Our popular flagship MA History is rigorous, flexible and wide-ranging. You take a practical module in research techniques which prepares you for your dissertation work (Research Methods in History), and can then choose your other four taught modules from a range of options which enable you to study the latest historical research in specific fields. You will also write a 20,000 word dissertation, on a topic of your own choosing and with one-to-one support from an academic.
Our three other MA pathways enable you to specialise in particular fields of history that interest you. On each of the pathways, in addition to Research Methods in History, you take one other core module and also write your dissertation in the specialised pathway fields. On MA History (Local and Regional History Pathway) the core module covers concepts and approaches in local and regional history; students taking the MA History (Social and Cultural History) study approaches to cultural and social history; while the core module of the MA History (Public History Pathway) is the Public History Workshop.
Optional modules can cover topics as diverse as the histories of gender, medicine, state-building, war and commemoration, slavery and race, and communities and institutions, in geographical locations ranging from the local (Essex) to the national, European, and global. Key employability skills include learning how to create a research brief, analytical reasoning, the marshalling of information, problem solving, and various forms of information presentation.
Postgraduate Certificates are available for the degree courses listed above. The Certificate consists of the taught modules of the MA but without the dissertation. Students registered for a Certificate can transfer to the respective MA, and proceed to write the dissertation, if satisfactory progress is made on the coursework.
Certificate and MA schemes are available on a full-time (1-year) basis, part-time (2-year) basis, or by modular study (3, 4 or 5-years).