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  • History PhD

Modern and Contemporary History PhD

The 91¶¶Òõ has a thriving research culture for History PhD students.

Our primary strength as an academic community is in modern history, including global perspectives on the twentieth-century. Our historians use a wide range of interdisciplinary methodologies that draw on social, political and cultural history and investigate the complex interconnections between present and past, evoked by concepts of memory.  

Research expertise for modern and contemporary history PhD study at the university covers documentary and oral histories, literary and cultural analysis,  political, moral and applied philosophy and contemporary critical theory, as well as exciting interdisciplinary combinations, and we welcome approaches for supervision in any of these areas. 

We have an excellent record in achieving funding for PhD students in modern and contemporary history and related studies.

Together with colleagues from closely related Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence (COREs), we offer supervision for history focused projects that cross disciplines in the arts, humanities and social sciences and our department thrives on its interdisciplinary interests and the close research culture that stems from it.

Your supervisory team and academic network can draw on expertise in, for example, cultural studies, social anthropology, cultural geography, art and design history, art practices, media and visual studies, performance studies, critical theory, sociology, psycho-social studies, critical heritage studies, narrative theory, archive and museum studies and digital humanities. 

Our graduates have gone on to work in, among other fields, academia and the heritage and museum sectors. We welcome approaches to discuss suitable projects and can provide advice on application, proposals and any suitable funding.

Apply with us for funding through the AHRC Techne Doctoral Training Partnership

Key information

Your Modern and contemporary history PhD will be supervised by expert academics who will also guide you towards career decisions and allow your work to draw on and contribute to the wider academic society at 91¶¶Òõ and at partner universities.

As a Modern and contemporary history PhD student, you will

  • have a supervisory team comprising two members of academic staff. Depending on your particular area of study you may also have additional supervisors from other research institutions or external partners.
  • become part of an active and engaged community of research learning, leading talks, and social events with opportunities to present your work as it progresses and network with other researchers.
  • You will also be part of the interdisciplinary School of Humanities and Social Science at the 91¶¶Òõ.
  • have access to a range of electronic resources via the university’s online library, as well as to physical books and journals at St Peter’s House Library in central 91¶¶Òõ and other campus libraries.

Academic environment

Our Modern and contemporaryHistory PhD students enjoy a close-knit and highly supportive academic community that makes optimum use of a range of expertise and can work with your interests whether single-disciplinary, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary.  

There is a thriving postgraduate and research culture in humanities across the university helping support an understanding of broader contexts as well as the specifics of your PhD project. Our community of experts particularly welcomes projects addressing: 

  • concerns around the nature, structure and scope of violent conflict including the social and cultural history of modern warfare, with reference to the total wars of the twentieth century, legacies and memories of warfare, truth, justice and reconciliation in ‘post-conflict’ societies; 
  • colonial and postcolonial cultural and social history with reference to the histories and legacies of transatlantic slavery, forms of migration, diasporic identity, the anglophone Caribbean, the Black Atlantic, and twentieth-century US cultural history, especially histories of 'race' and civil rights;
  • histories of identity formations such as gender, ‘race’, nation and class and the role of cultural memory in these formations. 

As well as these we will be excited to hear your proposals that align to themes including:

  • Social and cultural histories of warfare including post-conflict legacies 
  • Gender, race and class 
  • Race, Empire and colonialism 
  • Cultural memory: theory, politics, history 

You will have an academic home in the School of Humanities and Social Science and in our principal centre dedicated to history, memory and narrative, but we recommend students attend seminars and meet staff working across related centres. Please explore our Centres of Research Excellence (COREs) to discover the range of our doctoral student work and staff specialisms. The  COREs below work especially closely together.

Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics 

Centre for Design History

 

Some of our supervisors

Profile photo for Sue Breakell

Sue is based at the 91¶¶Òõ Design Archives and supervises research using archives in art and design history and practice; and on twentieth century British art and design and their contexts, with a particular focus on the mid-century. She supervises Masters and Doctorate projects, and is happy to hear from potential students with complementary interests.

