Overview
As an MPhil or PhD in History student you’ll join a research environment in which ambitious and original ideas can flourish.
Many of the research opportunities in history are interdisciplinary. They’re available for most periods of history and in most geographical regions.
Supervision is normally available in the following subject areas:
Conflict, War and Genocide
- North America (Professor SM Grant, Dr B Baker)
- Russia and Eastern Europe (Professor S Ghervas, Dr R Dale)
- Central Europe (Professor T Kirk, Professor D Siemens)
- Latin America (Dr K Brewster)
- Spain and Portugal (Dr A Quiroga)
- Ireland and Northern Ireland (Dr S Ashley, Dr F Campbell, Dr S Campbell)
- twentieth and twenty-first century Britain (Dr M Farr)
- modern China (Dr J Lawson)
- English Civil War and French Revolutionary Wars (Dr R Hammersley)
Gender and Sexuality
- genders, sexuality, family and marriage in eighteenth-century Britain (Professor H Berry)
- fertility, birth control and contraception in Greece (Dr V Hionidou)
- history of imperialism and gender in modern Asia (Dr S Sehrawat)
- gender, especially masculinity, in the medieval Islamic world (Dr N Clarke)
- masculinities in early modern Britain; gender in reformation Europe (Dr A Morton)
- gender and sexuality in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain (Dr J Andrews)
Global and Postcolonial history
- history of modern China (Dr J Lawson)
- history of medieval Japan (Dr P Garrett)
- history of South Asia; history of colonial India (Dr S Sehrawat)
- history of the twentieth-century Islamic world, especially Egypt and Sudan (Dr W Berridge)
- history of the medieval Islamic world (Dr N Clarke)
- world history, comparative perspectives across medieval Eurasia, Africa and the Americas (Dr S Ashley)
- race relations in the United States (Professor SM Grant, Dr B Baker, Dr B Houston)
- British imperial history, especially with regard to landed elites and technological transfer (Dr A Tindley)
Health and Medicine
- classical, early modern and modern medicine, history of medical history as a discipline and medical humanities (Dr T Rütten)
- history of death and sepulchral rites in Germany (Dr F Schulz)
- early modern Britain (Professor J Boulton)
- mental illness, psychiatry and asylums in early modern and Victorian Britain; social and cultural history of diseases and death; narrative, literature and medicine socio-cultural history of and death/mortality (Dr J Andrews)
- health, welfare and poverty in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain (Professor J Boulton, Professor H Berry)
- mental health, psychiatry, asylums and deinstitutionalisation in modern Britain (Dr V Long)
- history of the body; colonial medicine, military medicine and hospitals in India (Dr S Sehrawat)
- military medicine in Soviet Russia (Dr R Dale)
- famines, historical demography, public health, abortion, hospitals, popular medicine, medicine in modern Greece (Dr V Hionidou)
- healthcare and healthcare politics in modern Britain (Professor G Smith, Dr V Long)
- history of bodies; history of sexualities and gender; history of venereal disease; public health in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; medical ethics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Dr L Sauerteig)
Ideas, Religion and Historiography
- early modern political thought and religious beliefs (Dr R Hammersley)
- European historiography (Dr L Racaut)
- Anti-Catholicism in England, 1500-1800 (Dr A Morton)
- religion and identity, conversion to Christianity between 400-1100AD (Ms AE Redgate)
- Islamist ideology (Dr W Berridge)
- Buddhism in medieval Japan (Dr P Garrett)
- medieval Islamic intellectuals and modern interpretations of the medieval Islamic past (Dr N Clarke)
- fascist ideology (Dr A Quiroga)
- religion and psychiatric/medical care (Dr J Andrews)
- peace and peace-making in modern Europe (Professor S Ghervas)
Labour and Social Movements
- twentieth-century French and British social and labour history; unemployment; social movements and protest (Dr M Perry)
- labour and business history in the cotton industry (Dr B Baker)
- work, health and disability in modern Britain (Dr V Long)
- the civil rights movement in the United States (Dr B Houston)
- civil protest and revolution in Egypt and Sudan (Dr W Berridge)
- labour in modern China (Dr J Lawson)
Oral History, Memory and Place
- oral history of health and primary care, family and community, ethnicity and migration, public history and memory in twentieth-century Britain (Professor G Smith)
- social memory and oral history (Dr M Perry, Dr S Campbell)
- oral history of famines, families, birth control, migration, ethnic Greeks from former Soviet Union, memory of famines (Dr V Hionidou)
- oral history in twentieth-century US history, public history (Dr B Houston)
- Scottish environmental history and land management (Dr A Tindley)
- history of the Vikings (Dr S Ashley)
- Anglo-Saxon England (Ms A E Redgate, Dr S Ashley)
Politics and International Relations
- modern British politics (Dr M Farr, Dr F Campbell)
- Anglo-Irish relations (Dr S Campbell)
- modern Central European politics (Professor D Siemens, Professor Tim Kirk)
- twentieth-century France (Dr M Perry)
- history of the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth century (Professor SM Grant, Dr B Houston, Dr B. Baker)
- the politics of culture and sport (Dr K Brewster, Dr C Brewster)
- maritime history, Russia and East Europe (Professor S Ghervas)
Urban Culture and Mass Media
- satire and laughter during the ‘long Reformation’ in Britain (Dr A Morton)
- history of the press in early modern France (Dr L Racaut)
- history of mass media and journalism (Professor D Siemens)
- eighteenth-century urban cultures in Britain (Professor H Berry)
- seventeenth-century London (Professor J Boulton)
- urban culture in the Habsburg Empire (Professor T Kirk)
- twentieth and twenty-first century Britain (Dr M Farr)
- urban reconstruction in Soviet Russia (R Dale)
- print and material culture in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Britain and France, history of the urban commons (Dr R Hammersley)
Find out more about areas of supervision for an MPhil and PhD in History
There are also opportunities for joint supervision with Latin American researchers in the School of Modern Languages.
