History – (M.Phil.)

The University of Essex is one of the UK's leading academic institutions, ranked ninth nationally for research excellence following the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The Department of History was ranked second in the UK in the most recent RAE. It has a particular emphasis on social and cultural history of the early modern and modern periods, with a strong international community of staff and students. The Department was founded in 1972 and has since developed a strong research profile. It offers excellent research training and careful supervision in a friendly atmosphere with good staff-student relations.

The Department has a good mix of areas and specialisms. The pattern of appointments to the Department has deliberately brought together a group of scholars with a wide range of approaches and fields in early modern, modern and contemporary history. Courses reflect the Department's strengths in social and cultural history and there is particular expertise in the following geographical areas: Britain (including local and regional history), European history and the history of the United States, Russia, Brazil and Southern Africa. Themes of particular research interest include: class, race and gender formation, nationalism, wars and revolutions, international relations and oil diplomacy, the history of medicine, the history of crime, popular culture and consumption, the history of ideas and print culture, and the relationship of film to history.

The following represent areas are where the Department has particular expertise: European social, cultural and economic history from the sixteenth to the twentieth century: Britain, France, Germany and Russia are particular areas of interest; political movements and ideologies in the modern world, including communism, socialism; labour movements; history of late-imperial Russia and the Soviet Union; history of ideas, including the history of science and medicine; history of the USA, including African American History and American foreign policy; history of Latin America, especially Venezuela and Brazil; history of South and Southern Africa in the twentieth century; the international politics of oil in the twentieth century; local history, especially the history of Essex and Suffolk; gender history; women´s history; demographic history; history of information.