History Faculty - Masters_programmes

Title

B.1.2 The Master of Studies in History

B.1.2.1 General information

The Modern British and European History programme is open to all students whose research centres on post-medieval Britain and Europe (some students’ research topics may also include non-European elements).

The examination comprises four elements: (1) a research proposal of 800-1,000 words (submitted in January, following the introductory methods course) (2) a methods essay of between 4,000 and 5,000 words; (3) an essay relating to the option studied of between 4,000 and 5,000 words; and (4) a dissertation of up to 15,000 words. Candidates may in addition be required to attend a final oral examination in late June or early July.

The Global and Imperial, and US History programme is open to all students whose research centres on the Commonwealth, South or East Asia, or on colonial America or the United States. Students should indicate from the start whether their interests lie in American History, or in Global and Imperial History, and if in the latter, whether in Commonwealth, South Asian or East Asian.

The examination comprises three elements: (1) two extended essays of up to 5,000 words and one class presentation; (2) an examination paper; and (3) a dissertation of up to 15,000 words. Candidates may in addition be required to attend a final oral examination in late June or early July.

Both are nine-month programmes, running from October to June; results are normally published at the beginning of July. Either may be taken as a terminal master’s degree, but they are also conceived as standard entry routes into doctoral study for students with research interests in any of these regions. It should be stressed, however, that the admission of any candidate to further study at Oxford will depend on his/her overall performance in the M.St., together with the viability of their proposed research topic and the availability of appropriate supervision at Oxford.

For formal assessment criteria and submission deadlines see individual ‘Instructions to Candidates’. (not yet available for the British and European programme).

Contact information

For further information, contact the Graduate Office (graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk).

B.1.2.2 Post-medieval British and European programme (from October 2009 onwards)

The newly revised British and European programme that has been developed within the faculty’s M.St. in History offers a 9-month introduction to postgraduate research, in all aspects of history centring on (but not necessarily always being confined to) Britain and Europe since about 1500. Initial coursework elements – methods training and an optional paper – are shared with the twenty-one month M.Phil. in Modern European History. This programme is designed to meet the needs of students who wish to build upon their undergraduate studies through one year of further study only, and also for those who hope to proceed to doctoral work.

It is anticipated that most applicants for the programme will have some (though perhaps very limited) research experience. The programme aims to improve students’ practical and intellectual grasp of research processes and their ability to conceptualise and engage with historical problems, also to enlarge their understanding of the historical and historiographical context within which their own research is set. Teaching is partly in classes, part of whose function is to create an intellectual community for students. Some classes will mix students with interests in different time periods; in other contexts, parallel classes will allow students to focus on the period of special interest to them. The programme will encourage students to develop some level of practical and intellectual familiarity with advanced research in both British and continental European history. Students will be warmly encouraged to develop their reading knowledge of Latin or of one or more modern European languages. They will have access to a wide range of both generic and subject-specific training.

All students will also from their initial admission be assigned individual research supervisors, with whom they will work to develop their research projects. Students who hope to proceed to doctoral work will be encouraged to develop their master’s and doctoral proposals in tandem during the first few months, so that they will be well placed to make doctoral applications. All students will be encouraged to attend some of the faculty’s many advanced research seminars. All coursework must be completed by the start of the Easter vacation, leaving two and a half months in which students can work wholly on their own research projects; this is among other things intended to make it possible for students who need to do research abroad to spend some weeks in overseas archives at this time. Students will also have the opportunity to present their work-in-progress at a conference specific to this programme at the start of the third term.

Programme details:

Teaching and examination in this programme comprises three compulsory elements.

(1) an introductory Methods course, comprising four weekly classes on ‘Sources and Resources’ and eight weekly classes on ‘Theory and Methods’. It is expected that there will be 3-4 classes running in parallel; also present at these classes will be students studying for the MPhil in Modern European History. Assessment is through an essay of 4-5,000 words arising from work done for the ‘Theory and Methods’ classes, and an 800-1,000-word research proposal, drawing on skills and understanding developed through attendance at both series of classes, and through work with the student’s supervisor.

