Masters degrees in Social History offer advanced study of the underlying processes which drive change within society, and the ways in which societies have grown and developed throughout history.
Related subjects include Political History and Heritage Studies. Entry requirements normally include an undergraduate degree in a relevant subject such as History, Sociology or Anthropology.
Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study History at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).
The MA by Research in History is a research degree pursued over one year full-time or two years part-time. Students on the History research programme undertake research under the supervision of History staff, and produce a thesis that makes an original contribution to knowledge and understanding of some aspect of the past.
The expertise of the Department of History and Classics spans from the ancient cultures and languages of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome to the history of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century Europe. The research of our staff and postgraduates is integral to the life of the Department of History and Classics, and it means that Swansea is a dynamic, exciting, and stimulating place to study.
History and Classics is part of the Research Institute for the Arts and Humanities (RIAH: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/riah/), which organises a large number of seminars, conferences, and other research activities. There are also a number of research groups which act as focal points for staff and postgraduates, including: the Richard Burton Centre for the Study of Wales, Centre for Ancient Narrative Literature (KYKNOS), Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Research (MEMO), and the Centre for research into Gender in Culture and Society (GENCAS).
As a student of the History research programme you have access to skills and training programmes offered by the College of Arts and Humanities and the University.
The MA by Research in History is ideal for those who would like to do an initial research degree, either as a stand-alone culmination to their studies or with a view to further, subsequent research, e.g. in form of a PhD. Research proposals are invited on any topic in medieval, early modern, or modern history for which staff can provide supervision.
For informal enquiries regarding the MA by research in History programme please contact: Dr Fritz-Gregor Herrmann ([email protected]).
Research interests in the Department of History and Classics include:
Medieval History
• The Anglo-Norman ‘Realm’ and the Angevin Empire
• Capetian France, especially the monarchy, aristocracy, and religious orders
• The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade
• Charters and the documentary records of medieval France and England
• The Mediterranean world, especially the Crusades, later medieval Italian society and politics, and the Italian Renaissance, including art history
• England and Wales in the central and late Middle Ages, including the aristocracy and gentry, the Welsh Marches, urban history, law and crime, women and the law, religious belief and practice, and education and literacy
• Gender and the life cycle in late medieval Europe
• Medieval frontier societies and borderlands, and concepts of frontiers from the late Roman Empire to the present day
Early Modern History
• Most aspects of British history between 1500 and 1800, especially religious, scientific, cultural and gender history
• The history of health and medicine in early modern Britain
• History of Disabilities
• The Portuguese Empire
• The Reformation and Counter-Reformation
• Science, intellectual life, collecting and museums in early modern Europe
• The social history of early modern sex and marriage
• Crime and witchcraft
• The Enlightenment, republicanism and international relations in the eighteenth century
Modern History
• Most aspects of Welsh history, especially industrial society
• The cultural, intellectual and urban history of nineteenth-century and twentieth-century Britain
• Modern international history
• The United States since 1750, in particular slavery, the South and the Civil War
• The economic and imperial history of Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
• Emigration and urbanisation in the British Isles between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries
• The political history of the UK since 1800
• Military and society in Europe between 1750 and 1815
• Austrian and German history in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
• Austrian, German and Central European history, especially in the fields of urban, labour and post-1945 history
• Modern economic history
• Quantitative aspects of British economic growth from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries
• Anti-capitalist and socialist political economy
• Policing and police forces in twentieth-century Europe
• Italian fascism
• Allied Occupation of Italy
• Contemporary French and Italian social an d cultural history
• Memory studies and oral history of twentieth-century Europe
• History of protest and activism in the 1960s and 1970s
Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study History at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).
The MA in History is an exciting programme that covers a wide range of topics in history from the Middle Ages onwards.
The wide-ranging expertise of Swansea University's historians offers the study of British, European, American or Asian History. The History MA allows students to explore the history of art and culture, empire, gender, politics, religion, sexuality and science.
Students on the MA History programme are introduced to key concepts that shape the study of history. The MA in History students benefit not only from the unusual concentration of historians at Swansea, but also from the existence of the College of Arts and Humanities Research Centres, the Callaghan Centre for the Study of Conflict, Power and Empires and the Richard Burton Centre.
History MA students benefit from the the College of Arts and Humanities' Graduate Centre. The Graduate Centre fosters and supports individual and collaborative research activity of international excellence and offers a vibrant and supportive environment for students pursuing postgraduate research and taught masters study including the MA in History programme. The Centre provides postgraduate training to enhance academic and professional development and facilitates participation in seminar programmes, workshops and international conferences.
The full-time History course structure is split across the year with three modules taken in each academic semester (a total of six modules) and then a dissertation over the summer. History students study three compulsory modules and three optional modules. The dissertation is written on a specialist research topic of the student's choosing.
Part-time study for MA in History is available.
- To acquire advanced knowledge and understanding of a range of topics related to history.
- To develop theoretical and methodological skills relevant to all aspects of the study of history.
- To lay a solid foundation of knowledge and analytical and presentational skills for further research work in the field.
