History - Postgraduate Research Opportunities

History PhD/MA by Research (On-Campus or by Distance Learning)

As a postgraduate researcher in the Department of History you will have the opportunity to work alongside academic staff whose research is at the forefront of current historical scholarship.

Times Higher Education ranked the Department of History eighth in the country in the Research Excellence Framework exercise 2021 based on Grade Point Average, and the Department is unrivalled in the geographical and chronological breadth of its research. 

Research in the Department of History has unique chronological and geographical depth, covering a wide range of British, European and world history from the early medieval period to the present.

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.

Our History programmes can be studied on campus or by distance learning. Please note that if you are studying with us by distance learning, there is a required visit to campus in the first year of study.

Research interests of staff include:

We are able to provide expert supervision across a variety of topics. A summary of our key research areas, and staff working within those, can be found below.

• Early modern history
• Environmental history
• Gender, sexuality and race
• Global history
• Medieval history
• Modern British history
• Modern European history
• Religious history
• War and conflict

For full research interests of staff, please read our staff profiles or visit the 'Research' tab on the course page.

Funding Notes

Please visit the College of Arts and Law funding page for information on possible funding opportunities: View Website. You can find out about all the scholarships that are available on our Postgraduate Funding Database. If you find a scholarship that you are interested in, we would recommend you check the application guidelines as these can differ between funding schemes. For some of them, you can apply for funding as soon as you have submitted an application for the course. If you would like to start in 2024, applications for the AHRC Midlands4Cities Scholarship opened on 16 October 2023 and closes on 10 January 2024.