The Department of History at Durham University is pleased to announce a new MA programme in Global History, which is now accepting applications for 2024 intake. The course structure is outlined below. For more information, including how to apply, please visit: https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/courses/global-history-v1kd07/.
Ours is a richly interconnected world. That was just as true in the past as it is in the present. The MA in Global History equips you with the tools to explore the themes that define an interlinked global past in various regions of the world and from the medieval to late modern eras. You will leave the course with a firm grounding in historical research and an aptitude for approaching it through the distinctive techniques of global history.
Global history is a distinctive method of analysis that considers historical events as they unfold in the context of large-scale political, cultural, social, economic, and environmental contexts that cut across traditional national and regional boundaries. Modern-day challenges, such as the climate crisis and pandemic disease, highlight the benefits of a global perspective, but by no means are the global links that shape these challenges new phenomena. A global historical perspective both puts modern global challenges in historical context and reveals the globally interconnected nature of past cultures and civilisations.
You will encounter the tools for exploring these connections in the module Foundations of Global History. It provides the extensive methodological grounding you will need for further research in global history, or to apply insights from the course to other sectors.
The remainder of the taught modules are selected from options that provide in-depth exploration of topics and themes linked to active research in the Department. The knowledge and skills developed across the taught modules are then integrated into a dissertation, which offers a further opportunity to shape your own path through the course.
The course provides the intellectual skills and conceptual tools to engage with a long and varied history of global integration. You will graduate with a depth of knowledge that enables you to confront historical questions on a global scale, a breadth of subject expertise covering multiple time periods and regions, and the skill to communicate your insights incisively.
Postgraduates play an active part in the academic and social life of the Department with involvement in discussion groups, annual conferences, and guest lectures. The course offers the opportunity for wider academic networking through the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, the Centre for Nineteenth Century Studies, and the Centre for Visual Arts and Culture, among other centres and institutes.
Course structure
Core modules:
Foundations of Global History provides a foundation in historical methods and a robust grounding in the concepts, theories, and methods of global and transnational history. This module will engage the standards and techniques of global history research and critically assess the diverse sources used in global historical scholarship.
The Dissertation brings together the skills and methods acquired in your taught modules. You will research and write an independent study into a specialist area of global history using extensive primary and secondary source material.
Examples of optional modules:
- Intellectuals and Public Opinion in Global History
- The Nature of History: Approaches to Environmental History
- An Exhibitionary Complex: Museums, Collecting and the Historical Imagination
- Exile and Migration across the Indian Ocean, 1500-2000
- Serious Fun: A History of Sport from the Late Middle Ages to the Present
- The City in History
You also have the option to choose one supplementary skills or language module.