This module marks the culmination of the MA History programme, requiring you to produce an extended example of historical research. This may take the form of a dissertation of 15,000 words, or an equivalent knowledge exchange project.

The module addresses various theoretical and practical approaches to history and historiography, and will equip you to study the subject at postgraduate level. It is organised around the acquisition of interpretive and historiographical skills and their application to some of the narratives, themes, periods and theories that engage historians at the current time.

This module will give you the opportunity to choose one of two specialist topics relating to the specific research interests of the teaching team. You will also complete an independent research project on a subject to be negotiated with an individual member of the teaching team. The module will therefore provide you with experience shaping research questions, and if you choose to submit your independent research in the form of a knowledge exchange project it will also afford you the prospect of shaping your own mode of assessment.

This module will give you the opportunity to choose one of two specialist topics relating to the specific research interests of the teaching team. You will also complete an independent research project on a subject to be negotiated with an individual member of the teaching team. The module will therefore provide you with experience shaping research questions, and if you choose to submit your independent research in the form of a knowledge exchange project it will also afford you the prospect of shaping your own mode of assessment.

The module focuses on further developing your skills as a researcher with practical sessions on the framing of research questions, various research methodologies, and aspects of presenting your research, with the aim of enabling you to develop a research proposal for your final project. The module will therefore provide you with an opportunity to investigate and test the possibilities of a chosen topic by conducting a literature search, identifying historiographical context, locating primary sources, and devising a relevant and productive methodology. At the end of the module you will present your research in a conference style setting, and then complete a feasibility study which will feed-forward into your final project.