In the past three decades, the University of Sussex has established itself as one of the leading research universities in the humanities. Taking full advantage of constantly developing faculty strengths and interests, the Department of History seeks to promote innovative topics in research and teaching across disciplines.
The department offers an MA in Contemporary History and an MA in Modern European History. Both offer a distinctive programme of study that is methodologically innovative and thematically diverse and provide a firm foundation for advanced research work. Students of both MAs can explore the history of war and society as part of their degree.
There are currently around fifty research students working in the department, of whom several work on themes connected to the history of war and society. All research is individually supervised by members of the History Department, and a weekly work-in-progress seminar gives a platform for Sussex historians, visiting speakers and research students to present their ideas and scholarship.
Sussex history research students have in recent years organised a highly successful annual postgraduate conference, Fresh Perspectives. Our postgraduate students also run the well-established University of Sussex Journal of Contemporary History, an innovative online journal of creative and interdisciplinary historical research by members of the postgraduate and early postdoctoral community.
Postgraduate students play an active role in the Centre for the History of War and Society, and a postgraduate reading group meets once a term.