MPhil in History (Modern European History 1850-present)

University of Oxford

The MPhil in History (Modern European History 1850-present) will encourage you to ask new questions of the cultural, intellectual, transnational, and social history of Europe from 1850 onwards. The MPhil has a sustained period devoted to archival research and writing, and is designed to give you a thorough training in historical research, improve your 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 a free-standing graduate qualification, 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 second year. 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. Oxford has a unique concentration of academic expertise in modern European history, with particular strengths in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, offering coverage of western and eastern Europe, culture and politics, national and international history. There is a culture of diversity and asking new questions, and in this spirit, you will be encouraged to follow your own intellectual interests.There are weekly seminars with a wide range of speakers, specialist research centres, and a graduate workshop where you can present and discuss your work.You will take three compulsory core papers and two optional papers, as well as undertake an original research project. There is also a research masterclass, which is not assessed. This structure gives access to a wide range of both general and specialised training within the field of history.