Profile photo for Dr Christian Hogsbjerg

Christian would be interested in supporting doctoral research in the following areas: Anti-colonialism; Atlantic Studies and maritime history; Black British History; Black Intellectual History; British imperial history; Caribbean history and politics (including Haitian Revolutionary Studies); Labour History; Pan-Africanism; Race, Resistance and Reparative Histories; Slavery, Resistance and Abolition.      

Profile photo for Dr Eugene Michail

I supervise PhDs on a range of modern European history themes, especially on histories and memories of conflict, resistance and refugeedom. I am also interested in innovative projects on the method and challenges of writing the history of today. In our School we have an excellent record in securing funding for applicants that are keen to shape their ideas in close dialogue with us.  

My recent doctoral students are: 

  • Ömercan Tüm, 'The Representation of Muslim Masculinities in Contemporary British and American Diaspora Novels' (started 2023)
  • Mr Yazan Abu Jbara 'Resistance in and through Palestinian Memoirs' (started 2022)
  • Mr Irfan Chowdhury 'How systematic were the British Army’s war crimes in Iraq between 2003 and 2011?' (started 2022)
  • Amadeusz Lange 'In the shadows, unveiling Polish women’s contributions in clandestine activity, 1939-1945' (started 2022)
  • Rosemary Rich, ‘The memory of Second World War conscientious objection since 1945’ (PhD awarded 2023)
  • Vanessa Tautter, ‘Narratives of Victimisation among the Contemporary Right in Austria and Northern Ireland’ (PhD awarded 2023)
  • Oscar Louis Norris-Broughton, 'Guilds at Home and Abroad: A History of Knowledge of Guild Socialism' (PhD awarded 2022 at Freie Universität Berlin)
  • Pete Morgan, ‘British representations of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-23’ (awarded 2022 91¶¶Òõ)
  • Kate Newby, ‘Children’s and Transgenerational Memories of violence in Norther Ireland in the 1970s’ (awarded 2020 91¶¶Òõ)
  • Ian Cantoni, ‘Spanish Republican refugee camps in southern France following the Spanish civil war of 1936-1939’ (awarded 2019 91¶¶Òõ)
Profile photo for Dr Aris Mousoutzanis

My supervisory interests include the study of popular media genres (science fiction, horror); the relations between media, memory and trauma; and media and politics (specifically imperialism, (post)colonialism and globalisation. Interdisciplinary projects on media, literature and culture are most welcome.

A more detailed indicative list of supervisory interests includes the following areas:

  • the study of popular media genres (science fiction, horror/Gothic, utopia/dystopia, (post-)apocalyptic fiction).
  • the relations between screen media, trauma theory and memory studies - with a more recent interest in nostalgia studies.
  • the historical and discursive relations between screen media and imperialism, globalisation and (post)colonialism.

Students with an interest in an interdisciplinary approach that extends across English studies and Film and Television studies are most welcome. I have also researched, taught and published on the late Victorian period ('fin de siecle') and postmodern theory, literature and culture.

Profile photo for Dr Ceren Ozpinar

Dr Ceren Özpınar has supervised two PhDs to completion, and currently supervises three PhD students at 91¶¶Òõ, who work on subjects in lesser-known women artists in the 20th century, feminism in the museum, representation of lesbian lives in collections, and transnational art and design practices. She has examined one PhD to date.

Ceren would be interested in supervising PhD projects on feminist and queer approaches to art; transnational art histories; narratives of difference; memory and materiality. She would also welcome proposals interested in researching any aspect of the project of decolonising the history of art and exhibitions, particularly but not exclusively, in the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North African geographies.

Ceren also hosts visiting doctoral researchers on a regular basis. If you are working on a PhD project at another institution related to her research expertise and would like to be supervised by her at 91¶¶Òõ for a short period (up to a year), feel free to contact her.