(2) an Optional Subject, taught in eight weekly classes. It is expected that students will choose options broadly relating to the topic of their proposed research. Not every subject offered may be on offer every year (depending in part on levels of student demand). Again, also present at these classes will be students studying for the M.Phil. in Modern European History. Assessment is through an essay of 4-5,000 words, submitted immediately after the end of term.

(3) a dissertation of not more than 15,000 words on a topic falling within the scope of this stream of the M.St. It is expected that the dissertation will broadly relate to the time period of the student’s Optional Subject.

Additional instruction:

Further optional methods modules, comprising up to four weekly classes, may also be offered (e.g., it is intended that there should be an optional module covering methods in intellectual history).

Students are also strongly encouraged to develop their reading knowledge of at least one European language other than English; this may be essential for some research projects, but it is encouraged in all cases. The University’s Language Centre provides classes in many European languages, for which you will need to register at the beginning of the academic year. The Faculty also co-organizes with the Language Centre reading classes in certain European languages. Students who are expected to benefit from the study of Latin will be invited to attend a pre-sessional Latin class, which will then be supplemented by term-time teaching. Other specialised training – e.g., in palaeography, quantitative methods and IT skills – is also available.

Introductory Methods course

Theory and Methods: this element of the methods course will be taught in eight weekly classes, of which there will be several running in parallel, each of which will mix students studying different periods and places. There will be some assigned reading, but there will also be opportunities for students to consider the application of particular theories and methods to topics of special interest to them. Great emphasis will be placed upon class discussion, and on the creation of an intellectual community among students. The current expectation is that the topics covered will be chosen from the following list:

Social Theory and Social Structure post Marx and Weber
Global and Transnational History
Microhistory and Beyond
Approaches to Intellectual history
Gender history, queer history
History and Memory
Subjectivity and Emotion
Images and the Historian
The Concept of Space: Borders, Boundaries, Place, Townspace
Material Culture
Social Power
Violence

Sources and Resources: this element of the methods course is jointly organised by the university History librarian and a group of faculty members. Teaching will be spread over two days in each of the first four weeks of term. First, all students will attend a presentational session jointly run by a librarian or IT specialist and an academic historian. Secondly, students will divide into period-specific classes, at which they will discuss practical and interpretative issues arising in connection with the sources and resources demonstrated, on the basis of short exploratory exercises that they will have undertaken in small groups. It is anticipated that most students will have some prior experience of research: emphasis will be placed on enhancing research skills, extending knowledge across a greater range of resources, and raising awareness of the intellectual and interpretative issues associated even with the most practical aspects of research. Both British and European sources and resources will be considered; students will be encouraged to put their language skills into practice in exploring non-British resources. The current plan is for the following topics to be covered in the four weeks:

Scholarly practice: negotiating your relationship to primary and secondary sources
Researching bibliography: printed sources, secondary and primary
Oxford library, museum and electronic primary resources
Researching archival resources outside Oxford

Optional subjects

All the options are broadly conceived: the hope is to encompass most student research interests, and to give students a chance to set their own concerns in a wider context. Classes will focus on approaches historians have taken to the subject matter; there will be opportunities for students to design their own case studies, and in some cases to determine collectively what topics will be examined week by week or in certain weeks. There may be a small core of required reading, but students will also be encouraged to read widely to extend their knowledge and understanding. Students may be required to make class presentations; vigorous participation in class discussion is expected. Work for the option will be assessed by a single 5000-word essay, due in the first week after the end of the term in which the options are taught. The assessed essay may reflect the student’s special interests, but should show evidence of a broader understanding of research and interpretative issues, and of the wider context in which the chosen themes played out.

Religion, Politics and Society in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700 (class leader: David Parrott)

Social and political structures in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe underwent profound changes, many of which were the result of an unprecedented transformation of religious belief, institutions and practice emerging from the Protestant and Catholic reformations. The resulting interactions are central to an understanding of the history of early modern Europe, and represent an area of extensive and lively debate between historians. This course will examine politics in the broadest terms, giving attention to issues such as the formulation and pursuit of state policy within an international arena, but also focusing on the relationships between secular government and the institutional churches, and between central and local powers and their religious priorities and agendas. These political relationships will be set within a broad social context, in which popular religious ritual and magic will be examined, as will the attempts to use religious practice to construct and define communities. It will consider the implications of religious policies of intolerance and enforcement, while multi-confessional communities and religious and social deviancy will also be studied.

