Two-year programme focusing on connections and comparisons across different parts of the world in the early modern and modern eras. Students study for one year at both Kings and Georgetown, and choose from an exceptional range of options that cover all regions of the globe and a variety of transnational themes. Leads to further research or careers in education, journalism, finance, politics and cultural sectors.
KEY BENEFITS
- Unrivalled access to the research and cultural resources of the capital cities of the United States and the United Kingdom.
- An enormous range of optional modules covering almost every region of the globe and a variety of transnational themes.
- Research seminars combining opportunities for independent, primary-source-based research with close contact with instructors and constructive critique by peers.
- Provides access to the combined talents of two world-class History departments, with strengths in modern and early modern British, Imperial, and continental European history (King's) as well as Middle Eastern, Russian & East European, East and South Asian, Latin American, African, US and Environmental History (Georgetown).
- Gives students scope for independent research exploring specific connections and rigorous comparisons that creatively link various regional and national histories.
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KEY FACTS
Student destinations
Students completing this MA will be well positioned to go on to doctoral studies in history or adjacent disciplines. Graduates will also be prepared for a range of non-academic careers, particularly those involving an international dimension (e.g. government, non-profit organisations, business).
Programme leader/s
Dr Jim Bjork (King's); Dr Bryan McCann (Georgetown)
Awarding Institution
King's College London/Georgetown University
Credit value (UK/ECTS equivalent)
UK 180/ECTS 90/US (Georgetown) 36
Duration
Two years FT.
Location
Strand Campus; Georgetown University (Washington, DC, USA).
Year of entry 2013
Offered by
School of Arts and Humanities
Department of History
Closing date
1 April 2013, please note decisions on all applications will be made after the deadline in early May 2013.
Please note that applicants wishing to apply for funding (e.g. AHRC) must submit their application by the relevant funding deadline, which is usually early in the year. Please see
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/funding/sources/index.aspx for information on the available funding opportunities and deadlines.
Approximately 6-8 FT.
Fees
FT Home: £19,300 (2012) - fees for 2013-4 will be available in July.
FT Overseas: £19,300 (2012) - fees for 2013-4 will be available in July.
CONTACTS
Contact information
Postgraduate Officer, Centre for Arts & Sciences Admissions (CASA)
tel: +44 (0) 20 7848 2765 / 2232 /7232
fax: +44 (0) 20 7848 7200
Dr Jim Bjork (King's): +44 (0)20 7848 1994
Dr Bryan McCann (Georgetown): +1 202 687 3552
Email
Centre for Arts and Sciences Admissions (CASA):
artshums-graduateadmissions@kcl.ac.uk, Dr Jim Bjork:
james.bjork@kcl.ac.uk; Dr Bryan McCann:
bm85@georgetown.eduPURPOSE
The Global, International & Comparative History MA is designed to engage ambitious students who have completed an undergraduate degree in History (or adjacent discipline) and are keen to broaden and deepen their studies. The overall focus of the MA is making connections and pursuing comparisons across different parts of the globe in the early modern and modern eras.
DESCRIPTION
The degreeThe Georgetown-King’s Joint Master’s Degree in Global, International & Comparative History is a two-year programme involving one academic year of study at each institution. The degree offers students access to the combined talents of two-world class History departments, as well as the unrivalled research resources of Washington DC and London. King’s existing strengths in Modern and Early Modern British, Imperial, and continental European History complement Georgetown’s expertise in Middle Eastern, Russian & East European, East and South Asian, Latin American, African, US and Global Environmental History. This range of coverage provides students with an extraordinarily rich array of thematic, geographic, and cultural perspectives on the past. But Global History, as pursued in this joint master’s degree, is more than a roomy container for diverse interests. In both taught courses and their independent research, students will explore specific connections and rigorous comparisons that creatively link together various local and national histories.
The second yearIn the second year of study, whether at Georgetown or at King’s, each Global, International & Comparative History MA student will write an 8000-word thesis in the framework of a two-semester research seminar. Along with fostering discussion of shared historiographical and methodological challenges, the seminars will provide faculty support and peer critique to students as they formulate questions, develop research strategies, and write up findings. Students in the Global, International & Comparative History MA will also be able to participate in other departmental and extra-departmental forums, including thematic research workshops at Georgetown focusing on Early Modern Global, International, and 19th-century American history and the lively, wide-ranging seminars of the University of London’s Institute for Historical Research, as well as the King’s History Department’s own regular staff-student research seminars. With an extraordinary variety of source material in easy reach—including the national archives and depository libraries of the United States and the United Kingdom—students at Georgetown and King’s will find resources to pursue almost any intellectual project that captures their imagination.
And afterThe Global, International & Comparative History MA is designed to provide an excellent grounding for students interested in going on to a PhD in History or adjacent discipline. But it also cultivates research, writing, and analytical skills that can be applied to a broad range of careers after graduation.
STRUCTURE OVERVIEW
Core programme content
The Global, International & Comparative History MA is taught over two academic years. Students may begin their studies either at Georgetown or at King’s. In either case, students will take a research seminar and write a connected MA thesis in the second year of study.
OPTION A: Year 1 at Georgetown, Year 2 at King’sYear 1 modules
- Global & International History, 3 credits (equivalent to 20 King’s credits)
- Comparative History, 3 credits (equivalent to 20 King’s credits)
- Approved elective courses, 12 credits (equivalent to 80 King’s credits).
Year 2 modules
- Advanced Skills for Historians OR Historical Methods, 20 credits (equivalent to 3 GU credits)
- Thesis Seminar, 40 credits (equivalent to 6 GU credits)
- Approved optional modules, 60 credits (equivalent to 9 GU credits).
OPTION B: Year 1 at King’s, Year 2 at GeorgetownYear 1 modules
- Advanced Skills for Historians OR Historical Methods, 20 credits (equivalent to 3 GU credits)
- Approved optional modules, 100 credits (equivalent to 15 GU credits).