Modules on the History course typically include:
• Historical Methods and Approaches
• New Departures in the Writing of History
• Communicating History
• Directed Reading in History
• From Princely Possessions to Public Museums: A History of Collecting and Display
• Power, Conflict, and Society in the Modern World
• Venice and the Sea
• Medieval Manuscripts
• Fascism & Culture
Students from a history or related background. Students interested in preparation for postgraduate research, MPhil or PhD, or who wish to develop skills and knowledge related to history.
All staff in the Department of History and Classics are research active and publish books and articles in their areas of expertise. Staff and students are members of a range of Arts and Humanities research centres: the Callaghan Centre for the Study of Conflict, Power and Empire, the Richard Burton Centre for the Study of Wales and the Research Groups: MEMO: the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Research and GENCAS: the Centre for Research into Gender in Culture and Society. Regular research seminars and lectures are run through these groups and through the Research Institute for Arts and Humanities (RIAH) giving students including those of the MA in History programme access to cutting-edge research.
Career expectations are excellent for History graduates. MA degree holders in History may move on to doctoral study or enter employment in such areas as museums, heritage and tourism; marketing, sales and advertising; business, art, design and culture; media and PR; social and welfare professions; humanitarian organisations; the civil service, and education.
“I graduated with a First-Class Honours BA History degree and an MA in History from Swansea University. My four years of study here were truly the most enjoyable of my life so far! The lecturers, tutors and all members of the History department were also incredibly friendly and always willing to help. The History MA was fully funded by a University Alumni bursary. The range of modules available to MA students is exceptional and the facilities here are fantastic. With a designated Arts and Humanities Postgraduate computer room and common-room area, as well as the University’s very own archives, Swansea is a great place to study History.”
Cath Horler, History, MA
The history of people, their societies and cultures is the focus of this programme, where you’ll explore how people have lived and died across periods and geographies.
Core modules will improve your research skills and introduce you to key concepts and issues in social and cultural history. You’ll also choose from a wide range of optional modules, allowing you to focus on societies and periods that interest you.
You could study apartheid in South Africa, communities and castes in India, birth and death in medieval Europe or social movements in the USA. You’ll be able to focus on gender, race and religion as well as other issues that have shaped the lives of individuals and communities.
Taught by expert researchers within the School of History and the Leeds Humanities Research Institute, this programme uses the latest approaches and thinking in social and cultural history to give you an insight into the lives of others.
We have a wealth of resources allowing you to explore topics that interest you. The world-class Brotherton Library and its Special Collections contain a huge number of early printed, archive and manuscript materials including the Liddle Collection on the First and Second World Wars, Leeds Library of Vernacular Culture, manuscript and commonplace books, travel journals and one of the best collections of cookery books and household manuals in the country.
Extensive collections of national, regional and local newspapers from over the years are available on microfilm, as well as cartoons and satirical prints from the British Museum and extensive collections of letters and correspondence. There’s even the Yorkshire Fashion Archive and M&S Archive on campus, allowing you to gain a real insight into popular culture over time.
This programme is also available to study part-time over 24 months.
From the beginning of the programme you’ll study core modules developing your knowledge and skills in social and cultural history, building your understanding of research methods and exploring central concepts and debates in the subject.
In both semesters, you’ll also have the chance to choose optional modules from a wide range on offer, allowing you to focus on issues, themes and societies that interest you. You could draw on the diverse expertise of our tutors to select modules across Indian, African, American, British and Latin American history.
You’ll also have the opportunity to work collaboratively with partner organisations, such as the West Yorkshire Archive Service, by studying the ‘Making History: Archive Collaborations’ optional module.
This programme will equip you with a broad skill set for historical research as well as a good base of subject knowledge. You’ll be able to demonstrate these with your dissertation, which allows you to conduct independent research on a topic of your choice. You’ll submit this by the end of the programme in September.
If you choose to study part-time, you’ll study over a longer period and take fewer modules in each year.
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
We use a range of teaching and learning methods. The majority of your modules will be taught through weekly seminars, where you’ll discuss issues and themes in your chosen modules with a small group of students and your tutors. Independent study is also crucial to this degree, giving you the space to shape your own studies and develop your skills.
We use different types of assessment to help you develop a wide range of skills, including presentations, research proposals, case studies and essays, depending on the subjects you choose.
This programme will heighten your cultural and social awareness as well as allowing you to build your historical knowledge. You’ll also gain high-level research, analysis and communication skills that will prove valuable in a wide range of careers.
Graduates have found success in a wide range of careers in education, research and the private sector. Many others have continued with their studies at PhD level.
This MA allows you to develop an in-depth understanding of the history of health, medicine and society.
You’ll be trained in historical research methods and conceptual and methodological approaches to the history of health, medicine and society. You can combine British, European and African history under the guidance of leading researchers in History, History and Philosophy and Science and Medieval Studies. You’ll have the chance to focus on topics and periods that suit your own interests, whether that’s the history of health, medicine and society in the Middle Ages or the First World War.
Looking at the health of individuals, families and communities, you could study the human life course from birth to death, the experiences of medical practitioners and caregivers, medicine during periods of war and conflict, or the impact of health policy in different societies. It’s an exciting opportunity to explore how health and medicine have always been shaped by the social and cultural context.