Class topics will include:

Religious violence and civil war.
Popular religion, local elites and state power.
The Papacy and Catholic Reform.
Structures and methods of religious enforcement: inquisitions and social pressures to conformity.
Witchcraft, religion and society.
Tolerance or indifference? Multi-confessional communities in Europe.
The limits of tolerance: political and social contexts of sectarianism and atheism.

Order and Disorder in Early Modern Britain (class leader: Felicity Heal)

The themes of order and disorder embrace some of the most important issues and much of the liveliest historiography of early modern Britain. They offer new ways of examining social and political structures and conceptions, from the macro-politics of the state and the Church to the micro-politics of the parish and household. This option will consider the mechanisms employed to maintain order, the threats posed to public order, the varieties of disorder, and the ways in which disorder could be contained. Its focus will be on England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It will examine propaganda, enforcement, local government, and social welfare; the forms of lawlessness that could result if order broke down; and the ways in which central and local authorities responded to disorder.

Class topics will include:

War and Taxation
Court and Government
Law Courts and the Counties
Noble Power
Rebellion
Church and Religion
Household and Gender
Crime

The Enlightenment c1680-1800: Ideas and the Public Sphere (class leader: John Robertson )

This option offers the opportunity to engage with a range of exciting new scholarship on the Enlightenment, covering the period from the second half of the seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century. It takes inspiration from recent rebuttals of the postmodern critique of the ‘Enlightenment project’, and addresses the subject in comparative and transnational perspective. We shall cover Enlightenment both as an intellectual movement and as a social phenomenon, examining how thinkers across Europe engaged with new publics.

For the first four weeks we shall explore the major interpretative issues now facing Enlightenment historians, including:

the coherence of Enlightenment – whether we should think in terms of one Enlightenment or several;
the importance and duration of ‘radical’, irreligious Enlightenment;
the relation between Enlightenment, the republic of letters, and the ‘public sphere’;
the politics of Enlightenment: public opinion, reform, and revolution.

During the second half of the course, participants will be encouraged to set their own more precise study agenda, related to the topics of their course papers. They may explore in more detail the intellectual content of Enlightenment, its various contexts, its social framework, and its impact, within and across national and political frontiers. Topics which might be studied at this stage are:

Enlightenment contributions to natural philosophy, and the ‘arts and sciences’;
the Enlightenment ‘science of man’, as pursued in philosophy and political economy;
writing sacred, civil and natural history in the Enlightenment;
women, gender and Enlightenment.

Participants will also be encouraged to attend the research-oriented Enlightenment Workshop, which meets weekly in Hilary Term.

States and Peoples 1680-1850 (class leaders: Robert Evans and Joanna Innes)

This option will explore the heterogeneous and changing forms of governmental and political collectivity – kingdoms, republics, empires, federations, provinces, cantons, quasi-governmental trading companies etc etc – which flourished in Europe and in the wider world in which Europeans operated between the age of Louis XIV and the 1848 revolutions. In a period often described as having seen first the rise of a European state-system and then of nation states, it will explore the diversity of forms of government and political life, the many different levels and modes at which governments operated, and the many internal and external pressures on their coherence and effectiveness – including interstate competition, globalising economic relations, disease and natural disasters, pressure from religious organisations and movements, rising expectations, ideological critique and popular insurgency.

Each week discussion will focus on ways in which both historians and contemporaries have conceptualised particular aspects of the relationship between states and peoples. One topic of obvious interest in this period is the nature of state crises and revolutions, and of attempts to recast states and the state system in the aftermath of the French Revolution. The Revolution has conventionally been interpreted as a turning point. We will examine and test that idea – by exploring the ways in which historians and contemporaries have conceptualised continuity and change, and by testing their accounts through our own case studies.

Classes will be conducted in a spirit of collaborative enquiry, as we all seek to refine our understanding of the conceptual tools available, and their merits and limitations in helping us to understand arrangements, developments and patterns of change.