Year 2 modules
- Global & International History, 3 credits (equivalent to 20 King’s credits)
- Comparative History, 3 credits (equivalent to 20 King’s credits)
- Thesis Seminar, 6 credits (equivalent to 40 King’s credits)
- Approved elective courses, 6 credits total (equivalent to 40 King’s credits).
Indicative non-core content
In choosing elective courses/optional modules, students will be able to draw on a wide and diverse list of offerings within each department. Some sample options are listed below. Please keep in mind that the exact list of courses/modules taught in any given year is not finalized until shortly before the beginning of the academic year.
Students may also take up to 3 Georgetown credits of elective courses in other departments or at other universities in the Washington-area consortium, as well as up to 40 King’s credits of optional modules in other departments (including the
Modern Language Centre) or at other colleges participating in the University of London’s MA Intercollegiate Sharing Scheme.
KING'S MODULES These are listed at the bottom of this page under the heading 'MODULES'
- The Transatlantic Community: Europe & US
- Latin American Origins and Transformations
- Arab Intellectuals in the Modern World
- History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
- Approaching Ottoman History
- US Foreign Policy Since 1945
- Global Encounters in the Early Modern Period
- The Jesuit Enterprises, 1540-1773
- China's Challenge to the US
- Nation and Nationalism
- China in World History
- Central Eurasia in World History
- Collective Identities in 20th C Europe
- Economic History of Latin America
- Slavery and Abolition in the Atlantic World
- 19th Century US History in International Perspective
- Social Movements in 20th Century US
- Topics in Environmental History (since 1500)
- 20th-Century China
- Gender in Early Modern Europe and the World
- Culture, Islam & the Body
- Soviet History
- America as a World Power.
FORMAT AND ASSESSMENT
In the research seminar students will produce dissertations based on primary sources. Compulsory and optional modules are assessed by coursework, usually extended essays with a strong historiographic component.
MODULES
More information on typical programme modules.
NB it cannot be guaranteed that all modules are offered in any particular academic year.
Teaching staff: Professor Richard Drayton
Module code: 7AAH0001
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module addresses the nature of historical practice, ensuring that students can use and critically evaluate a range of theories, methods and approaches. It will raise awareness about history as a discipline and its relationships with other kindred fields. There will be visits, for example, to libraries, archives and museums, and an opportunity for students to discuss their dissertations. Skills to be considered in the module include quantitative approaches, visual and textual analysis and the oral presentation of materials.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH0001.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Jim Bjork
Module code: 7AAH3009
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 40 credits
Teaching pattern: 20 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
2 x 4,000 word essay
This module will explore recent debates among historians and social scientists over the roles that religion has played in European history since the early nineteenth century. Until the 1970s, most scholars operated under the assumption that the forces of modernization involved an inexorable process of secularization, in which the influence of religious institutions steadily weakened, ever greater spheres of human activity became autonomous from religious understandings, and, in time, belief in any kind of supernatural phenomena began to erode. Over the past three decades, however, almost every aspect of secularization theory has come under assault. This questioning was spurred, in part, by the evident importance of religion in animating contemporary political and social movements outside or on the periphery of Europe (Solidarity in Poland, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the Moral Majority in the United States). Doubts about the nature and extent of secularization within Western Europe have also been driven by a growing body of historical research suggesting that the nineteenth and even the early twentieth centuries were actually periods of religious revival across much of Europe, especially in its Roman Catholic "core." One historian recently argued that the period from roughly 1850 to 1950 is better described as a "second confessional age" than as an age of secularization.
The module will cover developments in areas where Latin/Western Christendom has been the dominant religious tradition. Most of the historiography that we will read deals with France and Germany, though there will also be some consideration of parallel events and trends in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Italy, Iberia, East-Central Europe, and a bit on the Low Countries and Scandinavia.
Teaching staff: Team taught.
Module code: 7AAH2002
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 40 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 20 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
written examination/s; coursework;
1 x 4,000 word bibliographical essay; 1 x take-home exam
The study of early modern history at graduate level requires students to acquire important insights and skills that they may not have encountered in their undergraduate degrees. With the coming of printing and the increasing complexity of social and cultural interaction that it made possible, the quantity of sources expanded exponentially. The gradual breakdown of the Church in Protestant Europe and the demise of Latin as the language of government during this period means that the linguistic and palaeographic skills required of historians become more complex. This compulsory module introduces students to the various approaches to writing the history of early modern Europe and to the specific skills required to research early modern topics. Students will be expected to prepare reading for every session and to play an active part in all discussions, for example by preparing short papers as appropriate.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH2002.aspx
Module code: 7AAH2006
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
Early modern bodies were defined by their social and cultural contexts. Medical discourse, moral reform, popular culture and collective identities shaped a distinctively pre-modern body, made up of humours and fluxes, mutable and sometimes magical. This module brings together perspectives from social, cultural, medical and gender history, together with a range of original sources, to examine the relationship between bodies and their social and cultural context and to consider the changes that went towards the making of the modern body in Britain and Europe between 1500 and 1750. Topics will include popular medicine; the invention of homosexuality; social discipline; sexual knowledge and reproduction.
