Minor subjects

In this Minor, you will explore the ancient civilisations of the Roman Empire and ancient Greece, bringing these worlds to life by examining their culture.

A staff of world-renowned experts will expand your knowledge of subjects such as the Greek City, the Roman Army, Alexander the Great and the Roman Family. You’ll have a truly multidisciplinary learning experience, learning how to analyse not just texts but sites and objects, immersing yourself in ancient ideas on subjects ranging from philosophy and politics, to education, slavery and medicine.

Throughout this course, you’ll develop a range of transferable skills, including logical and imaginative thinking, effective communication, the ability to formulate ideas and theories, and information and data interpretation and evaluation.

As an absolute beginner this Minor offers intensive teaching of Modern Standard Arabic (Fusha) within its cultural and historical contexts. This experience is further enhanced by eight weeks of residence abroad study at an academic institution in an Arabic speaking country.

This is the ideal way to improve and deepen your knowledge while gaining fascinating first-hand experience of both local culture and colloquial dialects. By then students should reach an intermediate level of speaking, reading and writing skills in Arabic, allowing them to tailor the Minor with their academic and/or professional ambitions.

In the final year of study, Minor students have the option of continuing to develop their language skills by enrolling onto an advanced level Arabic course (subject to language ability).

Archaeology involves the study of past humanity: exploring how humans have learned to live in the world, shaping it through their actions.

From the lives of hunter-gatherers to the emergence of farming, through the Roman and Viking invasions to Manchester’s industrial revolution, you will explore changes in the ways people lived through the material traces they left behind. Focused on Britain but delving into ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece, the Near East and the Mediterranean, a Minor in Archaeology will enable you to explore a fascinating range of different cultures, whilst allowing you to select areas of interest that chime with your main degree – from technology to ritual and religion, art, politics and social life.

Our Minor is designed to give you knowledge of archaeological approaches and techniques to objects, architecture and landscapes, by getting you ‘hands-on’ with real collections (in our own laboratories and the Manchester Museum) and introducing you to sites and museums in the local region.

The Minor in Chinese combines the teaching of Mandarin Chinese language with course units on a wide range of China-related topics, including literature, politics, economics, history, cultural studies, anthropology, art and business.

This allows you to tailor the Minor in line with your academic interests and professional ambitions.

Students who have prior knowledge of Mandarin are able to continue developing their language skills from their current level of study, while those who are new to the language will reach an intermediate level of Mandarin Chinese speaking, listening, reading and writing skills by the end of the degree.

The Minor in Classical Literature offers the opportunity to some of the greatest authors from the literary traditions of the ancient Greek and Roman world.

You will receive training in the methods, techniques and approaches necessary for the critical study of Greek and Roman literature. No knowledge of the ancient languages is required, as the texts are read entirely in English translation.

You will encounter epic poets such as Homer and Virgil, the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the love poetry of Propertius and Ovid, as well as lesser-known genres such as letter-writing and the literature of exile.

From poetry to politics, drama to doctrine, you will have the chance to read the works of classical authors who continue to shape the world today.

The Minor in Digital Humanities is a unique programme that complements your skills in a humanities discipline with training in digital methods and a deeper understanding of how digital technologies are shaping our lives and our future.

Over three years, you will explore various techniques like mapping, distant reading, and data visualization; reflect on digital media, politics, and culture – including questions of data ethics, race, gender, and sexuality; create and curate your own digital projects and exhibitions and develop specialist expertise in digital methods relating to your main subject area.

In the first year, you will follow an introductory core course that will touch on key concepts and debates on inequality in digital culture and allows you to create your own digital projects. In subsequent years, you will take units with a practical focus on technologies and skills. You will be able to complement these with a range of courses, including digital literary studies, the spatial humanities, data visualization, and computational and statistical methods.

With its combined focus on technical skills, creativity, and criticism, the programme will allow you to develop skills and the confidence needed to thrive in a variety of non-academic workplaces that need people who can bridge the gap between creative and technical work.

Please note that no computational experience is required, as all training will be provided. Our courses take place in the new Digital Humanities Lab, where students will also be provided with computers.

This minor is unavailable to students studying BA Digital Media, Culture and Society.

The Drama Minor pathway allows you to explore key aspects of the history and theory of theatre and performance. Studying on our core historical and theoretical modules, you’ll encounter and explore the works of a broad range of theatre makers, performance practices and cultural frameworks.

In Level 1, 'Theatre and Performance 1: Texts' explores some key plays and periods in the evolution of Western theatre, while 'Theatre and Performance 2: Contexts' looks at significant conceptual frameworks for contemporary performance practice.