Modern Political and Social Theory c.1790-1930 (class leader: Peter Ghosh )

The aim of this paper is supply a panorama of the developing world of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe and America, as seen through the eyes of some of its leading political and social theorists. These theorists have been chosen primarily on grounds of their perceived intellectual stature, but also to convey the greatest possible variety of concerns, perspectives and national backgrounds. The core intellectual tradition represented here is that of nineteenth-century European liberalism — something very different from Anglo-American liberalism, in either its nineteenth or twentieth-century versions. This hinged around developing notions of ‘reason’ within law, religion and the universities; and on the promotion of all that was ‘bourgeois’ at the expense of the ‘feudal’. Alongside this central tradition, represented above all by Hegel, Durkheim and Weber, there remain a number of alternative points of view: be it that of socialist radicals who dissented from, but inevitably engaged with, liberal tradition (Marx and Gramsci); those who attempted to relate Anglo-American ideas to Continental ones (Mill, Veblen); or those who tried to bring feudalism up to date (de Tocqueville). The authors chosen come from five different nations, leaving no major ‘Western’ national tradition unrepresented. Notwithstanding the hiatus inflicted by war and political collapse in 1914-45, and despite talk today of ‘post-modernity’ and the ‘death’ of Marx, serious attempts by late twentieth-century writers to talk about society and politics without substantial reference to their nineteenth and early twentieth-century forebears have proven unsuccessful in the main, while the stock of ‘liberalism’ has never been higher. This course seeks to give some indication as to why that is so.

The range of choice in themes is very wide, and the methodological challenge of writing good history on the subject of theory is real and worthwhile. In particular, we need to consider the difference between ‘historical’ and ‘theoretical’ readings of canonical authors, when there is a large body of commentary produced by theorists who assume that historical method is something that may be taken for granted. This is a paper for theoretically concerned historians: that is, for those who prize the careful study of texts rich in meaning, but who believe that that the full meaning of texts cannot be appreciated in isolation (if indeed there is any such thing as a stable textual meaning in the ‘abstract’). From the canonical text and author, we must work outward to embrace both intellectual tradition and the broader political and social contexts from which author and text emerged.

Religion in the European Nineteenth Century: from the Global to the Local (class leaders: Abigail Green and Oliver Zimmer )

This option examines the role of religion in the history of 19th century Europe from different thematic and methodological angles. While the geographical vantage point is Europe, the course also looks at how Europe’s religious movements affected regions outside Europe through, for example, the pivotal forces of imperialism and religious internationalism, and how they were themselves influenced by this encounter.

This is not done primarily in order to achieve wide geographical coverage (although that is of course a most welcome by-product of our interest in religion as a universal form of communication), but rather to explore the insights to be gained from applying different concepts – such as modernisation, imperialism, nationalism, popular religion, etc. – and methodologies – including national and transnational history or macro and micro perspectives – that have exerted considerable impact on the research conducted in this field. The course will balance an awareness of broad societal trends in a period of sweeping change against the continued importance of particular localities and individual spirituality in shaping religious interactions and experiences. It is suitable both for students who want an introduction to the history of religion and for those who wish to extend and deepen their existing knowledge.

Among the topics to be covered are:

Religion in an age of modernization
European religions on the world stage (including their relation to imperialism and globalisation)
Confessional politics and the state: Establishment and its discontents in Britain
Culture wars in the nation-states in Western Europe
The multinational territorial Empires of the East
The revival of popular religion (including female piety)
Religion in the localities: conflict and coexistence

The Changing Character of War in the Twentieth Century (class leader: Rob Johnson)

This option seeks to assess change in the character of war and in the historiography of war. The series is organised in such a way as to take a thematic and comparative view of the nature of war across the twentieth century. It is concerned with the structures of war: the purpose of war, strategy, the modalities of war, systems of mobilisation, the nature of total war, and the ‘sinews [economics] of war’. It is also concerned with the human dimensions of war: the social history of soldiers, militarism, enlistment and conscription, command and leadership, collaboration and resistance, identity and war, civilians - as refugees or participants, atrocities, morale, casualties, and combat.

The option embraces a global perspective and takes a critical look at Eurocentric and Western hegemonic interpretations of war and military history. Whilst it will be structured chronologically, it will not follow a slavish narrative of battles and campaigns, but will rather highlight episodes and issues thematically. Students will be able both to evaluate change in war across the twentieth century and to explore issues in the context of specific case studies. Conflicts that may be covered include colonial wars and wars of decolonisation-liberation, theatres and campaigns of the First and Second World Wars, the conflicts of the Cold War such as the Malayan Emergency, Vietnam, Aden or Algeria, and the wars of the late twentieth century such as the Gulf War, Counter-Insurgency operations and terrorism.

