Economic & Social History/Music

Economic and social history combined with music is a partnership that might seem unlikely but is intellectually coherent in ways that repay close examination. Economic and social history examines the material and structural conditions of human life across time, asking how economies have been organised, how wealth and poverty have been distributed, how work has changed, and how social forces such as class, gender, and migration have shaped the societies we inhabit. Music raises related questions from a different angle: how sounds are organised into meaningful cultural forms, how those forms reflect and shape the societies that produce them, and what technical, philosophical, and historical understanding is needed to engage with them seriously.

At Glasgow this part-time programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study in an international context and to bring a comparative dimension to both your historical and musical understanding. The programme is structured to give you a range of options in both music and economic and social history in each year, allowing you to design a degree pathway that reflects your own particular interests and strengths. On the music side you will engage with the technical, cultural, historical, and philosophical questions that music opens up, and some practical experience of music is a useful companion to the analytical study the programme involves.

On the history side you will develop the research and interpretive skills to examine primary and secondary sources critically and to construct well-supported arguments about the past.

Graduates of this combination find careers across the arts, heritage, education, and research sectors. Music journalism, arts administration, archival and museum work, teaching, social research, and roles in cultural organisations and charities draw on both the analytical rigor of historical study and the cultural knowledge developed through music. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in musicology, history, cultural policy, or related fields, while the broad range of transferable skills the degree develops serves well across the wider employment market.