History Department staff interests
History Staff interests
The following list gives some indication of the areas in which members of the Department are interested in recruiting postgraduate students, but it is by no means exhaustive.
Medieval History
English manuscripts and manuscript illumination, c900-c1200 (Dr Anne Lawrence);
Magic and the twelfth-century renaissance (Dr Anne Lawrence)
Monasticism and spirituality, c900-c1200 (Dr Anne Lawrence)
Politics, culture and the church in France, c. 1100-c.1300, especially kingship (and queenship), gothic architecture and sculpture, and the monastic and secular church in northern France (Prof. Grant)
Crusading and Crusade historiography (Dr Rist)
Heresy and Dissent in the central Middle Ages (Dr Rist)
Christian-Jewish relations in the High Middle Ages (Dr Rist)
The Medieval Papacy (Dr Rist)
Social and economic history of late medieval England (Dr Yates)
See also the GCMS webpages for other medievalists in the University.
European History
Early Modern Dutch History (Dr Mijers)
European military history between c.1500 and 1815 (Dr Tallett)
Early modern French history, especially religious history (Dr Tallett)
Continental European history since 1870 (Dr Risso)
Twentieth-century German history (Prof. Major)
Cold War history, especially its 'home fronts' (Prof. Major)
popular culture, especially film and publishing history (Prof. Major)
Modern Italian social and political history (Prof. Bosworth)
Fascism (Prof. Bosworth)
The historicisation of the Second World War (Prof Bosworth)
History of propaganda and intelligence in the 20th century (Dr Risso)
European integration (Dr Risso)
Modern European Historians in other Departments include Professor Knapp (Twentieth-century France) and Professor Duggan (Twentieth-century Italy).
Economic History
Social and economic history of pre-industrial England, especially of the medieval period (Dr Yates)
Aspects of material culture especially vernacular buildings (Dr Yates)
British rural history, c.1500-1800; early modern economic history generally of the British Isles (Prof. Hoyle)
Modern Economic Historians in the University include Professors Casson, Godley and Scott in the Henley Business School.
Rural History
Social and economic history of pre-industrial England, especially of the medieval period (Dr Yates)
British rural history, c.1500-1800; early modern economic history generally of the British Isles (Prof. Hoyle)
Popular engagement with the English countryside since the Industrial Revolution (Dr Burchardt)
Rural society in the inter-war period, focusing on leisure and social relations (Dr Burchardt)
Early Modern History
early modern political history including popular politics (Prof. Hoyle)
Reformation history, particularly religious change in England in the sixteenth century (Dr Parish)
Popular religion and polemic in early modern England (Dr Parish)
the history of the clergy and priesthood (Dr Parish)
political thought in seventeenth-century England (Dr Foxley)
politics and culture of the English civil war and interregnum (Dr Foxley)
the reception of classical ideas in early modern European thought (Dr Foxley)
political and religious history, and some areas of cultural history, between the mid-seventeenth and the early nineteenth century (Prof. Taylor)
early modern British History, including Atlantic and transnational relations (Dr Mijers)
all aspects of Scottish History, 1600-1800, esp the early Enlightenment (Dr Mijers)
Early modern Historians in other departments include Professor Alan Cromartie (History of Ideas). For a full listing of the early modernists in the University, see the Early Modern Research centre webpages
American History
Slavery in the USA, especially the lives of the enslaved (Dr West)
The antebellum South (Dr West)
Gender in nineteenth century American history (Dr West)
Twentieth-century US political history (Dr Bell)
political ideologies and their relationship to party and organisational politics; (Dr Bell)
US welfare state building and the representation of minority rights (Dr Bell)
Modern British and Colonial History
Popular engagement with the English countryside since the Industrial Revolution (Dr Burchardt)
Nineteenth-century allotments (Dr Burchardt)
nineteenth-century political thought (Dr Stack)
history of radicalism and early socialism (Dr Stack)
popular science, including popular political economy (Dr Stack)
Twentieth-Century British Political and Cultural History (Dr Worley
Twentieth-Century Communist and Socialist History (Dr Worley)
History of the Far Right in Britain (Dr Worley)
Rural society in the inter-war period, focusing on leisure and social relations (Dr Burchardt)
Regional and local history
Local history with a particular interest in southern England including
Berkshire (Drs Burchardt, Yates)
local and regional history, especially of Northern England (Prof Hoyle)