MA (Res) Modern History

Duration

Full-time 12 months
Part-time 24 months

Reading is an excellent base for graduate studies in history. The well-established and wide-ranging MA programme provides you with the confidence and skills to undertake an original piece of research in some aspect of British, European, or American history from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. It also offers the necessary training for those who wish to pursue research at the doctoral level at Reading or elsewhere.

Programme Content

The MA consists of three principal elements. Most important is the Research Project in the form of a dissertation of 15,000-20,000 words. An appropriate supervisor is assigned to give initial help with the selection and refinement of the topic and then to provide advice and support during the process of research and writing up. Additionally, there are two core modules. The first of these, Historical Skills and Resources, aims to ensure that you are properly equipped to undertake a piece of independent historical research. It provides fundamental bibliographical, library and archival skills; and further elements, such as foreign language work and computing, are arranged on an individual basis according to the more special needs arising from the research project. The second core module, Modern History: Theory, Practice and Themes, brings staff and students together in the Autumn term to discuss some broad historical issues, and leads into the study of two options, selected by the student, in the Spring Term. Topics available include, for example, War and its Impact, Slave Society in the United States, and The Death of God in Nineteenth Century Britain. It is also possible to take one or more modules from the MA in Early Modern History.  The modules are assessed by four submitted essays, each of 4000 words.