Teaching staff: Dr Sarah Stockwell
Module code: 7AAH4010
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
In recent years the historiography of the ‘end of empire’ has been one of the most rapidly-developing and exciting aspects of the literature on the history of British imperialism, driven not only by the continued opening up of records relating to the post-war period, but also by new controversies concerning Britain’s response to colonial politics and insurrection, and the impact of decolonisation on Britain itself. The first part of the course provides an introduction to ‘why’ and ‘how’ after the second world war Britain came to experience such a dramatic transformation in its world role, examining debates surrounding the relative importance of international relations, domestic politics and economy, and anti-colonial resistance in bringing about Britain’s post-war retreat from empire. The course then proceeds to focus on country case studies that together illustrate the diverse nature of British decolonisation and the very different processes --from negotiation to armed revolt—by which former colonies attained their independence from Britain. The final part of the course explores the newly-emerging literature on the cultural, social, economic and political consequences for Britain of the transition from empire to Commonwealth. Students will be encouraged throughout to make comparison between British decolonisation and the experience of other European empires.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH4010.aspx
Teaching staff: Professor David McLean
Module code: 7AAH3013
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
Britain dominated the global economy for most of the nineteenth century; success was built upon its agricultural prosperity, its international trading position, a technological superiority in industrial production, and the emergence of London as the world’s financial centre. While an advanced understanding of this leading position constitutes the core element of this module, the decades between c.1850 and 1914 also witnessed anxiety about the onset of depression and a questioning of British business methods. A wider understanding of economic developments elsewhere, of the workings of the gold standard, and of the patterns of growth and decline which occurred in different sectors of Britain’s economy, particularly from the 1870s onwards, will all be examined and contemporary accounts of such changes set against more recent historical research.
Teaching staff: Professor Carl Bridge
Module code: 7AAH5006
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
The colonies of settlement have been neglected in studies of British imperialism in recent decades. This module will focus attention on the shared histories of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa since the early-nineteenth century as part of a larger ‘British World’. These societies’ evolution from colonies to self-governing dominions and independent nations, as well as their common dispossession and marginalisation of Indigenous peoples, will be examined not only comparatively but also by exploring the sense of belonging that developed among them, based on shared origins, culture, experience and identity. The module will examine factors such as those which brought these various communities together – cultural, political, economic, constitutional and military – as well as the forces that eventually drove them apart from one another, and from Great Britain itself.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH5016.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Stephen Lovell
Module code: 7AAH3007
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
Over the last two hundred years, Europe has become a much smaller place. Railways, newspapers, telegraphs, radios and many other forms of communication have swallowed up territory. Even the most determinedly backward inhabitants of Europe have often found it difficult to remain ignorant of events and issues of national or international significance. There are two broad ways of interpreting these developments. One is to see them as evidence of progress and modernization; as a way of spreading education and enlightenment, of involving more people in the business of democracy, of offering citizens new, and generally benign, social and cultural allegiances; as a means of turning peasants into Frenchmen, and Frenchmen and Germans into Europeans. Another is to see the increased scope of communications as a potential danger: as a force that can atomize citizens, enforce conformity, or (more subtly) hold out the illusion of membership in a political community while at the same time effectively disabling democracy. This more pessimistic view tends to be associated with theories of mass society, and especially with accounts of totalitarian regimes. As these examples might begin to suggest, the production, dissemination and reception of information and knowledge is sometimes granted quite a lot of explanatory power in the historiography of modern Europe. But questions of communication are usually mentioned in passing, as one of several factors in the rise of the nation-state, the establishment of bourgeois hegemony, the maintenance of fascist dictatorship, or whatever else suits the historian’s design.
This module offers the opportunity to reflect at greater length on the effects of the key media of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe: books, journals, newspapers, pamphlets, photography, cinema, radio, television, and so on. Topics for consideration will include: the emergence of ‘public opinion’ and the creation of a ‘public sphere’; the social and political effects of literacy; the making of revolutions and nations; state propaganda; censorship; media, modernity and post-modernity.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH3007.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Stephen Lovell & Dr Jim Bjork
Module code: 7AAH3011
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
The three keywords in the module title together evoke a particular historical conjuncture. We will look at two empires – the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian – as they contended with the rise of national sentiment at a time of rapid social, economic and cultural change (otherwise known as modernity). There will be a strong emphasis on comparative analysis, both as a way of capturing the historical specificity of these empires and as a means of reflecting more broadly on the nature of empire – a normal, not aberrant form of political organization for nineteenth-century Europe – at a historical moment when it was under interrogation as never before.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH3011.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Stephen Lovell & Dr Jim Bjork
Module code: 7AAH3012
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
In this module (which is designed to follow on from ‘Empire, Nation and Modernity in Eastern Europe, 1848-1914', but can also be free-standing) we will examine two empires – the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian – as they faced the crisis of World War I and fell apart. We then go on to consider their successor states – above all the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary – with particular reference to the ways in which they contended with national sentiment and ethnic difference at a time of rapid social, economic and cultural change. There will be a strong emphasis on comparative analysis, both as a way of capturing the historical specificity of these regions and as a means of reflecting more broadly on the interwar and postwar conjunctures.
Teaching staff: Professor Richard Vinen
Module code: 7AAH3005
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
The aim of this module is to look at England (the module includes some reference to Scotland, Ireland and Wales) in European context. It will examine the ways in which the English thought of themselves as being different from their European neighbours, and the ways in which those European neighbours thought of the English as being different. The module is largely historiographical (and indeed will aim to stress that historical writing is itself a product of national culture). It will try to show how some famous interpretations of English history are rooted in comparison. More generally, the module will look at the ways in which England remembers, or forgets, its national history: it will ask, for example, why is it that every French person knows that 18 June 1940 is the date on which de Gaulle issued his ‘call to honour’ while almost no English person knows that this is the day on which Churchill delivered his ‘finest hour speech’ – or, for that matter, that it is the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. It will ask why there is a ‘rue Winston Churchill’ in Paris, but no ‘Churchill Avenue’ in central London.
It will focus on the period since 1918, and especially on that between 1918 and 1945, although writers on England almost invariably referred back to earlier periods, and such writers can in turn only be understood by looking at the long-term reception of their work. Attention will be paid to the new context in which ideas of England were discussed (the foundation of the BBC, the growth of English and History as subjects of study at universities). It will look at the inter-relationship of thinking about England with thinking about Europe, the Empire and Britain.