Your learning in the second year will focus on theatre and performance practitioners, histories and contexts from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. You’ll learn to understand drama as cultural process and as artistic discourse, while developing transferable analytical and critical skills. Please note: these modules are taught through lectures and seminars and do not involve practical workshops or assessment. You don't need to have any prior qualifications in drama and we welcome all students with a curiosity about the place of theatre and performance in historical settings and contemporary society.

The Minor in East Asian Studies offers access to courses on a range of China, Japan and East Asia related topics. Courses on offer include history and cultural studies, economics and politics and more allowing students to tailor the Minor in line with their academic interests and professional ambitions.

Languages are not taught as part of the Minor but students can explore a wide range of issues in the societies of these interconnected and important countries and cultures.

Egyptology is the study of the ancient Egyptian culture and history, as well as the reception and significance of the ancient Egyptian civilisation in more recent times. From the unification of Egypt around 3500 BCE to the death of Cleopatra, Pharaonic Egypt was one of the longest-lived civilisations in human history, generating vast quantities of archaeological, textual and iconographic data, as well as a programme of monumental constructions stretching the length of the Nile Valley and beyond.

Our Minor in Egyptology is designed to provide you with an in-depth knowledge of the Pharaonic culture by drawing on the remains it left behind. You will study Egyptian history, learn Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs, read funerary monuments created by members of the Egyptian elite more than 4000 years ago and study the wealth of ancient Egyptian objects held in the collections of the Manchester Museum.

The Minor in Egyptology at The University of Manchester includes a number of innovative online and blended learning units which you will undertake in addition to the ‘traditional’ face-to-face courses thereby enhancing both your IT and personal time management skills.

The minor in English Language gives you the opportunity to learn more about the English language today and in the past. Our Minor in English Language begins by equipping you with the skills necessary for describing and analysing the structures of the English language, by exploring how English developed over time and what role social and regional factors play.

In the second year, you will develop new analytical skills and be introduced to theoretical ideas in English sociolinguistics, language change, stylistics, or pragmatics. In the final year you will have the opportunity to develop your interests in more specialist subfields of English Language, or to explore options that introduce you to new areas in the wider study of language such as language diversity, discourse analysis, forensic linguistics, quantitative methods or computational linguistics.

The Minor in Film Studies opens you up to the rich possibilities of this creative medium and encourages you to approach it from a range of theoretical perspectives.

The two core units at Level 1 introduce you to the ‘building blocks’ of studying film including visual style, narrative structure, key genres and the role of music, as well as significant moments in film history, prominent directors and major movements in forms of cinema from around the world and mainstream Hollywood.

In Levels 2 and 3 you’ll be able to choose specialist units on specific issues in film studies and focus on aspects of American, British, Chinese, French, German, Russian or Spanish and Portuguese language cinema with a particular emphasis on questions of identity and representation. As you enhance your skills of close analysis you’ll also develop an understanding of how film engages with socio-cultural and political concerns, placing the films you study in their historical context, as well as thinking about current debates and future challenges for cinema as a medium.

A Minor in French at Manchester offers the opportunity to learn one of the most widely spoken languages across the globe and to gain direct access to the rich cultures of the French-speaking world. Whether you’re a beginner in French or have an A-level or equivalent in the language, you can study progress in your command of the language and learn about French history, politics, literature and popular culture.

You can also take advantage of a period of residence abroad in France or a French-speaking country (8 weeks at the end of the Year 2), and enhance your career prospects significantly.

A Minor in German at Manchester offers the opportunity to learn one of the most widely spoken languages in Europe and to gain direct access to the rich cultures of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Whether you're a beginner in German or have an A-Level or equivalent in the language, you can study aspects of the language, linguistics, history and culture of German-speaking Europe, take advantage of a period of residence abroad, and enhance your career prospects significantly, as graduates with German language and intercultural skills are in great demand.

We live in a world of visual communications, and the ability to understand and communicate using visual art is central to human experience.

History of Art offers course units through which you can engage with visual culture in a range of periods and geographic locations. You’ll start with ‘Art Works in History: Ice Age to Baroque’ and ‘Art Works in History: Rococo to Now’, which will give you a wide-ranging knowledge base to explore your interests further in Levels 2 and 3 in modules as diverse as ‘The Global Renaissance’, ‘How to be a Curator’, and ‘Art After Modernism’.

Our students come to Art History from a wide variety of academic backgrounds and experiences, so there’s no need to have studied Art History before arriving at university.

Science, Technology and Medicine are among the most significant and influential forms of knowledge and practice in modern society.

