History MA

Core modules:

Researching History

This core module equips you to research history at an advanced level: it supports your development as you progress to postgraduate study, where you will exercise greater independence as a researcher. The sessions will engage with fundamental questions about the nature of our discipline, how it has changed, and where it is going next. We'll also consider what tools and strategies we have to identify and interpret historical evidence, and how we can communicate our findings and arguments to the academic community. 

Seminars will bring together students with diverse historical interests, and you'll be asked to identify examples from your own research specialism for discussion in class. In addition to the seminars, there are workshops run by the Arts and Humanities Faculty Digital Learning Team, and you will be asked to explore our research culture by attending a research event of your choice during this first semester. This could be one of our History Research Seminars, or an event run by one of our research centres. At the end, you will be asked to complete a self-assessment and reflect on the skills you have identified as the ones to work on throughout the year to support your research and learning.

Indicative seminar list: 1) Professional History Today - what it means to engage in original historical research, and what today constitutes professional history2) Disciplinary Boundaries - what distinguishes historical research from other disciplines, e.g. anthropology3) Interpreting Textual Primary Sources - tools and techniques for source analysis4) Interpreting Visual and Material Primary Sources - tools and techniques for source analysis5) Writing Academic Texts - what it means to write academic text

15 credits

Digital History

The last 50 years have seen new digital technologies transform the ways in which historical research is conducted, presented and disseminated. This module will introduce you to key digital historical research methods - including digital mapping, social network analysis and data visualisation - and ask you to reflect on the impact these methods have had on the wider discipline of history. You will then get the chance to put some of these methods into practice through a digital history project of your own. Examples and case studies will draw on sources from a range of historical periods, and you will be free to follow your own historical interests in your project. You will leave the module not just with an appreciation of how digital methods can be used to facilitate historical research, but also a set of transferable skills applicable in a range of academic and non-academic settings.

15 credits

Research Project [Dissertation]

The research project sits at the heart of our MA programme. This module supports the development of your individual research project across two semesters. It provides you with guidance on how to complete an original piece of independent research. The module contains a series of workshops that support your journey from an initial project idea to the drafting of a research proposal and introduces you to advanced archival research techniques. As part of the module, an expert member of staff guides you throughout the year as your supervisor and helps shape your topic, research questions, and research design by providing one-to-one support for your academic progress. At each milestone of the module, you receive feedback from your supervisor: from confirming your research topic and project title to a 1,000 words research proposal that you submit at the end of semester 1. In Semester 2, further workshops and the guidance of your supervisor support your transition from designing your project to the research and writing stage to completing your project over the summer.

60 credits

Pitching Your Project

This core module is designed to equip you with the skills and experience that you need to present and communicate a defined historical research project to an academic audience. The subject of the presentation will be your dissertation topic, so this module also contributes towards the successful completion of your dissertation. 

In this module, you will highlight the specific research questions driving your dissertation and learn how to communicate the sources and approaches you are using to answer them. You will develop your ability to present your research data and findings in an accessible form to an audience, and you will enhance your ability to use presentational aids such as slideshow software, data projection, and visual aids. 

The module also aims to improve your skill and confidence in speaking to an audience and responding to questions; this gives you the opportunity to develop the presentational skills demanded by employers as well as by a career in academic research. You will also learn how to make reasoned and critical judgements of others' presentations. At the end, you will reflect on how your pitch might inform applications for future careers.

This module will be taught through four one-hour seminars, as well as a practice presentation session leading up to the presentation itself.

A formal seminar will be held at the start of the module to introduce the learning outcomes and familiarise students with the task ahead. This seminar will also cover the practicalities of the research presentation and allow students to consider how they might structure a presentation: whether it is feasible to cover an entire dissertation project for example, or how such a project might be broken down into topics suitable for an oral presentation. 

There will then be three workshops which will cover the key elements of effective research presentations. In the first of these, we will consider structure and how to pitch your presentation at an appropriate level; the second workshop will address the use of visual aids like Powerpoint; and in the final session we will discuss delivery styles and how best to engage your audience. Academic support will be available for these sessions and during a practice day as necessary but their purpose is to allow students to try out different aspects of their presentations before a small audience of their peers, respond to questions in an informal and supportive environment, experiment with technical and visual aids, and familiarise themselves with equipment and a venue similar to the one in which they will speak.

These sessions will therefore encourage a professional standard of presentation. They will also help students to develop some expertise in academic paper-giving and evaluating their peers.

15 credits

Community and Power: urban life, ca. 300-1800

Urban settlements have existed for millenia. This module uses these environments to ask questions of the period ca. 300 CE-ca. 1800 CE, and as a lens into key historical interpretations of that period. What was life like in medieval and early modern towns and cities, and what were their political, social, and economical structures? Cities and towns also present a complex picture of pre-modern life: alongside stories of successful, bustling trade centres or political and cultural capitals, they were also sites of deprivation, segregation, enslavement, and violence.  How did people live, love, work and worship within these spaces? From the last days of imperial Rome, with its 1 million inhabitants, to the emergence of Rome, Jerusalem and Mecca as holy sites, the growing commercial centres including London, Venice, and the Baltic cities, and the indigenous and colonial settlements in the Americas and Africa, these towns and cities showcase the variety and breadth of social, cultural, and political life in the pre-modern world. In addition to introducing you to individual towns and cities of the period and key debates in pre-modern history, this module will challenge your understanding of periodisation, asking how we can - and whether we should - distinguish between different periods before modernity.  It will also provide a bridge to Masters-level study in the first semester, developing critical Masters-level skills such as primary source analysis and your ability to understand, deploy, critique, and counter others' arguments, and, through the assessments, expanding your ability to identify underlying themes and topics, and address them in writing, in preparation for your Dissertation. Each week you shall study a different facet of urban life in pre-modernity, looking at different case studies from across the period before ca. 1800 to critically engage with that theme and its implications for understanding the history of pre-modern urban spaces.

30 credits

Digital Methods in Practice

This module aims to give students a practical overview of Digital Humanities, a subject which uses data science methods to provide a better understanding of arts, humanities and cultural data for research purposes. Building on the methodological introductions given in the IPA61001 module 'Introduction to Cultural Data', this module will present and discuss actual case studies that exemplify how digital approaches can be used to ask novel and ground-breaking research questions using cultural data. The module includes hands-on sessions where students will learn basic principles of selected digital tools, including text encoding, data visualisation, data analysis and 3D modelling, and be able to complete simple digital projects. Real-life cultural datasets will be used during the hands-on sessions, to give students the opportunity to encounter, and learn to tackle, the most common issues in the application of these technologies in research contexts. 



Attending this module, students will acquire a more concrete understanding of digital approaches to cultural data, learn how to critically leverage the specificity of the different data formats, and become familiar with current best practices.





This module does not assume any previous knowledge or experience with digital tools.

15 credits

Power, Politics and Culture in Modern Britain

This module examines the political and cultural tensions, as well as major economic transformation, that emerged from the First World War, the Second World War, and the ashes of imperial collapse. Over 10 seminars, you will explore the most hotly debated topics in modern British history, including the stability of class identities, the dynamics of social inequalities, radical right- and left-wing politics, the Troubles in Ireland and their impact in the rest of the British Isles, cultural and ethnic diversity, the end of empire and decolonization, the changing dynamics of gender and sexuality, and popular culture, including music and sport. You will focus particular attention to the interaction between politics and popular culture during this period.

The module builds on a rich and diverse historiography on modern Britain. One key element of this historiography is the use of innovative concepts and approaches. For instance, you will query in what ways the empire and its legacies have informed everyday life as well as policy, law and economy. You will also explore debates about Britain's changing international standing during this period, within Europe and beyond, and how that shaped cultural life at home. 

Ultimately, you will also consider issues of periodization and ask whether twentieth-century Britain should be understood on its own terms as a distinctive period of British history. Overall, the module will offer new ideas and approaches for the study of themes in modern British history.

30 credits

The Global Cold War

This module explores the Cold War as a global phenomenon. While Europe played a central role in the origins and denouement of the ideological contest between the United States and the Soviet Union, for the past twenty years or so historians have explored in greater depth the impact of the Cold War in the global South. This latter group of scholars have examined the Cold War as a Superpower competition over the political and economic future of the so-called 'Third World' and explored the agency of actors in the global South. Studies have expanded beyond an initial focus on ideology, diplomacy and security to a wider set of issues including economic development, culture, and human rights, and beyond international histories to include transnational and domestic ones. We now have a Cold War historiography which stresses pluralism and diversity of conception, method, and interpretation.

Through a series of case studies ranging from Europe to Asia, Africa and Latin America and including the home front in the United States and the Soviet Union, we will examine these new historiographical developments. While remaining attentive to the local dynamics that drove political, economic, and social developments in Europe and the global South, we will explore the extent to which the Cold War structured the international system and constrained choices available to countries around the world. What was the Global Cold War? How did it play out and interact with local dynamics in specific locales? Is it possible to study the Cold War as a series of conflicts and transformations around the world without losing conceptual clarity? What are the methodological implications of studying the Cold War in a global perspective? 