The module is intended to be a means of raising questions as much as of providing answers and it is hoped that it will prove particularly useful to those who are going to go on to do graduate work in British history.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH3005.aspx
Module code: 7AAH2004
Credit level: 7
Lecturer:
Dr Ian McBride
Module code: 7AAH2004
Module value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment: 1 x 4,000 word essay
This module brings together two of the most lively and innovative areas of early modern historical studies, the “new British history”, and the history of political ideas. It offers students the opportunity to explore how power, identity and politics were conceptualized in the English speaking world during a period of social and economic change. The “long eighteenth century” experienced the beginnings of industrialization and population growth, the emergence of a class society, the erosion of the monopoly exercised by the established church over religious life, and the spread of mass literacy. It was also the period when the modern British State was consolidated and a colonial empire assembled across the Atlantic. Finally, the rise of Grub Street and the emergence of a popular press, facilitated by the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695, made London the largest centre of print culture, pamphleteering and political journalism in the world.
The module involves studies, at an advanced level, of the debates surrounding the revolutions in 1688, 1776 and 1789, the unions of 1707 and 1801, and the growth of commerce and “politeness”. It will also involve an introduction to specialised methodological issues. Students will be introduced to two areas of methodological debate. The contextual approach favoured by Dunn, Pocock and Skinner, which focuses on the vocabularies or languages available to political writers, had to establish itself against an older school characterised by the abstract exploration of a canon of key texts. Recently it has also defended itself against the more radical challenges presented by the linguistic turn. Meanwhile, advocates of the new British history have attacked Anglo-centricity and attempted to study the interactions of the various peoples, nations and states within the “Atlantic archipelago” and their extension to North America. Whilst the reaction to their work has been mixed, there is no doubt that they have forced scholars to question the categories and frameworks that have shaped British historical research since the nineteenth century.
Teaching staff: Professor Francisco Bethencourt
Module code: 7AAH2012
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
The purpose of this course is to study the process of European expansion and its impact on the definition of ethnic prejudices, hierarchies of peoples and race relations. We will study the both the reflection in Europe on different peoples of the world resulting from the Oceanic exploration, as well as the practice of colonial societies established in Africa, Asia and America. The tension between ethnic prejudices and civil rights will be at the core of this module. We will include the debates on freedom of the American Indians, on African slavery, on the abolition of the slave trade and slavery, and on the recognition of citizenship for Native Americans and African freedmen.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH2012.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr David Todd
Module code: 7AAH5004
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module will offer an overview of French imperial ventures in the modern era, from France’s American empire in the early modern period to the Napoleonic empires of the nineteenth century and its African and Indochinese empire after 1870. Recent years have seen a reappraisal of both the French contribution to the development of European imperialism and the impact of imperial expansion on France and continental Europe. Comparisons between the French and other European empires, especially Britain’s, have played a significant part in the surge of interest in world and imperial history. The large time span covered by the module will encourage students to analyse the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of empire throughout the modern era. A simultaneously comparative and connective approach will familiarize students with several core concepts of world history, including the striking of the balance between change and continuity in long historical narratives and the complex relations between centres and their peripheries. Special attention will be paid to colonial revolutions in a French imperial context such as in Haiti in the eighteenth century, Germany under Napoleon, and Algeria in the twentieth century. Knowledge of French is not required.
Teaching staff: Dr Niall O'Flaherty
Module code: 7AAH2010
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
Throughout the enlightenment mainstream social, political and scientific thought in Europe was underpinned by a cosmology that attributed order in nature to divine design, and which accorded man a pre-eminent place in this divine scheme. But from the second half of the eighteenth century this view had come under increasing attack from a number of radical thinkers. The core aim of this course is to provide students with an advanced understanding of these debates about the origin of order in the universe and man’s place in nature in their historical and intellectual contexts, with particular emphasis being placed on the social, political and religious dimensions of such controversies. Students will become familiar with a number of key interventions in the debate through a detailed study of the primary texts starting with David Hume’s devastating attack on the epistemological basis of natural theology and ending with Charles Darwin’s radical revisioning of the relationship between God, man and nature.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH2010.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Jahnavi Phalkey
Module code: 7YYI0005
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay and class particpation
This module is aimed at surveying the history of science, technology and medicine in India from the late 18th to the 20th centuries. The module focuses on mapping the introduction of European science and its continuing practice in India. It will pose three questions through current scholarship: when and how was the cultural authority of European science established in India; how was local pursuit of knowledge of the physical world reconfigured in this process; what did the process of accepting the ontology of European science come to mean in the period under discussion?
The module will examine each of our readings to understand how these questions have been addressed in the current scholarship on history of science, technology and medicine in India, especially in relation to the state. In the process of studying these questions, students will develop: a comprehensive understanding of the structure and development of science in India since the mid C18th; the ability to analyse the relationship between western science and Indian social practice and culture; an understanding of the relationship between science and the state; an appreciation of the centrality of science to Indian politics and culture today.
Teaching staff: Dr Jon Wilson
Module code: 7AAH4007
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module introduces students to the history of modern anti-colonial nationalism by examining the emergence of nationalism and nation-states in the region once ruled as Britain's Indian empire. Students will focus in particular on the way the inhabitants of South Asia responded to imperial rule by writing about the history of the communities they belonged to, emphasising the diverse ways in which the nation was imagined in the process. Students will examine the changing documentary form of South Asian nationalism by reading texts by political leaders from Rammohan Roy in the 1820s to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the 1970s, placing them in their social and political contexts and examining how the states of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh emerged in the process. Alongside these primary sources, students will consider a number of recent historical interpretations of South Asian politics and theories of both nationalism and narrativity. In the process, they will consider throughout how far the stories people tell about the history community can be realistic, or if modern nationalist story-telling involves forms of writing necessarily out of joint with the way historical actors lived their lives at the time.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH4007.aspx
Teaching staff: Professor Ludmilla Jordanova
Module code: 7AAH2011
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module addresses recent developments in the study of early modern religion. Religion lies at the heart of the early modern period, and has accordingly occupied a privileged historiographical position. The module explores work published on this major issue since about 1970 and critically evaluates it. It seeks to provide students with an understanding of recent developments in the field and their significance. This is important because ways of thinking about religion have changed so markedly in recent times, with new approaches, sources and assumptions being deployed and new subjects being explored.
