Spanish and History

Studying Spanish and History helps us understand the contemporary world, as well as shedding light on the past. On our flexible joint honours programme, you have the opportunity to develop advanced language skills in Spanish while discovering how the Spanish-speaking world, and other cultures around the globe, have shaped modern civilisation.

Spanish

Spanish is the official language in 20 countries and is widely spoken in four more territories, including the United States.

Studying Spanish at the University of Edinburgh, you will be immersed in an extraordinary range of literature, film, poetry and theatre from around the world. Our flexible programme invites you to explore the diverse and rich cultures of Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean in historical context.

On joining us, beginners take our Spanish 1A course; students with substantially more experience of learning the language typically take Spanish 1B.

Intensive language training gives you the opportunity to develop advanced spoken and written skills in Spanish while gaining the broad cultural education valued by graduate employers. You will learn how to discern different varieties and registers of Spanish, and gain crucial intercultural competencies.

History

The Edinburgh experience is distinctive for its range of historical themes, chronological periods and geographical areas. You can choose from courses covering:

* the early Middle Ages to the most recent past

* Britain and Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas

Further, our courses offer a rich variety of approaches to the past, including:

* political history

* cultural history

* social history

* economic history

* intellectual history

* gender history

* global and transnational history

Why Edinburgh

As a world-leading festival and capital city, and home of two World Heritage Sites, Edinburgh is a fantastic place to study a modern language in its cultural context and alongside History.

Studying over four years enables you to choose courses, including from other disciplines, that match your own interests, expertise and employability needs.

In your first two years, you can choose to take option courses in other schools, or broaden your linguistic portfolio with another language such as Portuguese, Basque or Catalan.

We are unique in Scotland in offering students a full academic year abroad within the four-year honours programme, regardless of whether you spend the year studying or working.

What our graduates say

The tutors always inspired us to be inquisitive about Hispanic cultures and the Spanish language. Their enthusiasm for Latin America was infectious, and motivated me to form my own relationship with the continent: during my Year Abroad, and while making SANTI over the last two and a half years.

Harry Richards, Spanish and History MA (Hons), 2020. Harry is a filmmaker and director whose short film SANTI, inspired by his Year Abroad, was selected for the BFI Future Film Festival 2022.