History (PhD - MPhil)

Institution Birkbeck, University of London
Method At the institution
Location London
Type Masters
Course fee By request

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History (PhD - MPhil)

Objectives A research degree offers students the opportunity to acquire a highly advanced set of conceptual skills developed in the pursuit of new knowledge, which can be applied within or beyond an academic or scholarly context. Research training in any academic discipline helps to channel creativity into critical innovatory reasoning. The legitimate authority of original, independent research depends upon persuasive analytical arguments supported by critically evaluated evidence. Before deciding to pursue a research degree, you should ideally draft an independent proposal for your intended area of research. We also strongly advise that before submitting your application, you informally approach and establish contact with a potential supervisor based in the School.
Entry requirements Entry requirements Good honours degree in a historical subject.
Academic title History (PhD / MPhil)
Course description Staff research areas
The School provides a supportive context for research in the following areas: ancient Greece and Roman social and cultural history; later Roman archaeology; late antiquity; history of medieval societies and cultures; British social, cultural and political history since 1400; French history since 1400; Italian history since 1500; the cultural history of early modern cities, especially London and Venice; the history of ideas from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries; Russian history since 1800; nineteenth- and twentieth-century American social and cultural history; Balkan history and the history of the Ottoman Empire and its successor states; West and Southern Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the history of Japan and East Asia; the history of science, medicine and psychoanalysis in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and the cultural history of death, warfare, race, gender and sexuality.

Study resources
The School of History, Classics and Archaeology was rated ‘best 5*’ for research in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise.

You will find the British Museum and the British Library just a few minutes’ walk away from Birkbeck. Other nearby specialist centres of research include the University of London Institute of Historical Research, the School of Oriental and African Studies, the German Historical Institute, the Warburg Institute, the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, the City of London Record Offices, the India Office Library and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. The Public Record Office, the British Newspaper Library, the Imperial War Museum and other archives are within easy reach by public transport.

Study resources also include a regular work-in-progress seminar for research students and staff, and various courses on ancillary skills, including how to read medieval and early modern documents, how to locate sources in various fields, languages and computing. Besides over 30 regular research seminars at the Institute of Historical Research, there are also numerous specialist lectures and talks at neighbouring institutions during term-time.