Program Overview

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What is the human experience – and cost – of war? Looking beyond the dates and battlefield details of typical military history, this MA raises urgent questions about why societies go to war. You will engage with diverse perspectives on violence and conflict in the modern period, and examine case studies from all over the world. Drawing on our expertise across a variety of disciplines, including history, literature, law, sociology and psychoanalytic studies, you will consider the effects of war on different scales, from the individual to the global, and on different groups. Some of the key questions we will consider include:

• What did it mean to be a woman in the First World War – as a worker, grieving mother, or a combatant?
• How does psychological trauma and physical disability impact on veterans today?
• How is wartime service remembered and commemorated, privately and politically?
• Why are some groups excluded from popular representations of war – and how does the picture change once they are included?

In our Department of History you are taught by award-winning academics from all over the world: our corridors are truly cosmopolitan. We also provide you with opportunities to explore local history and have close ties with the Essex Record Office, one of the best county record offices in the UK. Why we're great.

• This unique course looks at the impact of war on humanity – and draws on a variety of disciplines of study to give a rounded view
• This MA has real-world value: begin your training in conflict resolution and develop your psychoanalytical skills, while developing your academic abilities
• Work alongside scholars at the cutting-edge of historical communication

Our expert staff

Our staff are among world leaders in their field, and our enthusiasm for our subject is infectious. Our flexible course is combined with a supportive structure which helps you to pursue the modules best-suited to your interests. We take the time to get to know you as an individual, welcome you into our scholarly community, and value your views.

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Specialist facilities

• You have the option to take field trips to war memorial sites in London and Berlin
• We have several Special Collections in history, including the Essex Society for Archaeology and History Library, the Harsnett Collection, the Hervey Benham Oral History Sound Archive, the Bensusan Collection, and the Colchester Medical Society Library
• Access the UK Data Archive, a national service provider digital resources for historians, which is particularly strong in 19th and 20th-century economic and social history
• Attend an exciting programme of events
• Access a variety of textbooks and journals in our Albert Sloman Library which houses materials on Latin America, Russia and the US that are of national significance

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Your future

We have excellent links with the research community, both in the UK and worldwide, so many of our students have gone on to teach in higher education institutions. Others have found employment in archives, research, managing research funds, other forms of educational provision, the Civil Service, the National Health Service, and management. Within our Department of History, we offer supervision for PhD, MPhil and MA by Dissertation. Themes of particular research interest include:

• War, culture and memory
• Public history
• Urban history
• Digital history
• Oral history
• Histories of class, race and gender
• The history of medicine
• The history of crime
• The history of food
• Slavery and slave societies

Our University is one of only 11 AHRC-accredited Doctoral Training Centres in the UK. This means that we offer funded PhD studentships which also provide a range of research and training opportunities. We also work with our Employability and Careers Centre to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.