MA Modern History
Modern History MA
This MA introduces you to the advanced study of the history of the modern world.
One core taught module in Term 1 provides a foundation in historical methods and theoretical frameworks used to study society and culture from the early modern period to the contemporary world; while a second analyses key components of ‘the modern’ as it has unfolded across the world. Optional modules explore key themes in modern history in Term 2.
You’ll be able to take advantage of the Department’s six research centres, including participating in the lively schedule of academic research seminars, lectures and conferences.
The programme will particularly appeal if you wish to acquire the conceptual and practical skills needed to conduct further research in history.
Autumn term
- Core Module: Theory, Skills & Methods (HI989) (30 CATS)
A compulsory course designed to help students acquire the methodological skills needed to undertake an extended piece of historical research and writing.
- Core Module: Themes in Modern History (HI998) (30 CATS)
Indicative Outline syllabus for HI998 Themes in Modern History
Week 1: Sovereignty
Week 2: States and State-Building
Week 3: Post-Colonialism
Week 4: Capitalism
Week 5: Technology
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Gender
Week 8: Race
Week 9: Bodies
Week 10: Subjectivity and the Self
Spring term
- Two Optional Modules: to be selected from options listed below (30 CATS each)
Summer term
- Dissertation (15,000 words) (60 CATS)
This is worth a third of your overall assessment and in many ways also represents the culmination of your studies. You will be able to write on a topic of your own choosing and work, under the guidance of a supervisor, to research and write it. You will be encouraged to think about planning this as early as possible in your year of study so that it is something you develop over as much time as possible, but after the end of the taught element of the programme, you will work on the dissertation full time to refine your ideas about the material you gather.
Optional modules
This team-taught one-term option complements other modules by focusing on the (vast) role of religion in early modernity. Rather than following a chronological structure or dealing with individual denominations, it examines religious issues through (a) the perspectives of different academic disciplines and (b) coverage of key themes. Students will be able to engage with the multiplicity of approaches pursued in the field more generally and by members of the History department in particular.
This optional module is intended to give a critical overview of one of the fastest growing and most dynamic areas of modern historical enquiry - the history of gender and sexuality. It aims to provide students with an understanding of how feminist and queer history has emerged from earlier approaches to the study of history, what makes it distinctive and what its principal strengths and weaknesses might be. It spans geographical period and chronological period.
This module draws on the considerable expertise throughout the department to consider how historians engage with the question of 'empire.' It spans geographical area and chronological period.
This module draws on the considerable expertise throughout the department to consider how historians engage with the question of 'consumption.' It spans geographical area and chronological period.
This module will address two to three topics in the history of medicine (broadly construed) selected by its students from a menu of possible options. This unusual structure gives 'Matters of Life and Death' the flexibility required to ensure that it is always focused on subjects closely related to student interests and dissertation research. Possible topics range across the expertise of teaching and research staff in the Centre for the History of Medicine, and of our Associates in the wider University context.
How can we understand the social and natural world in which we live? Concepts such as ‘nature’, ‘environment’, ‘the body’, ‘the economy’, or ‘society’ help us to classify and order the endless phenoma in the material and natural world that we encounter every day. Yet while such concepts are vital, and seem fixed, transhistorical and objective, they emerged at particular moments in history, their meanings changed, and they were often deployed for particular purposes.
This module investigates the rise, changing meanings and purposes of such ordering concepts and the practices which go with them. It also explores how such concepts and practices reflected the social, economic, and political contexts in which they emerged and flourished.
Please note: Please note that only those modules for which there is sufficient demand will actually run.
Qualification
Master of Arts (MA)
Duration
1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
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Course Code
- P-V140
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Course Director
- Professor Christoph Mick
Contact
PGT Director, Prof Penny Roberts or course director Professor Christoph Mick