Profile photo for Prof Annebella Pollen

Annebella supervises PhD projects in visual and material culture; photographic history, theory and practice; Mass Observation; museum cultures; modern British art and design history; non-elite design and dress history; everyday / vernacular / folk cultural practices and countercultures. She has supervised a dozen PhDs to completion, including PhDs by publication, practice and in partnership with museums. She has examined over 25 PhDs internationally. She is currently welcoming new students.

Profile photo for Dr Rebecca Searle

Rebecca supervises students researching contemporary British History. She has particular expertise in the history of housing, the politics of twentieth and twenty first century Britain, the history of sexuality and gender, and the impact of war on society. She works with students across social, political, cultural and economic history and with students specialising in politics, sociology or philosophy who want to incorporate historical analysis into their research. 

Profile photo for Dr Aakanksha Virkar

Aakanksha is happy to supervise postgraduate work on late Victorian and modern literature. She has specific interests in literary modernism and would particularly welcome projects exploring literature and the arts (music and visual culture).

Specific areas within literary studies (1850-1950) might include

  • Victorian/modern transitions
  • philosophy, aesthetics and politics in modern literature
  • poetry and poetics
  • literature, music and visual culture
  • aestheticism, decadence and desire
Profile photo for Dr Julia Winckler

Julia Winckler's interdisciplinary research focuses on working with visual archives and collections. Memory and migration narratives, contested topographies, exile studies, co-production of knowledge and photography & activism are particular areas of interest. 

For PhD applicants:

Winckler currently co-supervises six Phd students at the 91¶¶Òõ and one Phd student at the University of Salzburg. Two of these Phd projects are practice-based; one is Techne funded, a second is an AHRC CPD studentship. 

Winckler welcomes Phd inquiries that interact with any of the following: 

Working with Archives and Collections: Photographic archives, Community archives, Museums, Private Collections

Memory Studies: Postmemory, transnational memory, cultural memory, communicative memory, personal memory

Art practice as research: visual, creative and ethnographic research methods/photo voice/photo elicitation/digital media technologies, site-specific interventions

Co-production of knowledge: popular education methodology, participatory methods, oral history, histoire croisée/regards croisés methodologies

Photography and activism: community art practice (global, historical & contemporary) and critical pedagogy

Photographers in Exile in Britain: contributions made by emigrés to the field of Applied Arts

Profile photo for Dr Claire Wintle

Dr Wintle welcomes enquiries about projects on museums, exhibition design, collecting, cultural forms of imperialism, nationalism and decolonisation, especially in Britain, and the material and visual culture of South Asia.

Claire has supervised three PhDs to completion and currently supervises eight AHRC-funded PhD students. She has examined postgraduate theses at SOAS, Leicester University, Royal Holloway, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Southampton and a further five PhDs at the 91¶¶Òõ. Her students focus on themes ranging from British South Asian community engagement with museums to the professional experiences of museum staff working to decolonise practice. She works with colleagues at the British Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Horniman Museum and the V&A to supervise Collaborative Doctoral Projects on subjects including the British Museum's relationships with museums in West Africa, South Asian donors to the British Museum, exhibition design at the British Museum and Korean collections at the V&A. She also works with colleagues at Shiv Nagar University in India to supervise a PhD project on Bihar Museum.

 

 For further supervisory staff including cross-disciplinary options, please visit  

Making an application

Once you have prepared a first-rate application you can apply to the 91¶¶Òõ through our . When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the 91¶¶Òõ staff. We strongly recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

Sign in to our to begin.

Fees and funding

 Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistence during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2024–25

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
 Full-timePart-time

UK

£4,786 

£2,393

International (including EU)

£15,900

N/A

International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law

£14,500

N/A


PhD by Publication
Full-time Part-time
 N/A  £2,393

Contact 91¶¶Òõ Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the 91¶¶Òõ we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the 91¶¶Òõ Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.

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