History PhD/MA by Research (On-Campus or by Distance Learning)
The Department of History was ranked first in the country in the Research Excellence Framework 2014. We offer promising candidates the opportunity to study alongside academic staff working at the forefront of current research. Our academics cover a wide range of British, European and Worldwide history from around 500 to the present day, providing expert supervision in areas including medieval history, cultural and social history, politics, economics, religion, war studies, the history of the West Midlands, the history of sexuality and emotion, and the history of the environment.
The History MA by Research programme requires you to prepare a dissertation of up to 40,000 words on a topic of your choice, for which an academic staff member will provide expert supervision.
The History PhD – the most advanced research degree – leads to a dissertation of up to 80,000 words on a subject of your choice, under the expert supervision of an academic member of staff.
Research interests of staff:
• British and German Armies
• British 20th-century political history
• Society and politics of 17th-century England
• History of the West Midlands since 1700
• Counter-Reformation belief and politics
• History of Nineteenth Century Britain
• Air power: history, theory and practice
• The British economy in the 20th century
• German history since 1870
• Art and material culture of early modern Britain
• Modern British social history
• British–German relations since 1945
• 19th–20th century European history; environmental history
• Race and Immigration
• Early Modern European exploration, expansion and colonisation
• History of religion in the British Army
• Economic History
• Asian History
• History of the medieval Middle East, Afghanistan and Central Asia: religious culture, politics and society, cross-cultural interaction, cities, frontiers
• Early European economic and social history; the Vikings
• Economy and society in late medieval England
• Religious culture in central Middle Ages (c1000-c1300) especially history of crusading
• Late medieval English legal history; the friars in England
• Premodern China, especially c.700-1200; comparative, world and global history; borders, cross-cultural interaction, politics and society
• The late medieval Church and society, especially in England
• England, 900-1200: religious and political culture; issues concerning gender and identity