Specialist resources
We have an exceptional range of resources to help you explore the topics that interest you. The world-class Brotherton Library holds a wealth of resources in its Special Collections, including historical works on health, medicine, cookery and medicinal uses of food, as well as extensive archival material about the history of medicine, surgery and nursing during the First World War and across the region since the eighteenth century.
You’ll be encouraged to participate in events run by the School of History’s lively ‘Health, Medicine and Society’ research group, including seminars, reading group sessions and a postgraduate symposium. You’ll also be able to attend a huge range of other events at the University of Leeds, including seminars at the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science and the Leeds Centre for Medical Humanities.
You’ll also have access to the University’s Museum of Science, Technology and Medicine, which is especially rich in its medical collections, and we have close links with the Thackray Medical Museum in east Leeds and its 47,000 medical objects.
The first semester will lay the foundations of your studies, introducing you to historical research methods, and key sources, debates and methodologies in the history of health, medicine and society. You’ll take part in a source analysis workshop and gain practical knowledge of documentary, visual and material sources in the university and local area which can be used to study the history of health, medicine and society.
You’ll also develop specialist knowledge of the development of the history of medicine and the social history of medicine as historical sub-disciplines, and the place of health and medicine within the discipline of history.
In Semester Two, you’ll build on this knowledge with your choice from a wide range of optional modules, including specialist topics such as birth , death and illness in the Middle Ages; Medicine and warfare in the 19th and 20th centuries or disease and sexuality in Africa. You’ll also have the opportunity to work collaboratively with partner organisations, such as the West Yorkshire Archive Service, by studying the ‘Making History: Archive collaborations’ module.
Throughout the programme, you’ll develop your knowledge across a variety of areas as well as key skills in research and critical analysis. You’ll showcase these skills when you complete your dissertation, which will be independently researched on a topic of your choice and submitted by the end of the programme in September.
If you choose to study part-time, you’ll study over a longer period and take fewer modules in each year.
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
We use a range of teaching and learning methods. The majority of your modules will be taught through weekly seminars, where you’ll discuss issues and themes in your chosen modules with a small group of students and your tutors. Independent study is also crucial to this degree, giving you the space to shape your own studies and develop your skills.
We use different types of assessment to help you develop a wide range of skills, including presentations, research proposals, project reports and essays, depending on the subjects you choose.
This programme will heighten your cultural and social awareness as well as allowing you to build your historical knowledge. You’ll also gain high-level research, analysis and communication skills that will prove valuable in a wide range of careers.
Graduates have found success in a diverse range of careers in education, research and the private sector. Many others have continued with their studies at PhD level. Your knowledge and skills will appeal to a wide range of employers, including in the charitable, education, healthcare, and heritage sectors .
We offer different forms of support to help you reach your career goals. You’ll have the chance to attend our career groups, meeting students with similar plans, or you could become a paid academic mentor to an undergraduate completing their final-year dissertation. You could also apply for one of the internships we offer each year.
The MSc by Research in Economic & Social History is aimed at students who have a specific topic of interest into which they wish to conduct their own research.
The programme provides structured research training while at the same time enabling you to pursue a research project that you design yourself, in consultation with supervisors. It serves as both a self-contained research degree and a preparation for further study for the PhD degree.
Economic and social history addresses the historical processes underlying the evolution of modern society by employing a range of insights and approaches from the social sciences, including economics, sociology and social anthropology.
Edinburgh has a large and distinguished group of academics in this research area. Their specialist fields provide students with an outstanding range of options, both in terms of historical period and areas of the world.
Our home is the William Robertson Wing, an A-listed building on the southern edge of Edinburgh’s Old Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Designed by the distinguished 19th-century architect Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, the building – part of the University’s Old Medical School – has recently been refurbished to an exceptional standard, providing state-of-the-art facilities for research, teaching and study.
Graduate students are able to use two further large School study and resource rooms, which are open to all staff and students. There is access to lockers equipped with laptop charging facilities as well as standard lockers.
The building is wireless enabled and includes state of the art teaching rooms, meeting rooms, a common room, a refreshment area, and open social/breakout areas.
The programme combines lectures, seminars, tutorials, and computer-lab sessions. The skills and theory imparted in the research-training courses, along with many of the assignments, are designed to feed directly into the final dissertation work.
You will be examined through coursework and a dissertation totalling approximately 30,000 words.
The programme focuses on civil society, material culture, youth, gender, crime, cinema, economic growth and energy policy in a variety of historical contexts.
You take four compulsory courses and complete a dissertation. Each course is assessed by essays, usually of around 2,500 words.
Compulsory courses:
Historical Research: Skills and Sources
Historical Methodology and Historiography
Economic and Social Theory for Historical Analysis
Supervised Reading Course
Option courses may include:
Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain
Material Culture of Gender in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Cinema and Society in Britain
Slavery in the Atlantic World
British at War: 1939–45
Cinema and Society in South Asia
Clothing and Culture in Comparative Historical Contexts
This programme is specifically designed for students who anticipate progressing to a doctoral programme, but it can also function as excellent preparation for a wide variety of careers.