30 credits

Work Placement in History

This module gives you the opportunity to gain experience working on a history-related project in the local community. This might be at a museum, archive, gallery, heritage site or working on a community project and may include undertaking activities such as historical research, developing an exhibition or organising an event.

You will be supported to choose a placement from those offered at the start of the academic year and will then work with the placement provider to finalise your role.

Wherever you go, you'll complete a placement of approximately 100 hours, gaining valuable insight into the day-to-day workings of these kinds of organisations. You'll develop history-specific vocational skills, the ability to interrogate public history, and you will also reflect on the issues involved in disseminating history outside academia through a reflective essay.

These kinds of skills are valuable whether you're looking for employment after the MA programme or are planning to continue your studies with a PhD.

15 credits

Race and Racism in Historical Perspective

What is race and how has it operated historically? Through a series of case studies, this module will seek to historicize ideologies, ideas and the experiences of race and racism across the early modern and modern historical periods. The module takes as its starting point the understanding that race is not a biological fact but always and everywhere the product of struggles for power in specific political, cultural and geographical settings. How have racial categories been made and re-made, imposed and resisted? How has this affected material outcomes and distributions of wealth and power? What are the ongoing legacies of these histories?

We will examine a number of case studies, including slavery, abolition campaigns and immigration in various spacial and temporal contexts. We will explore key concepts in historiography including settler colonialism, whiteness and white supremacy, racial liberalism, and anti-racism. Throughout, we will be attentive to the intersections of race with other categories of social difference such as gender, class, and sexuality, and appreciate the importance of historical context in understanding conceptions of race and racism. 

30 credits

Presenting the Past: Making History Public

This module focuses on the creation and interpretation of 'public history'. You'll have the opportunity to develop critical skills in interrogating public history through reflecting on the issues involved in disseminating history outside academia, so it may be of particular interest if you are planning to pursue a career in heritage, museums or education.

You'll analyse examples of public history, develop communication and presentation skills for audiences outside academic contexts, and gain experience working in a team to put these skills into practice. 

As part of your assessment, you will work in a group to create an example of public history. You might create a webpage, a podcast, a design for an exhibition, an historic house booklet, a script for a radio programme, or a proposal for a TV series. You will also reflect on the value of your historical knowledge and skills outside academic study through a short essay.

15 credits

Power, Rebellion, and Protest

How has power been legitimised and exercised? How have violent and non-violent types of power operated? And how have people opposed power? This module introduces you to histories of political mobilisation, the territorialisation of power, and the evolution of grassroots opposition.

The module builds on a rich and diverse historiography on power and governance, rebellion, revolution, as well as social and revolutionary protest movements. You explore how relationships between the powerful and powerless, people in power and their subjects, and government and the governed have evolved. Thinking about opposition to power in different time periods and places allows you to critically evaluate historiographical modes of writing about power, rebellion, revolution, and protest. Case studies range from enslaved people, peasant, and elite revolts and rebellions to modern revolutions and grassroots revolutionary politics. Through the exploration of these different violent and non-violent forms of opposition to power, you discover the changing nature of power and challenges to its legitimacy in the past and the importance of historiographical concepts in framing their study.

30 credits

Approaches to Political History

The political world has long been, and remains, an important strand of the work of professional historians. This module encourages you to consider the varying approaches to studying political history, such as 'high' politics, political culture and political thought. We will assess how to research different forms of political history from a number of methodological and source-based perspectives. The module aims to help you to understand the approaches to studying political history, and to clarify the appropriate methods for building an independent research project. 

In considering the different forms that political history can take, the module allows you to draw on your own interests and expertise, learning the techniques available to uncover the multi-layered history of politics in various local, national and international/global contexts. The final assessment is an essay personalised to your interests, on a topic agreed in discussion with the tutor, and asks you to explore one of the key methodological approaches to the study of politics, as applied to a case study of your own choice.

The module encourages you to think about the appropriate forms of studying political history across different time periods, stressing the connection between source availability and method. You will be introduced to several case studies from across history, which will form the basis of conversations about methodological practice. These case studies may change from year to year, but indicative examples include the revolutions in seventeenth-century England and eighteenth-century America and France;  nineteenth-century global empires; and the twentieth-century 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland.

15 credits

Plus a language option.