This Minor will give you an opportunity to understand how these activities have shaped society, and how broader social contexts in turn have informed their development. You’ll be able to choose among a wide range of courses dealing with a variety of topical issues such as: modern forensics, madness and psychiatry, epidemics, environmental and climate change, the nuclear age and the impact of information technologies, science communication and fiction.

Our interdisciplinary course units combine historical, sociological, political and cultural perspectives with science literacy. They’re designed with both humanities and science students in mind and none has enrolment pre-requisites. The unique set of skills acquired in the Minor prepares students for cross-cutting careers, including those in science museums, journalism, and policy advice.

The Minor in International Disaster Management and Humanitarian Response provides the opportunity to apply the theories and ideas that you are learning in your main subject to real world issues and problems. This is a multidisciplinary Minor that draws from the perspectives of history, anthropology, geography, sociology, politics, and development studies.

At Level 1 you’ll study the different phases of disaster management to understand the opportunities and challenges that are presented in the preparedness, response and recovery to both natural and anthropogenic hazard events. You’ll learn about the key concepts of humanitarianism and start to understand how principles such as neutrality and impartiality are understood.

At Level 2 this learning will be applied to specific processes and you can choose to focus your studies on emergency response, peace building and security, development and disasters or look at how crises develop and are responded to. In your final year you can choose from a variety of options that focus on conflict and violence, migration and refugee narratives, approaches to disaster management, nations and state-building, and disasters and climate change.

At Level 1 you’ll complete the core modules, however, at Levels 2 and 3 you can choose from any of our module options.

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A Minor in Italian at Manchester offers an exciting opportunity for you to engage deeply with the language, culture, and history of Italy, whether you're starting your study of the language from scratch or already experienced in the language.

Our beginners follow an intensive 40-credit language course unit for the first year of study, while post-A-level students take a 20-credit language unit to consolidate and build on existing skills, and a 20-credit unit on Italian Cultural Studies, which provides an introduction to 20th and 21st century Italian politics and society, and forms of cultural production from Dante to Fellini.

In later years, you can study options on Italian linguistics, history, visual culture, and literature from the medieval to the digital age, and also take advantage of a period of residence abroad in Italy.

The Minor in Japanese offers the intensive teaching of language in your first and second years, and then access to course units on a range of Japan-related topics in the final year.

Course units on offer include history and cultural studies, allowing you to tailor the Minor in line with your academic interests and professional ambitions.

Students who have prior knowledge of Japanese are able to continue developing their language skills, while those who are new to the language will reach an intermediate level of Japanese speaking, listening, reading and writing skills by the end of the degree.

Jewish and Israel Studies represents an exciting, often controversial, set of topics.

Few will doubt that the student who is studying the Holocaust, the State of Israel or the Bible is studying topics of momentous significance for understanding the world around us today.

Ancient, medieval and modern Jewish History throws light on one of the most intriguing civilisations and influential minority cultures, and draws upon the complexities of different forms of Judaism and different Jewish interpretations of the Bible, the profound contributions of Jewish thought and philosophy, and the challenging nature of Jewish/Non-Jewish Relations.

The wide range of course units is approached from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including textual, historical, philosophical, literary and film studies.

There's also the opportunity to learn Hebrew, whether biblical or modern.

Liberal Arts are among the earliest intellectual pursuits, and they are associated with the training, development, and empowerment of free and active citizens. They are not tied to any particular discipline, but instead they emphasise the skills and knowledge needed to make sense of, and intervene in, social challenges.

The minor programme in Liberal Arts re-envisions these aims in the context of global challenges that range from equality to diversity, from health to wealth, and from AI to climate change, alongside many more. Whatever your interests, through the bespoke modules that you’ll take on the Liberal Arts minor programme – which champion challenge-led, interdisciplinary, and impactful learning – you’ll be able to go beyond your major arts-based degree subject by thinking critically, reflectively, and practically about the links across different ideas, between different people and cultures, and between universities and communities.

Your first year of study will provide you with the intellectual foundations to make sense of broad landscapes of knowledge. You’ll also be able to ask questions about the power and politics of knowledge and to think critically about matters of freedom, inclusivity, and exclusion that shape how we study and perceive the world today.

Your second year will then help you to think more about the communication and exchange of ideas, which will prepare you in your third year to undertake research in collaboration with local organisations that engages local communities. You’ll benefit here from resources provided by Creative Manchester, while also pursuing interdisciplinary study of the topics and issues that matter the most to you via UCIL and a choice of modules from across the Humanities.

The minor in Linguistics offers you the opportunity to explore the scientific study of language. You will begin by learning how to describe languages, including their grammar, and either their sound systems or their ways of communicating meaning.

