Adam Lakhani

What made you want to study your course at the University?

I really enjoyed studying History at school and then college, so choosing that half of the course was simply me wanting to continue that learning. What made me want to study philosophy at University was the desire to gain a greater understanding about the fundamental aspects of our society. For example, I wanted to know why we believed certain actions to be ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ and if these justifications are good ones or not. Furthermore I wanted to see how philosophy and philosophical thought impacted upon current real-life events such as the Feminist movement.

How do you think the two subjects complement each other?

History and philosophy really complement each other. Studying history gave me knowledge about the enlightenment period and how the ideas that were prevalent and growing in popularity during this period changed the world. Therefore, when studying an enlightenment period philosopher I had a good grasp of the political and social context in which their thoughts were formed. Studying philosophy also aided my history work as I could transfer my skills of deconstructing and evaluating an argument that I learnt in philosophy to historians’ theories.

Describe the aspects of the course that you have enjoyed the most. 

A highlight of my time at Leeds was definitely the Students into Schools module that I did in second year. Planning, running and evaluating Philosophy sessions for a Year 4 class was a completely new experience. It was a great module in the way it required me to grasp new skills. The staff that worked on the module were extremely knowledgeable and were great at offering support. This has played in to my decision to begin my Primary PGCE at the Institute of Education in London.