Teaching staff: Mr AbdoolKarim Vakil
Module code: 7AAP0113
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
The story and meaning of the twentieth century is shaped by the historical experiences, and hegemonic interpretations of those experiences, of a very few European/Western countries. When, where and what was the Portuguese twentieth century? This course aims to provide post-nationalist and postcolonial approaches to the political, social, economic and cultural history of the peoples of Portugal and its dependent territories in the period 1910-1998. Although informed by a grand narrative of nation building and politicisation, and organised in terms of the periodisation of three political regimes (I Republic; New State; Democratic Portugal), the foci chosen for each session are deliberately transruptive of lazy contextual wholes and unilinear progressive narratives.
Teaching staff: Dr Anne Goldgar
Module code: 7AAH2007
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module will examine comparatively two of the largest cities in Europe in the seventeenth century, cities which were very different in nature: Paris was the capital city of an absolutising monarchy, Amsterdam the most powerful metropolis of a federalised republic. Paris was part of an old but developing political system, Amsterdam part of a new and rapidly changing nation. Paris was dominated by the influence of the court of Versailles, Amsterdam by a wealthy merchant elite. Paris was a centre of administration, Amsterdam a centre of international trade.
Teaching staff: Dr Paul Readman
Module code: 7AAH3006
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 40 credits
Teaching pattern: 20 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
2 x 4,000 word essays
This module explores patriotism and national identities in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain. What did contemporaries mean by patriotism? Did patriotic considerations play a major part in policymaking? Or did the political significance of patriotism lie more in the realm of popular appeals? To what extent was the language of patriotism a contested one? A particular concern of this module is the relationship between patriotism, national identity and imperialism. Were British nationalisms typically synonymous or compatible with imperialism, or did patriotic loyalties alien to the imperial spirit often intrude? How powerful was ‘Little Englander’ patriotism?
The module takes a thematic approach. Topics include: the politics and culture of rural ‘Englishness’; the constitution and the English past; Edwardian militarism; Labour, Conservative and Liberal patriotism; the Monarchy; gender and nationhood; Irish, Scottish and Welsh nationalisms; Race; God and nation; British national identities and world war. While the main focus of this module is political, it is more concerned with the intellectual content of political discourse than the details of partisan politicking. In addition, it pays considerable attention to the role of patriotic and nationalistic discourse in British culture. The politics of patriotism cannot be understood without consideration of the wider cultural context in which these politics were situated.
Teaching staff: Professor Ludmilla Jordanova
Module code: 7AAH2009
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module is concerned with the role of visual and material culture in Britain from the Restoration until the beginning of the nineteenth century. It focuses on items that have been endowed with particular value, although not necessarily monetary. More specifically it considers the role of portraits and related objects that were prized because they were associated with significant people. "Significant" does not necessarily mean "elite" or "famous", rather it suggests the ways in which users of portraits viewed sitters who were important to them. Arguably portraits were a central form in which identity was produced, presented and managed in this period, and their use was far more widespread than is generally recognised.
We will consider how objects were made, acquired, exchanged, valued and endowed with meaning and how their historical importance can be appreciated. We shall also be concerned with networks, whether personal or professional, with gifts, with patronage, with artistic practices, with the things themselves and the ways in which they were displayed and used. Students will have a chance to work closely with images and objects, to think about how they are best studied by historians, and about the key changes that took place over the period with respect to identity. Thus the module takes gender, age, social status, marital status, occupation and so on, as issues that are essential for understanding the role of objects such as portraits. Students are expected to give class presentations.
Teaching staff: Dr Lucy Kostyanovsky
Module code: 7AAH2003
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module will examine some of the many different manifestations of religious change and identity in Europe as it was torn apart by the experience of Reformation. It breaks away from the polarized studies of Reformation as a Protestant/Catholic divide to explore the impact of religious developments on a variety of levels, from high politics to parish practice, looking at the experience of the British Isles alongside that of other European states.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH2003.aspx
Teaching staff: Professor Arthur Burns
Module code: 7AAH3004
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 40 credits
Semester:
Full-year
Teaching pattern: 20 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
2 x 4,000 word essays
This module deals with a seminal period in British history which has recently come in for extensive re-examination. The seventy years under consideration were marked by a wide variety of reforming initiatives and a new prominence for ‘reformers’ in the political landscape. Perhaps most familiar is the parliamentary reform tradition which culminated in the ‘Great Reform Act’ of 1832; but there were also significant parliamentary initiatives in local government, administrative reform, social policy, church reform, and law reform. Beyond such political activity and less familiar, there were many extra-parliamentary and less overtly political movements concerned with moral reform, medical reform, artistic reform and reforms of the self. There has long been a tradition of comparing the British reform tradition with a continental revolutionary one; while continental comparisons will be one important component of the module, this module instead will emphasise the importance of bringing together the full range of reforming activities to explore the various dynamics at work, and to pay close attention to matters of linguistic practice and their implications. What initiatives, for example, qualified as ‘reforms’ or allowed their proponents to adopt the persona of ‘reformer’? How did the language of reform come to pervade political and non-political discourses in Britain, and how did its origins influence its future use? How did ‘movements’ come to play such a key role, and what determined their fortunes? How did different social groups interact, and how were these interactions affected by the shared vocabulary of ‘reform’?
