Sunday 13 January 2013

A History degree - not for the faint hearted...

I'm back at university tomorrow and this semester, I have four subjects that I've chosen, no compulsory choices unlike Late Medieval England last year (I'm a modern historian, I can't stand medieval history!), this time I have control over what I study. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may remember I posted about my choices for this year back in the summer. However, since then, I've had a massive change of heart and as such I only stuck with one module I chose in the summer.
I apologise if I go on a bit about my university work on here, after all my blog is about the things I'm interested in, alongside makeup of course, so I hope you find these kinds of posts interesting!



So here's the choices I have in store for the next few months and what I hope to achieve from them:

The Third Reich
All my life I've been heavily influenced by my parents and their obsession with the Second World War. I've grown up going to more airshows than I care to remember, watching a war movie at least twice a week - my childhood revolved around it. However, my parents were always seeing things from the Allied side, more toward the American influences and the GIs that came to England, but my school studies lead me to look further into the German side, the influential Nazi officers and, of course, Hitler himself. I have a strange curiosity for dictators, I'm always interested in what provoked their intentions and how they gained the means with which to achieve them. That's no reflection on me as a person though, contrary to popular opinion, I'm not a dictator myself, and I don't intend on becoming one unless I grow a substantially powerful moustache.

Subordinate Independence: Japan's Relationship With The US, 1945-Present
I love eastern history, and while Japan wasn't my strongest point when I studied Modern East Asia last year, I loved studying the American occupation of Japan and the changes that were made to end Japan's imperial power.

The Rise and Fall of Soviet Communism
In my Genocides module last semester, I did a presentation on the Great Purge of the Soviet Union in 1937 and 38, and I found researching Soviet events reasonably easy and interesting, plus if anyone knows me by now, they'll know communist China is my forte, so the birth of communism in Russia really intrigues me.

Independent Study Module
Now while this was a compulsory module, we had a choice over what we could study. 'Independent' is a word I'd use tentatively because we don't have completely free rein over what we can study, I chose the topic of Imperial Japan 1853 - 1945: From Isolation to Occupation. This will be a great companion to my Subordinate Japan module as it leaves off where Subordinate begins. For this topic I have to write a 5000 word essay, and this could be problematic if I don't choose a broad subject area under the main heading, but the reason I've placed a picture from the movie The Last Emperor above is because I'm interested in the Japanese manipulation of Puyi, the Manchukuo emperor, so hopefully I'll be writing about that, that is, if my tutor agrees to it.

So in way of preparation, I've dyed my hair this morning. Now all I've got left to do is... paint my nails, decide what makeup I'm wearing tomorrow, pack my bag and prepare for the freezing temperatures when I leave my house at 7 tomorrow. Typical I've got a 9am start on my first day back, plus the weather reports are predicting snow. Oh joy of joys!

Are you back at school/college/university? What do you have in store for this term?

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2 comments:

  1. these modules look amazing chick! I love history too so I look forward to seeing more posts about your personal life :) xox

    The Style Khaleesi

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    Replies
    1. Fantastic! I'll try and keep updating about things providing I have time :P xx

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