Cross boundaries, make history
As a postgraduate research student in our department we welcome you into our scholarly community, helping you embrace the unfamiliar, stimulating a thirst and a hunger to explore.
A research degree is your opportunity to examine a specific topic in detail while working alongside our academic experts as part of our department’s passionate and enthusiastic research team.
Within our department, there are three research degrees available; PhD History; MPhil History and MA (by Dissertation) History, and all are available for part-time study. You can be accepted to research on a wide range of topics within the general field of history from the sixteenth century to the present. Research student topics have included leisure, society and marginal communities in Britain 1890-1950, the relationship between Nazi Germany and her South Eastern allies 1939-1945, entrepreneurship allied to the history of the theatre 1800-1830, and the intellectual circle of Thomas Plume 1630-1704.
Many of our academic staff are open to supervision and have a huge variety of research interests, ranging from social and cultural history, to politics and international relations. Our key themes of research within the department are visible through our overlapping research clusters; Race, Gender, and Identity; Political Cultures, Class, and Citizenship; and War, Conflict, and Memory. Take a look at the breadth of research our academics are actively engaged in.
For an insight into our staff's research interests and recent publications, or for contact information for potential supervisors, visit our academic staff profiles. You can also use our research finder tool to explore the areas of research you're interested in from across the University.
Learn more about the benefits of postgraduate study in our department, or if you're ready to apply, all the information you need can be found on our dedicated webpage. For general information regarding postgraduate research study, you can contact our department's graduate administrator Lisa Smith on lisa.smith@essex.ac.uk.
Explore our postgraduate research degrees