Among the topics covered will be: parliamentary reform; economical reform; church reform; municipal reform; law reform; factory reform; reform of the poor laws; the abolition of slavery; the campaign for religious toleration; medical reform; the creation of national art institutions; the conflict over regulation of the theatre; the reformation of manners movement; dietary reform; the parliamentary processes of reform; the ‘movement’ and the ‘platform’; the origins of the language of ‘reform’; the gendering of reform; continental comparisons.
A key text for the module is Rethinking the Age of Reform in Britain, 1780-1850, edited by Arthur Burns & Joanna Innes (CUP, 2003).
Teaching staff: Dr Michael Rowe
Module code: 7AAH3008
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
The French Revolution and triumph of the concept of popular sovereignty can be viewed as representing the political equivalent of splitting the atom. Positively, the immense energies released could be harnessed for a variety of purposes, from waging war to providing welfare. Negatively, they could do immense damage unless contained within the political structures. Europeans, from French revolutionaries to the nation builders of the 1860s and 1870s, struggled to find constitutions that would achieve these ends.
This module looks at the more important constitutions of the period. Teaching is organised in ten two-hour seminars. Eight of these are grouped into four pairs, arranged chronologically and illustrating developments over time and in different nations. The first seminar in each pair provides an introduction to the political context in which the constitutions – whose texts are then examined in detail the following week – came into being. Although each pair of seminars focuses on two constitutions from roughly the same period, other constitutions are also referred to for comparative purposes and in order to achieve a pan-European perspective. The remaining two seminars include an opening seminar that sets out the main themes, and a concluding seminar that returns to these themes and makes comparisons between national traditions and also assesses developments over time.
The overall aim of this module is to analyse, within a comparative international context, the interplay between political ideas, everyday politics, political structures, and political culture. Chronologically, it spans the period from when no European state possessed a constitution to when the vast majority did. The module is centred on a close-reading of European constitutional texts, which are readily available, both in printed form and on the internet, in their original languages and increasingly in English translation. These texts will be supplemented by a mass of secondary sources, including publications in French and German as well as in English.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH3008.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Anne Goldgar
Module code: 7AAH2005
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
Historians have for some years been interested in the way that early modern cultural practices, both popular and elite, can be examined through anthropological approaches to ritual behaviour. Most historians interpret the term ‘ritual’ fairly widely, incorporating secular as well as religious events and concepts. Because much of the most interesting cultural history of the last 25 years has relied on this type of analysis and focused on this type of material, this module will not only be able to introduce students to important concepts in the study of early modern history, but also to many of the chief writings on cultural history in recent years. Discussion will focus on themes of central importance to members of early modern communities, either as individuals or as members both of a face-to-face society and as part of the developing state.
The module will begin by examining the theory of ritual. It then will turn to the most easily comprehensible form of ritual life, religious ritual, but will examine not only types and functions of such ritual but also how, in the Reformation, these were reformed (and how this in itself was a ritual process). Further discussions will look at ritual in the life of individuals and communities. These include rites of passage such as marriage and death, rituals marking the passage of time (which contribute to communal and individual consciousness), and rituals which give rise to feelings of solidarity as well as those which express and regulate violence in small communities, both in normal life and on festive occasions. The way that forms of interaction can be ritualized, and how this can contribute to cultures of power, is examined in the final part of the module. Here students will look at the rise of civility and court culture, and the way that forms of ritualized display, including such varied ceremonies as coronations and executions, can function to negotiate power between rulers and ruled.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH2005.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Jahnavi Phalkey
Module code: 7YYI0014
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay and class participation
What is India? How can we understand contemporary history and politics of India in the global context? And finally, how and to what extent has science been a part of the process of making India? In this course, we will work with these three questions in Indian history for the period roughly between 1930 and the present. We begin with the impossibility of the idea of India divided under imperial rule in the interwar period, and quickly move on to trace the transformation of this landscape in the post]war period - shaped by Cold War politics and the converging interests of various international processes. Cautiously drawing a distinction between science and technology, which were relevant to the historical actors in question, the course will begin with projects promoted by the Indian National Congress and the Imperial government, followed by projects under Nehru's administration in independent India and finally work through the effects and aftermath of India's more recent history of market liberalism. An important goal for this course is to understand the landscape of state-led transformation of India through scientific education and research, while simultaneously paying close attention to responses – both critical and favourable - from the citizens of India, as well as the perception of India in the world at large.
Teaching staff: Dr Jahnavi Phalkey
Module code: 7YYI0015
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay and class participation
This course is aimed at thinking broadly about the experiences and meanings of science and technology for the global population during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will focus on key themes in twentieth century global history: public health, race, global trade, decolonisation, modernisation, the nuclear age, green revolution and population control. We want to understand the normative and moral aspects of the debates and arguments around the "civilizing mission" under European colonialism through "modernization" during the Cold War under the global leadership of the United States and the Soviet Union, and how this transition of world politics was played out globally with respect to science and technology. We will see that interactions between cultures have often been negotiated through practices concerning the control and regulation of territories and populations. The ideas around civilisation and progress that helped legitimate these practices under colonial rule, continued through the period after World War II, providing the foundations for efforts to develop and modernise the emerging decolonised world. Through close attention to ideas and processes (more than on details of specific cases), we will examine the diversity of the historical actors and the context of their interactions.
