History (Modern British History 1850-present) MSt

<strong>The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.</strong> <br/><br/>The MSt in History (Modern British History 1850-present), will introduce you to British political and intellectual history in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, political culture more broadly conceived, and the social and cultural history of the period. <br/><br/>The MSt is designed to improve your practical and intellectual grasp of research processes, ability to conceptualise and engage with historical problems, and enlarge your understanding of the historical and historiographical context in which your own research is set. The course can serve as either free-standing graduate qualifications, or as a springboard to doctoral study. Students wishing to proceed to doctoral study will be encouraged to develop their doctoral proposals during the first few months of the MSt. Skills training and option-choice are flexible and open-ended, to allow you to gain the knowledge and training needed to complete your research project.<br/><br/>The Modern British history group at Oxford has particular strengths in the history of women, the history of architecture, and the history of childhood, with outstanding print and digital resources of the Bodleian Library and important Special Collections, including the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera and the Conservative Party archive.<br/><br/>There are several faculty research seminars focusing principally on the period and interdisciplinary networks that bring historians of the period into conversation with scholars from other disciplines. Further information about Modern British history research and activities can be found through the faculty website.<br/><br/>You are encouraged to engage with the faculty’s lively research culture of seminars, workshops, and discussions groups, which are programmed throughout each week, and sessions often involve leading international scholars. The faculty also runs the Oxford History Graduate Network, which fosters conversations and collaborations between graduate students. Interdisciplinary activities are available through The Oxford Centre for Research in the Humanities (TORCH).<br/><br/>Course structure<br/>You will take one compulsory core course, two optional subject courses, and undertake an original research project.<br/><br/>Courses and research are supported by a skills programme for general historical or field-specific training. This structure gives access to a wide range of both general and specialised training within history.<br/><br/>You will work on an original research project throughout the course, under the guidance of your supervisor. You are expected to commit the Easter vacation and Trinity term to archival research and writing. You will be invited to present and receive feedback on your work-in-progress at a workshop specific to this course at the start of Trinity term. If studying part- time, you will be expected to complete the dissertation at the end of Trinity term in year two.<br/><br/>Additional lectures, classes, and tutorials take place in Michaelmas and Hilary terms to provide general and specific training. You will discuss what training you need to undertake your research project with your supervisor. Training available includes document and object handling, palaeography, oral history, text analysis software, GIS software, and statistical analysis.<br/><br/>Language training is also available, with the faculty organising special courses for historians in French, German, Spanish, and Italian. Other modern language courses are available through the University’s Language Centre. Courses in Latin and other medieval languages are also available.