Important information
We’ve highlighted important information about your course. Please take note of any deadlines.
Your course and study experience – disclaimers and terms and conditions
Please rest assured we make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the programmes, services and facilities described. However, it may be necessary to make changes due to significant disruption, for example in response to Covid-19.
View our Academic experience page, which gives information about your Newcastle University study experience for the academic year 2024-25.
See our terms and conditions and student complaints information, which gives details of circumstances that may lead to changes to programmes, modules or University services.
Qualifications explained
Find out about the different qualification options for this course.
MPhil – Master of Philosophy
An MPhil is available in all subject areas. You receive research training and undertake original research leading to the completion of a 40,000 – 50,000 word thesis.
Find out about different types of postgraduate qualifications
PhD – Doctor of Philosophy
A PhD is a doctorate or doctoral award. It involves original research that should make a significant contribution to the knowledge of a specific subject. To complete the PhD you will produce a substantial piece of work (80,000 – 100,000 words) in the form of a supervised thesis. A PhD usually takes three years full time.
Find out about different types of postgraduate qualifications
How you’ll learn
Assessment methods
Depending on your modules, you’ll be assessed through a combination of:
- Thesis
- Viva
Additional assessment information
We offer a wide range of projects for the thesis. These will be provided by our academics. You can also propose your own topic.
Postgraduate research student support
Our mission is to help you:
- stay healthy, positive and feeling well
- overcome any challenges you may face during your degree – academic or personal
- get the most out of your postgraduate research experience
- carry out admin and activities essential to progressing through your degree
- understand postgraduate research processes, standards and rules
We can offer you tailored wellbeing support, courses and activities.
You can also access a broad range of workshops covering:
- research and professional skills
- careers support
- wellbeing
- health and safety
- public engagement
- academic development
Find out more about our postgraduate research student support
Your development
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) researcher development programmeÂ
Each faculty offers a researcher development programme for its postgraduate research students. We have designed your programme to help you:
- perform better as a researcher
- boost your career prospects
- broaden your impact
Through workshops and activities, it will build your transferable skills and increase your confidence.
You’ll cover:
- techniques for effective research
- methods for better collaborative working
- essential professional standards and requirements
Your researcher development programme is flexible. You can adapt it to meet your changing needs as you progress through your doctorate.
Find out more about the Researcher Education and Development programme
Doctoral training and partnerships
There are opportunities to undertake your PhD at Newcastle within a:
- Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT)
- Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP)
Being part of a CDT or DTP has many benefits:
- they combine research expertise and training of a number of leading universities, academic schools and academics.
- you’ll study alongside a cohort of other PhD students
- they’re often interdisciplinary
- your PhD may be funded
If there are currently opportunities available in your subject area you’ll find them when you search for funding in the fees and funding section on this course.
The following centres/partnerships below may have PhD opportunities available in your subject area in the future:
- ESRC Northern Ireland/North East (NINE) Doctoral Training Partnership
- Northern Bridge Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership
Your future
Our Careers Service
Our award-winning Careers Service is one of the largest and best in the country, and we have strong links with employers. We provide an extensive range of opportunities to all students through our ncl+ initiative.
Visit our Careers Service website
Quality and ranking
- 42% of our research is classified as 4* world-leading research – Research Excellence Framework 2021
- 65% increase in research power since 2014 – Research Excellence Framework 2021
- Global Top 130 University – QS World University Rankings 2025
- Global Top 170 University – Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024
- Top 125 for Arts and Humanities – Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2025
- Top 200 for History – QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024
- Top 25 in the UK and Top 100 in the world for sustainable development – Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024Â
- Top 90 for Arts and Humanities – QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024
Recognition of professional qualifications outside of the UK
From 1 January 2021 there is an update to the way professional qualifications are recognised by countries outside of the UK
Check the government’s website for more information.
Facilities
Benefit from our extensive museum and archive collections such as:
- The Great North Museum: Hancock – our on-site museum. Home to the collections that previously made up the:
- Hancock Museum
- Shefton Museum of Greek Art and Archaeology (an internationally-renowned collection of over 1,000 Greek and Etruscan artefacts)
- Museum of Antiquities.
- Special Collections & Archives at The Robinson Library – a rich collection of archival material, historical medical texts and rare books.
- The UNESCO-recognised Gertrude Bell Archive – explorer, archaeologist and political diplomat.Â
Find out more about the Gertrude Bell Archive
You’ll also have access to:
- first-class computing facilities
- relevant databases
- a dedicated postgraduate computer room
- library facilities on campus and around the city
Find out more about our School’s facilities
Entry requirements
The entrance requirements below apply to 2025 entry.
Academic entry requirements
A minimum of a 2:1 honours degree and a Master’s degree at Merit level, or international equivalent, in a related subject. We will give specific consideration to any independent research you do as part of your studies and/or appropriate professional experience.
You must submit two letters of recommendation (obligatory) and a writing sample, such as a chapter from an MA dissertation or a published paper (optional).Â