Module code: 7AAH2008
Credit level: 7
Lecturer:
Dr Adam Sutcliffe
Module code: 7AAH2008
Module value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment: 1 x 4,000 word essay
This module focuses on the history of selfhood in the ‘long Enlightenment’ (c.1670-1800), looking at philosophical approaches to the nature of the self, literary and cultural explorations of human emotional responses to the feelings of others (‘sensibility’), and the political ramifications of these cultural and intellectual changes. Core readings will split roughly evenly between primary texts (mostly influential works of philosophy, but including some fiction) and notable recent historiographical studies. Starting with some key late seventeenth-century texts by John Locke and Baruch Spinoza that were hugely influential in the following century, we then look at the emergence of materialist understandings of the self in the early eighteenth century, and at the explosion of interest in ‘sentiment’ in both fiction and in moral and economic thought in the latter half of the century. We will conclude with a consideration of the significance of changing concepts of the self in the political and cultural upheavals of the American and French Revolutions. Two themes will recur at various points in the course: the development of individualist approaches to ethics and belief as an alternative to traditional religion, and the formation of notions of selfhood in juxtaposition to ‘others’, whether across the gender divide or in contrast to non-Europeans or minorities such as Jews.
Teaching staff: Professor Richard Drayton
Module code: 7AAH5003
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000-word essay
An introduction to the history and historiography of the British Empire from its Tudor origins to decolonization. It aims, first, to give students an introduction to the development of British imperial history as as a discipline, and, second, to prepare them to teach the subject. It moves between the history of the imperial center, and the stories of encounter, settlement, violence, resistance, and of the transformation of lifeways and identity, at the American, Asian, African, and Pacific peripheries of British influence.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH5003.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr John Price
Module code: 7AAH3010
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module examines the nature of heroism. It seeks to answer questions to the following: What is a hero? What is a heroine? Why is heroism such an important historical phenomenon? Is there a distinctively 'modern' form of it? Many of the examples will be British, however students are encouraged to develop a comparative perspective on the subject. They will also be invited to reflect critically upon both the range of relevant sources (medals and monuments, for example, as well as biographies and autobiographies) and the ways in which historians have approached the subject. Those who were publicly celebrated come from a variety of fields, and indeed there is also a history of forms of achievement. Thus the module will also examine certain key zones -- the church, the military, science, medicine, literature, architecture and so on -- in order to assess their changing status. The professions, class and gender, and their representation, will be central issues in the module.
Module code: 7AAPM141
Credit level: 7
Lecturer:
Professor Patrick Chabal
Module code: 7AAPM141
Module value: 20 credits
Assessment: 2 x 3000 word Essays
This module follows on from the earlier 'The History of Portuguese-Speaking Africa, 1885-1960', but will also be open to those who may not have done it. It will also approach the period anti-colonial struggle and decolonisation from an African comparative perspective. It will be partly chronological and party focused on the history of the five individual countries from 1960 to the present day. The main issues we will study are: the roots and nature of nationalism, the impact of armed struggle, the consequences of the 25 April 1974 revolution in Lisbon, the impact of decolonisation of the postcolonial governments, the relevance of socialist policies, the failure of development, the curse of civil war and other forms of violence, the involvement of outside powers in southern Africa, the importance of oil to politics, the transition to multiparty politics and the contemporary prospects for development.
Teaching staff: Professor Patrick Chabal
Module code: 7AAPM140
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Assessment:
coursework
2 x 3000 word Essays
This module is an exploration of the colonial history of the Portuguese territories in Africa – Angola, Mozambique, Guiné, Cape Verde and São Tomé e Príncipe – by means of a comparative approach. The aim is to study the period between the consolidation of formal colonial rule (Berlin Conference) and the outbreak of the anti-colonial wars (1961) as part of the general process of colonisation, and then decolonisation, of the African continent. This will be achieved in two ways. One is a presentation of the material according to questions or themes that are relevant to the whole of Africa, and not just Lusophone Africa. The other will be a discussion of the Lusophone material in a way that facilitates comparison with other colonial territories.
Teaching staff: Mr AbdoolKarim Vakil
Module code: 7AAH3015
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module offers a historical perspective on the making of the contemporary Muslim question in Europe. Opting for a thematic approach it foregrounds and critically explores different aspects of colonial and postcolonial governance and the emergence of contemporary Muslim subjectivities through detailed discussion of diversely and historically configured spatial contexts and relations of power. Through focused reading of core texts we draw on the lives and experiences of numerous individuals and communities, from colonial subjecthood, and immigration, to postcolonial citizenship, and on the histories, policies and trajectories of a number of European countries from the late nineteenth to the twenty first century.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH3015.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr David Todd
Module code: 7AAH5005
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000-word essay
The module will offer a comprehensive overview of economic systems of imperial governance since 1500 and economic theories about imperialism. Economic motivation has always been a crucial dimension of imperial projects, but it was expressed or interpreted in different ways throughout the modern era. The module will introduce students to the successive strands of economic thinking that shaped imperial expansion, from the mercantilist reliance on slave-manned plantations and tight commercial regulations to obtain a trade surplus to the liberal economic thought that underpinned ‘free trade imperialism’ in the nineteenth century and the early formulations of development policies in the twentieth century. The module will also encourage students to engage with the main historical debates about the economics of European imperialism, including the concept of ‘world-system’, the links between industrialization and overseas expansion, and the neo-imperialist character of modern international economic institutions. No prior knowledge of economics is required, as the module will focus on general concepts and the connections between the economic and the political, social, and cultural dimensions of imperialism.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH5005.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Ian McBride
Module code: 7AAH3003
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module will offer a comprehensive overview of the Provisional IRA’s campaign between the eruption of communal violence in Northern Ireland in August 1969 and the final decommissioning of weapons in 2005. It covers the origins of the Provisional IRA; the evolving strategy of the organisation, including the bombing of the British ‘mainland’; the impact of British counter-insurgency operations; the prison conflict that culminated in the Hunger Strikes of 1981; the rise of Sinn Féin and the peace process of the 1990s. At the centre of the subject is the relationship between the Provisionals and the communities in which they lived. The module seeks to encourage students to consider IRA violence using comparative and interdisciplinary literature, drawing upon the work of anthropologists and sociologists as well as historians and scholars working on terrorism. The approach will involve the use of primary sources where possible.
