The MRes offers general research training and skills for those intending to pursue careers in which an understanding of research methods will be useful. It includes a major research project and in essence gives you the opportunity to experience research within one year. It is also the perfect stepping stone to a PhD programme.
The MRes is a degree suitable for students who already have a grounding in research skills usually gained at MA level: familiarity with primary sources in their original form; experience in completing an extended dissertation of which a large proportion is based on original research; knowledge and understanding of their specialism beyond that gained in undergraduate work. The degree is essentially an extended Dissertation (maximum 30 to 35,000 words) worth 160 credits, examined by an external and internal examiner, possibly also involving a viva voce exam.
We are confident that you will find the School of History a stimulating place in which to conduct your research. The School has a thriving research community which includes both staff and research students, and will offer you many opportunities to develop your skills and widen your intellectual horizons. There are many possibilities to participate in interdisciplinary research networks, contribute to research seminars, organise conferences and gain teaching experience.
Our School has a wide range of expertise across all periods of history, across many geographical areas and covering most major genres of historical research and writing. Please see the Academic Staff Index for the full list of our staff's expertise.
Many of the senior staff are recognised as global leaders in their field. Our younger academics are building international reputations as strong, imaginative and innovative researchers. We are all dedicated to supervising Ph.D. research projects and further developing the rich and vibrant research culture in the School of History, to which both staff and students contribute and from which we all benefit.
You will therefore be able to identity a suitable supervisor for almost any doctoral project you are intending to undertake. When a project requires expertise which spans to two or more Schools in the University, we may be able to offer co-supervision with colleagues in other disciplines.
You can get a good idea of the range of subject areas and the types of projects which academic staff here supervise from the profiles of current PhD students in the School of History. Recently completed theses include:
Recently completed theses in the School of History include studies of:
- The Foreign Policy of the Douglas-Home Government, 1963-1964
- An analysis of the tea plantation of Sylhet: a study of a major agro-industry under western and eastern imperialism 1870-1970
- Dynastic Power Structures in Sixteenth-Century England
- Nottingham's Education Communities and the Warfare State 1914-1918
- Women's Organisations in Nottingham, 1918-1970s
- Plenti and Grase: Food and Drink in a Sixteenth-Century Gentry Household.
- Inter-Allied Relations and the German Problem, 1944-49
- Leicestershire local and central government, 1685-1721
- The Special Relationship under Nixon, 1969-74
- Norman and Anglo-Norrman participation in the wars of reconquest in Iberia from the eleventh to the mid thirteenth centuries