History – (M.A.)

Contents

Course length

Full-time: PGCert: 4 months, PGDip: 9 months, MA: 12 months
Part-time: PGCert: 2 semesters, PGDip: 3 semesters, MA: 24 months,

The MA in History consists of four modules: a compulsory core module, two elective modules and a dissertation. Postgraduate diploma students take Modules 1, 2 and 3; postgraduate certificate students take Module 1 and one elective module. Modules may change from time to time; an indicative list is shown below.

Module 1: Key Concepts and Methods in Historical Research

Every student takes this compulsory core module in advanced historical studies, which is designed to help make the transition from undergraduate to graduate-level work. You will be introduced to a variety of perspectives on theory and method in history, and you will acquire the advanced study skills needed to develop the capacity to engage in independent research. You will also receive training in the use of electronic research resources. This module is taken in Semester 1 and is assessed by two written assignments.

Modules 2 and 3: elective modules

Master's students choose two elective modules, enabling the close study of topics in two different areas of historical analysis. The topics for these modules reflect the specific research expertise of the staff in the department and the programme offered varies from year to year and are as follows:

* Studying Civil War: Russia, Spain, Greece examines three case studies in civil conflict in the 20th Century. In analysing a variety of themes from international relations to the dynamics of clan violence, the module introduces students to the practice of comparative history, historical sociology and the analytical study of civil conflict.
* Irish Migrations from the 16th to the 20th Centuries explores the history of the Irish diaspora over the past five centuries. It will examine the impact of Irish migration on Ireland and on the countries in which the Irish settled. Different historical interpretations of the emigrant experience will be analysed with particular reference to issues such as assimilation, ethnicity and national identity.
* Behaving Badly: From Deviance to Modernity examines various comparative themes in the history of law, crime, deviance and 'bad behaviour' from 1500 to the present. Students will be given the opportunity to study the fundamental issues that have pre-occupied historians of crime, deviance and forms of behaviour society considers unacceptable and/or errant.
* The Protestant Reformation and the Arts considers the abstract theological debates of the Reformation that had a significant impact upon the lives of ordinary people. The churches in which they worshipped were remodelled, the traditional Catholic rituals and practices that governed their lives were reformed. This module will examine one of the key features of the Reformation that affected ordinary people across Europe, the changing attitudes towards the visual arts. Within a comparative framework this module will explore the impact that the Reformation had upon art, architecture, music and sculpture in the early modern period. It will consider contemporary debates on the role of images, the psychology of religious violence and the political implications of iconoclasm. The module will also explore the contradictions and differences that emerged across Europe and in different Protestant cultures.
* Terrorism in Context locates contemporary terrorism in its historical context by considering its evolution since the late 19th century when anarchists pioneered the use of violence directed against civil society and symbolic political targets as atechnique for effecting revolutionary change. It then evaluates (testing their heuristic value in relationship to case-studies in four contexts that generate acts of terrorism) a variety of conflicting models of the phenomenon on: the politicisation of religion as a result of threats to traditional communities; the sacralisation of politics by secular ideological movements; the lone-wolf sense of a mission to help precipitate change; the state oppression of perceived ‘enemies’.
* Britain and Europe, 1950-1990. ‘Europe’ is a subject that has come to dominate post-war British politics, splitting political parties, bringing down governments and Prime Ministers, and dividing opinion more bitterly and deeply than any other subject. This course will attempt to assess why exactly the subject was so divisive, and examine the different views taken about ‘ever closer union’ since 1950.
* Race, Empire and Colonization investigates the development and influence of concepts of race in Europe – chiefly Great Britain - and overseas colonies, and examine the relationship of these to imperialism.
* Patients and Practitioners, 1700-1850 breaks neatly into two parts. In part one we will be dealing with the general theoretical and source issues that underpin an understanding of the doctor-patient relationship. We will also understand the early history of doctoring and doctor-patient relationships. In part two, we will move on to consider various aspects of the doctor-patient relationship, including the supply of doctors, patient networks, the role of institutions, doctoring as an art and regional differences in the strength and character of doctor-patient relationships.