Europe in the 20th Century, 1914-1970: National, Transnational and International Histories (class leaders: Jane Caplan and Patricia Clavin)

This option approaches the history of 20th-century Europe by testing the concepts of national, transnational and international history and their possible interactions. It will not compare the history of individual European countries, but rather explore how notions of regional, national, transnational and international history have been used to organize and interpret the history of 20th-century Europe. While the course is firmly rooted in the empirical history of Europe and its relationships to the wider world in this period, it will foreground questions of interpretation. These will include exploring the scope and limits of approaches to political, economic and social history based on concepts of the national, transnational and international, and assessing the advantages and disadvantages of destabilizing the dominant conventions for writing the history of Europe in the last century. The course is intended both for students who want an introduction to this history and for those who want an opportunity to extend and reconsider their existing knowledge of it.

Among topics that may be covered are:

Periods and Concepts: (1) The History of a Long or Short 20th Century? (2) The History of a National, Supra-national and Transnational Continent
Political Geographies: Regions, Nations, Empires
International Wars and Civil Wars
Production, Consumption and Exploitation
Boundaries, Identities and Security
The Social and Political Demography of Life and Death
Transnational, Supranational and International Representations and Organizations

Belief, Identity and Modernity: Global Religion since 1918 (class leaders: Jane Garnett or William Whyte)

The study of belief in the modern world is amongst the most dynamic and interesting fields of research currently being undertaken by historians. It draws on a huge range of sources and intersects with the work of sociologists, anthropologists, theologians, and other disciplines. This option will thus be of interest both to students researching the history of religion and those who work more generally on social, cultural and intellectual history. It will give a good grounding in the various theoretical approaches to, and methodological problems presented by, this type of research and will draw on the work of participants in seeking to define new and interesting areas of analysis. This course is explicitly global in its focus and will draw comparisons between different faiths, escaping the narrow, Eurocentric models so often adopted by writers on this theme. The option is intended for those who have no background in this area of research as well as for those who are already engaged in it.

Topics to be covered will include:

Modernism
Nationalism and Transnationalism
Fundamentalisms
Consumerism
Gender, Generation and Sexuality
Contesting religious authority
Postmodernity
Declines and Revivals

Youth culture, generational revolt and sexual politics in Great Britain, Europe and the USA since 1945 (class leader: Robert Gildea)

Everyone is familiar with the iconic images of young men throwing stones at riot police in Paris in May 1968. But what was the significance of these images, what was their place in postwar politics and culture, and how did what was happening in Paris relate to developments in Great Britain, Europe and the United States?

This option will explore a number of interlocking themes using conceptual, comparative and transnational approaches, and a range of documentation, including memoirs, oral testimony and film. These themes will include:

the concept of generational revolt/conflict, and whether this is a helpful way of understanding cultural and political changes after 1945

the youth culture which developed in Britain, Europe and the United States after the Second World War around music, fashion, drugs and attacked on the conventional nuclear family, and the notion of cultural or lifestyle radicalism

the political radicalism which exploded in Europe around 1968, in the context of wider struggles such as the Cold War peace movement, the Civil Rights movement in the USA, the Algerian and Vietnam Wars, revolution in Latin America and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, asking what the relationship was between political and cultural/lifestyle radicalism

the link between faith and political radicalism, since many political radicals came from a religious background – Catholic or Protestant, Jewish or Muslim – and recast their religious aspirations in political guises

the issue of violence and non-violence, civil disobedience or armed struggle, hotly debated in radical circles as alternative ways of achieving their ends, and how different approaches were adopted in different contexts

the sexual politics of young people in Europe and America, especially the emergence of feminism and the gay rights movement

ways in which transnational connections were made between activists in different countries, from study abroad to revolutionary tourism, and from political exile to the work of political intermediaries

the significance of these years of revolt, explored through the subsequent trajectories of activists and how they remembered this moment, both individually and collectively, in a variety of media.