In your second year, you will acquire the theoretical foundations in one of the core areas of linguistics, that is, grammar, phonetics and phonology, or semantics, as well as study the diversity of languages.

In your final year, you will have the opportunity to develop your interests in more specialist subfields of Linguistics. It is here that the breadth of the department's expertise is a particular advantage: In addition to advanced courses in grammatical theory, phonetics and phonology, semantics and pragmatics, you can choose from courses in historical linguistics, discourse analysis, linguistic diversity, language policy, forensic linguistics, computational linguistics, cognitive linguistics and quantitative methods.

In the 21st century the study of the Middle East has grown into a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural academic domain, attracting keen interest by scholars and practitioners for political, cultural, economic or social reasons.

This Minor allows students to acquire in-depth understanding of a region that is of critical importance to the contemporary world. Taking on board academic developments in political research, culture, identity formation, diaspora, migration studies, gender and post-colonial studies, this Minor equips students with thorough, yet focused and specific, understanding of the Middle East without studying any Middle Eastern language. Students will become familiar with contemporary methods in the study of culture, religion, literature, history and sociopolitics.

Our Minor in Portuguese offers a solid foundation in the language and cultures of the Lusophone world. Portuguese is a language of global importance, spoken in countries that span four continents, and you'll be able to study it either as a beginner or from post-A-level.

Over the course of the Minor, you'll also explore topics affecting Portuguese-speaking people across the world, such as the consequences of slavery and colonialism, the legacy of dictatorship, and the ongoing destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Optional units in second and final year will allow you to study the literature, history, cinema and visual cultures of Brazil, Portugal, and Lusophone Africa.

In the summer after year 2, you get to further develop your command of the language through the opportunity of doing an 8-week period of residence abroad in a Portuguese-speaking country.

The Minor in Religious Studies enables you to explore many aspects of diverse religious traditions and sacred writings, both the texts themselves and interpretations of them down through history. Our first year courses examine a fascinating array of theories, practices and rituals, and facilitate informed debate on such contemporary issues as religious conflict, intercommunal relations, gender, secularization, the nature of religious authority, and the interaction with popular culture.

The strength of the Religious Studies Minor is its flexibility. You have options at each level, enabling you to focus on issues that you’re particularly interested in. Popular course units at level two include Religion, Culture and Gender, the Problem of Evil, and the End of the World, while at level three you might learn about Holocaust Theology and Ethics, Science and Islam, and art history and biblical studies. And you can study Biblical Hebrew and New Testament Greek from scratch, giving you a unique insight into texts. The minor is open to those of all faiths and none.

Taking a Minor in Russian will enable you to develop your Russian language skills to a proficient level, while also providing you with a broad grounding in Russian area studies, with an emphasis on the integrated study of language, culture and society.

In the second and third year of study, you'll also have the opportunity to choose an optional unit from an exceptionally wide range of subject areas such as film and media studies, sociology, history and politics, literary and cultural studies.

The Minor in Spanish offers the opportunity to study one of the most widely spoken languages in the world while exploring the cultures of Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin American.

You can study the language as a beginner or post A-level and you’ll be expose to the global diversity of Spanish and its cultural and commercial importance across the world. You’ll be taught by language tutors who are native speakers of Spanish and lecturers who are experts in the culture and history of various parts of the Hispanic world.

Over the course of the Minor you’ll explore a range of aspects related to the literatures, visual cultures, histories and politics of Spain and Latin America.

Optional units explore topics as diverse as the literature and culture of the Spanish Golden Age, the history of colonialism and slavery in Latin America, music, literature and film in modern Spain, modern Latin America’s vibrant literary and cinematic landscapes, including Magical Realism, and the politics of the region’s insertion in global markets.

You will also have the opportunity to study Catalan language and culture starting in the second year of the Minor.

In the summer after year 2, you get to further develop your command of the language through the opportunity of doing an 8-week period of residence abroad in a Spanish-speaking country.

The Minor in Theology encourages you to study multiple aspects across theology, religion and philosophy, and combine this with interests in history, literature and languages. From year one you study texts from different traditions and their analysis across ancient and modern contexts, and you can develop other special areas of interest including ethics, the environment, and truth and truth-telling.

Around this core, the Minor is marked by flexibility, allowing you to build your own pathway by taking units from across the Religions and Theology curriculum, including the problem of evil; religion, culture and gender; truth and truth-telling; radical theologies; Jewish philosophy and ethics; World Philosophies, God at the movies; and Holocaust theology. And you can study Hebrew and New Testament Greek from scratch, giving you a unique insight into texts. The minor is open to those of all faiths and none.