* Body Politics: Health and Modernity in Britain, 1830-1914 examines the political and cultural dynamics of British public health during the period 1830 to 1914. Students will be given the opportunity to engage with the very latest historiography and explore how an ostensibly discrete and humanitarian field of governance raised broader questions about the meaning of urban civilisation, the limits of the state, the scope and organisation of expert authority, and the politics of gender, class and sexuality. It will encourage students to think about these issues in terms of the bigger picture of modernity and the practice and regulation of modern freedom.
* Medical Experience in the Countryside, 1500-1789 examines various comparative themes in the social history of medicine as it pertains to rural Europe during the Early Modern Period (1500 to 1789). Students will be given the opportunity to study the fundamental issues that have been explored by historians of rural society and the social history of medicine.
* Engineering Society: Eugenics and Biopolitics in Europe, 1800-1945 examines various comparative themes in the history of eugenics, genetics, biopolitics, anthropology and modernity from 1800 to 1945. Students will be given the opportunity to study the fundamental issues that have pre-occupied historians of biology, science and modernity since the 1800s and combine these with specific case studies from a wide range of European countries.
* Science, Magic and Religion introduces students to history of science based theories on the social construction of knowledge systems and alert them to the boundary issues involved in the construction of science, magic and religion. All three will also be looked at as cultural systems and implicated in the establishment of cultural and political hegemony. A further focus will be the historical specificity of the definitions of the boundaries between science, magic and religion. The second part of the course focuses on methodological issues, in particular primary source selection and interpretation.
* From Pills and Potions, To Penicillin and Prozac. Barely a week goes by without news of a medical breakthrough, and this often refers to a drug promising either a treatment for a disease previously unresponsive to medical intervention, or else a significant improvement over existing treatments. On the other hand, some times one also hears about disasters or abuses involving the testing, administering, or taking of drugs. On these occasions, the clinical researchers who test the drugs, the doctors who prescribe them, but more often the pharmaceutical companies who make them, are transformed in the public eye from heroes into villains, and become the subject of controversy, some times even legal prosecution. The objective of this module is therefore double: 1) to help students to make sense of this complex picture by placing it in a wider historical context; 2) to explain how drugs have come to occupy such an important place in our society, by examining their evolution not only in terms of scientific and medical progress, but also in terms of a complex, changing inter-relationship between consumers, producers, the medical profession, and the state.
* Ethics and Ideas: From the Hippocratic Oath to Informed Consent. Students will be given the opportunity to study the fundamental issues that have pre-occupied historians of medical malpractice and clinical research. This module will examine various comparative themes in the history of medical ethics from Hippocrates to the present.
* The History of Death and Dying in Britain, 1750-1900 introduces students to the social and medical history of death and dying in England, 1750-1900. It explores a variety of historiographical debates about the cultural meaning of death through a diverse range of funerary artefacts, as well as printed primary medical texts. In this way, it examines the social meaning of death, as well as efforts by the medical profession to alleviate the sufferings of dying patients appropriately.
* The Hospital in History provides a long-term analysis of the origins and transformations of the hospital in its social context. The course covers changing organisational forms, funding, medical specialisation, therapeutic innovations, patients, public perceptions, and the broader politics of hospital development within western and non-European contexts.

Each module lasts for one semester and is assessed by two or three written assignments. Full-time MA students take one elective module in each semester. Part-time MA students take their first elective in Semester 2 of the first year and their second elective in Semester 1 of the second year.

Module 4: Dissertation

This is the capstone of the master's course. You will have the opportunity to conduct a major in-depth investigation into a historical topic of your choice, leading to the production of a 15,000-word thesis. The topic may be related to one of your elective modules or may be chosen from another area of your interest. You will be supported in your research by individual supervision from a specialist tutor and by group workshops on advanced research design that take place in Semester 2 (for part-time students this is taken in year two). The dissertation is completed over the summer and submitted by 1 September.