Teaching staff: Dr Jon Wilson
Module code: 7AAH4008
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
2 x 2,000 word essays
This module examines the historical process by which Britain emerged as the dominant governing power in India from the 1750s to 1830s. The transition to colonialism remains one of the most fiercely contested issues in Indian and imperial history, a question which intersects with British and Indian historical identities in important ways. Aware of these present-day contexts throughout, the module introduces students to debates about the nature of both Indian and British society before during and after the colonial encounter, encouraging them to see the transition to colonialism as a process in which all participants – whether Indian or British - were transformed. Students will consider the ways in which the colonial regime produced records about its own activities, engaging with sources available in the India Office Records in the British Library. In particular, they will use both primary and secondary material to explore the changing ideas about politics and power that emerged from the process of colonial state-formation, considering how far historians need to consider the emergence of colonial governance as the creation of an unprecedented form of rule that transformed life in many different spheres.
Teaching staff: Professor Carl Bridge
Module code: 7AAH5007
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This course examines twentieth century Australia through the twin prisms of war and society. Issues of identity, gender, class, race and power are investigated in relation to Australia's major wars: the Great War, the Second World War, and the Cold War, including Vietnam. Among the topics covered are the ANZAC myth, the Conscription referenda of 1916-17, the social impact of the Yanks in 1942-45, women and war, Black Diggers, Cold War culture, Vietnam: Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n Roll, war art, and war and popular memory. Though firmly based on the political and diplomatic documentary record, the course also addresses a wider range range of texts, including autobiographies, film and other appropriate visual material. Particular attention is paid to historiographical and methodological matters.
ACADEMIC ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
General entry advice
We welcome applicants with strong analytical, language, and writing skills who are seeking an MA program offering integrated comparative historical perspectives. The programme will consider applicants who have completed a UK undergraduate honours degree with minimum 2:1 classification (or overseas equivalent: For US applicants, a final undergraduate GPA above 3.3 is expected and above 3.5 is encouraged) in History, a social science, or literature and culture. In exceptional cases, we will consider strong applicants with majors in other fields. Completion of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) will be required as a precondition for consideration when submitting your application to Georgetown. Non-native speakers of English will be required to meet either the Georgetown Graduate School’s minimum score on the TOEFL exam or the King’s College School of Arts & Humanities minimum English language requirements.
APPLYING TO KING'S
To apply for graduate study at King's you will need to complete our graduate online application form. Applying online makes applying easier and quicker for you, and means we can receive your application faster and more securely.
King's does not normally accept paper copies of the graduate application form as applications must be made online. However, if you are unable to access the online graduate application form, please contact the relevant admissions/School Office at King's for advice.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Applications should be submitted to both institutions, which will make admissions decisions jointly. Students may be interviewed on-site or by phone, depending on location. Interviews may be waived for those with undergraduate degrees from either institution.
The convenors will make all decisions on applications after the deadline has passed in early May 2013.
PERSONAL STATEMENT & SUPPORTING INFORMATION
You will need to provide a personal statement of around 500 words, outlining your reasons for wanting to take our MA, and your relevant experience. Convenors may request additional materials as needed.
FUNDING
All successful applicants to the Global, International & Comparative History MA will be considered for merit-based financial aid. This funding is limited and would, at most, involve a partial tuition fee waiver.
Awards will be made in consultation between the two History Departments and will be based on qualifications documented as part of the application process (for those spending their first year at Kings) and performance in the first year of study (for those spending their second year at Kings).
Various other forms of financial aid are also available at each institution. It is worth investigating the sources of funding described on the following web pages:
Georgetown:
http://finaid.georgetown.edu/grmenu.htm
King's:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/history/study/fund/index.aspx
Student profiles
Global History MAThe advantages that both King's and the city of London have to offer are unparalleled. From an academic standpoint, the world class faculty, renowned international student body, and London's unrivaled research libraries promote innovative scholarship. Additionally, London provides an opportunity for King's students to broaden their horizons and discover new things about themselves!
Considering its central location, one has to appreciate the campus and the adjoining facilities that King's provides. I use Bytes Café, Kinetic Fitness Center, the Open Learning Center, History Department facilities, and a University of London Library at least five times a week each.
King's does a great job of offering international students convenient housing situated in central London and close to campus facilities; living in Stamford Street has allowed me to become comfortable in the heart of London.
London stands as one of the most important international cities in the world. With this reputation comes a diverse demography, superior academic resources, political and economic importance, and a plethora of experiences to fill one's time in the city.
Fortunately, I have been awarded an innovation bursary through King's which allows me to take advantage of London and its opportunities. The international student body is what makes the social scene at King's so great; the atmosphere is one of acceptance and discovery!
Staff profiles
Global History MA
I’m a staff member in the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies and the History Department at King’s. The Centre itself was originally established by the Australian Government in 1982 and we’ve been in King’s College since 1999. We’re the only Australian Studies Centre in the United Kingdom.
I teach the MA modules ‘Indigenous, European and Australian: Aboriginal Politics and History’ and ‘Australian Politics: An Historical Approach’. These examine the themes of colonialism, identity and power relations in the context of a particular settler society, exploring Australia’s development as part of a global empire and then as a post-imperial nation that is nevertheless constantly pressed to come to terms with its colonial origins. My own research has been focused on various aspects of Australian political, labour and cultural history, especially from the 1880s to the present, so I treat my MA teaching as a great opportunity to pool ideas in a shared enterprise.
Students who work with us gain the benefit of access to our rich programme of seminars, symposia and briefings on various aspects of Australian history, culture and society, often presented by visiting academics from Australia. The Centre is used as a base by such academics while they are in London, and they contribute something valuable to its intellectual vitality. I feel fortunate to be a part of a wonderful College and yet also connected in these ways with my country of origin and main historical interest.