual and film texts
• An introduction to Canadian Studies

Second year

You study history and culture from 1890 to the present and begin to develop your own interests be these political, sociological, literary or multicultural by selecting specialist options from a list that includes:

• American History since 1890
• Twentieth-Century American Literature and Culture

Third year

Joint Honours students on the four-year programmes spend the third year with one of our North American exchange partners. In recent years our students went to the following universities:

• University of Wyoming-Laramie
• University of Iowa
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• University of Virginia
• University of Mississippi
• McGill University
• University of Cincinnati
• Dalhousie University
• Simon Fraser University
• University of Alabama
• Berry College
• Southern Birmingham College
• University of Ottawa
• University of Toronto

While abroad you are free to study a wide range of courses on American and Canadian civilisation topics and to begin research upon your extended essay, which is then completed in the final year of study back in Birmingham. This year abroad counts towards your final degree.

Final year

Your final-year courses are drawn from a wide range of options including Anti-Americanism, a variety of options exploring cross-cultural themes in American and Canadian History, and including courses in Modern and Contemporary Literature and Film. At the very centre of your studies is a Dissertation.

Career opportunities

As well as teaching and research, these programmes equip you for work in government, the media, law, accountancy, advertising, human resources and retail management.

Please read the entry for the other subject you wish to combine with American and Canadian Studies.

Related links

Department of American and Canadian Studies website: www.birmingham.ac.uk/acs

English Language Requirements

IELTS band : 6 CAE score : 80(Grade A) TOEFL iBT® test : 93

To study at this university, you have to speak English. We advice you to

Requirements

Number of A levels required: 3

General Studies: accepted only on some combinations

Typical offers: AAB-ABB

Additional information:

Typical offer grades are for guidance only, and will depend on the subjects you are combining. Please read the entries for both subjects. Where there is a disparity between the typical offer for Subject A and the typical offer for Subject B, the higher offer should be taken as the usual offer for the combination of the two
Other qualifications are considered.

International Baccalaureate Diploma: 34-36 points

Work Experience

No work experience is required.

Related Scholarships*

• Academic Excellence Scholarship

  "The Academic Excellence Scholarship can provide up to a 50 % reduction in tuition per semester. These scholarships will be renewed if the student maintains superior academic performance during each semester of their 3-year Bachelor programme. The scholarship will be directly applied to the student’s tuition fees."

• Access Bursary

  Bursary for UK students all subjects where the variable tuition fee rate is payable.

• Alumni Bursary

  Alumni Bursary for UK Undergraduate students

* The scholarships shown on this page are suggestions first and foremost. They could be offered by other organisations than University of Birmingham.