B.1.3 The Master of Philosophy in Modern British and European History (from October 2009 onwards)

The M.Phil. in Modern British and European History, backed by the History Faculty’s Modern European History Research Centre (MEHRC), is an innovative and intensive two-year programme that provides a thorough training in historical methods: it offers a range of specialist options that draw on the latest research, and includes a sustained period devoted to archival research and dissertation writing. Students on this degree programme have access to a comprehensive menu of skills training for postgraduates, as well as a systematic schedule of introductions to the unrivalled research facilities of the University of Oxford. M.Phil. students are also encouraged to take full advantage of the History Faculty’s extensive range of specialist scholarly seminars and colloquia in all fields of history.

The Oxford M.Phil. is unusual not only in offering the wider scope of a two-year degree, but also in embracing both the early modern (1500-1800) and modern (post-1800) history of continental Europe and the British Isles. The programme can serve either as free-standing Master’s degree or as comprehensive preparation for D.Phil. research in the fields of history within its scope. Doctoral research generally takes another two or three years and is eligible for full AHRC support. Students are assigned to a specialist in their field for dissertation supervision and advice, but they are also encouraged to consult other members of the History Faculty (and of other appropriate faculties) as needed. For their individual research on their dissertation candidates are likely to receive permission to work in continental or British archives outside Oxford in the Long Vacation and the second Michaelmas Term of the M.Phil. programme.

FIRST YEAR

In the first year of the course the M.Phil. overlaps with the M.St. in two papers. These are

The third paper, which is specific to the MPhil course, is

Writing History

This paper complements previous work done on historiography, sources and methods by exploring the making of the ‘finished product’ of published works of history.

It explores the challenges faced by historians in terms of the framing, structuring and presentation of their work. These include:

Scholarship and Markets

How do historians reconcile the obligation to satisfy their academic peers with the ambition to access a more general readership?

Microscopes and Telescopes

How do historians variously ‘zoom in’ on case studies which they subject to ‘thick description’ and analysis, and ‘zoom out’ to consider historical problems in a much wider global or comparative context?

People and Causes

How do historians relate human agency and deep-seated causes when explaining historical events? What have been the most effective kinds of individual or collective biography?

Plots and Problems

How do historians vary their approach to historical questions between problem-solving or detective work on the one hand, and linking events through narrative plot on the other? What does historical narrative owe to other media such as literature or film?

This will be assessed by an essay of between 4,000 and 5,000 words.

Dissertation proposal

In week 6 of the third term of the first year, students must submit an extended dissertation proposal of between 2,000 and 2.500 words.

SECOND YEAR

The second year comprises two elements

Dissertation

The Long Vacation between the two years and the Michaelmas Term of the second year is dedicated to archival research. This provides the basis of a 30,000 word dissertation which is written up for submission in week 6, Trinity Term (the third term).

In the Hilary term of the second year there is a Historical Concepts and Controversies class in which graduates are invited to relate their own dissertation research to wider historiographical, theoretical and methodological issues. This is intended to help maximise the impact of the detailed research which graduates are writing up. It is assessed by a class presentation and an essay of 7000 words.

Additional instruction and expectations:

Foreign language skills are encouraged and their acquisition is fully supported. As a two-year programme, the M.Phil. offers ample time for students to improve existing foreign language skills or to learn a new language in order to extend their research. The University's Language Centre provides courses in major languages at every level, including reading courses. In the case of continental European topics, students will need to satisfy their supervisor and the course convenor that they have, or are acquiring, adequate (reading) knowledge of the relevant language(s) to pursue their dissertation work. Those specializing in the history of the British Isles should note, however, that their research would also profit from linguistic competence in other languages than English, and they are therefore advised to make use of the opportunities for language training. The Faculty also co-organizes with the Language Centre reading classes in certain European languages. Students who are expected to benefit from the study of Latin will be invited to attend a pre-sessional Latin class, which will then be supplemented by term-time teaching. Other specialised training – e.g., in palaeography, quantitative methods and IT skills – is also available.

Contact information

The current programme convenor is Dr Ruth Harris (New College)

All teaching-related and examination matters are handled by the History Graduate Office:

graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk
telephone: (01865) 615002 (or 15002 from an internal phone)
fax: (01865) 250704
address: History Graduate Office, History Faculty
Old High School for Boys, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL

Master's programmes commencing in October 2009