History MPhil

Our history programme offers research opportunities in areas as diverse as medicine, death, historical demography, gender, womens history and urban culture. As an MPhil or PhD student you will enjoy a research environment in which ambitious and original ideas can flourish.<br/><br/>Many of the research opportunities in history are interdisciplinary and are available for most periods of history and in most geographical regions.<br/><br/>You can find out more about MPhil and PhD supervision areas from the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. There are opportunities for joint supervision with Latin American researchers in the School of Modern Languages.<br/><br/>Supervision is normally available in the following subject areas:<br/><br/>Classical, medieval and early modern medicine:<br/><br/>Topics include:<br/>•reception(s) of Hippocratic medicine and Hippocratic Oath<br/>•history of medical ethics<br/>•history and iconography of melancholy and psychopathology<br/>•medical history/historiography as an academic discipline<br/>•genres of medical writing<br/>•interface between medicine and literature, Thomas Mann and medicine<br/>•medicine and philosophy; medicine and law.<br/><br/>The supervisor in this area is Dr T Rütten.<br/><br/>Death and burial:<br/><br/>The history of poverty and poor relief in pre-industrial England (Professor J Boulton).<br/><br/>Gender, womens history and the history of sexuality:<br/><br/>Britain (Dr H Berry); the modern Atlantic world (Dr D Paton); Greece (Dr V Hionidou).<br/><br/>Historical demography:<br/><br/>The history of nutrition, famine and mortality; the history of fertility, birth control and contraception (Dr V Hionidou).<br/><br/>History of ideas:<br/><br/>Revolutionary ideology in 18th and 19th century Britain and France (Dr R Hammersley); European historiography (Dr L Racaut).<br/><br/>History of psychiatry:<br/><br/>Mental health and the asylum; forensic psychiatry, criminal lunacy and crime; the history of the body; early modern social and cultural history of health; history of hospitals; history of sexuality; domestic/household medicine; travel and medicine (Dr J Andrews).<br/><br/>Early medieval Britain and Europe (Dr S Ashley, Ms A Redgate).<br/><br/>National identity, inter-ethnic relations and border issues:<br/><br/>Japan (Dr M Dusinberre); North America (Dr B Houston); Russia and Ukraine (Professor D Saunders); Mexico and Cuba (Dr K Brewster); the Caribbean (Dr D Paton); Spain (Dr A Quiroga); Ireland (Dr S Ashley, Dr F Campbell); the Irish in Britain (Dr J Allen).<br/><br/>Politics, international relations and the impact of war:<br/><br/>Modern British politics (Dr J Allen, Dr M Farr, Dr F Campbell); European fascism and the Nazi new order (Professor T Kirk); 20th century France (Dr M Perry); 20th century Italy (Dr C Baldoli); transwar Japan (Dr M Dusinberre); American Civil War and the United States in the 19th century (Professor S M Grant); the United States in the 20th century (Dr B Houston).<br/><br/>Urban history and urban culture:<br/><br/>History of the press in early modern France (Dr L Racaut); 19th century Newcastle and the North East (Dr J Allen); 18th century urban cultures in Britain (Dr H Berry); 17th century London (Professor J Boulton); urban culture in the Habsburg Empire (Professor T Kirk).<br/><br/>Seminars and conferences:<br/><br/>You take part in the Schools research seminar series, lunchtime Postgraduate Forum seminars, and annual postgraduate conference which is organised by postgraduate students. The Postgraduate Forum also runs its own peer-reviewed e-journal.