This MA programme provides an exciting opportunity to study the history of the modern period at an advanced level. It is informed by a commitment to the diversity of topics, methods and theories which might be included in that period, which we conceive of broadly and flexibly in both time and space, and to the need for clarity, reflectiveness and rigour in the practice of historical enquiry and explanation. Rather than offering a random selection of topics or claiming to cover all the possibilities within the field, the MA is designed both to provide some coherence by focussing on central questions about modern history and to encourage students to choose and follow specific thematic interests within the period. The aim is to introduce them to the diversity of modern history but also to explore certain broad connecting themes or categories which enable historians to make sense of the material and issues they investigate and interpret. The programme combines breadth of choice with a structured approach to the practice of historical study and explanation by offering a focussed first term of course work designed to develop students' thinking about concepts, methods, topics, and theories relevant to modern history alongside a broad variety of option courses in the second term. The chronological, geographical, and methodological breadth of staff research interests allows us to provide dissertation supervision as well as taught courses across a large spectrum of time, geographical area, and types of approach. These range from histories of gender, medicine and orientalism or of politics and society in the UK, Germany, and Russia, to French and American societies and cultures and the study of New World slavery and of imperialism.

Further details can be found on the History Department area of the York University website (web address given below). Enquiries to Dr Joanna de Groot, at: