European History (MA) - 2013/2014 entry

This programme offers you the chance to study at a department with world-renowned expertise in European history – including British, German, French, Italian, Balkan, Russian and Eastern European history, as well as international, transnational, global and comparative history. The MA brings together these different fields and develops new approaches to the history of Europe from the early modern period to the present day. It aims to provide you with an appreciation of key debates that have shaped our understanding of Europe. Rather than presuppose one all-encompassing definition of ‘Europe’, whether geographical or other, the programme highlights the different contexts within which the European past and present can be analysed. This programme is an excellent entry point into more advanced study.

Find out more about studying in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology.

• Brings together Birkbeck's unique and wide-ranging expertise in European history, covering a wide geographical and thematic spread.
• An excellent entry point into more advanced study.
• Conveniently located for the British Museum, the British Library and a range of specialist research centres.
• Watch our video: Professor Catharine Edwards talks about studying in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology.

The programme consists of a compulsory core module, three option modules and a dissertation, which is due at the end of September of the final year of study. These can be completed in the course of one year (full-time) or two years (part-time). Assessment is by coursework essays and the dissertation.

The introductory core module aims to equip you with the conceptual background necessary for historical study at postgraduate level. It includes 10 broad lectures and 10 weekly seminars dedicated to exploring specific topics and questions in European History. A second core element includes training in research skills and a 15,000-word dissertation on a subject of your choice.

You can choose your three option modules from a wide range on any region and period of European history since the Renaissance, including British history.

Choices in recent years have included the following (please note that only a selection of these will be on offer in any given year):

• A Cultural History of Modern Warfare
• Africa in the European Imagination
• Borders and Borderlands in Europe since 1800
• Civil Society: Ideas, Practices and Dilemmas in the Modern World
• Class Relations and Urban Renewal in Nineteenth-Century London
• Comparative Decolonisation: The End of the European Colonial Empires
• Continuity and Rupture: France, 1914–1945
• Cultures of War: Italy, Germany and Japan, 1860–1919
• Darwin, Darwinism and the Modern World
• Death, Disease and the Early Modern City
• The Decline of Magic: Magical Ideas in English Society, 1650–1750
• Degeneration: Science, Culture and Social Prophecy, 1850–1945
• Early Modern London: Society and Culture
• Ethnicity and Migration in Twentieth-Century Central Europe
• Fascism and Psychoanalysis
• Gender History in Modern Great Britain
• Globalisation: A Short Historical Introduction
• Immigrants and Immigration
• Internationalism and International Organisations in Twentieth-Century Europe
• Jews and Antisemitism in Modern Europe: Histories and Approaches
• London and Berlin in the Age of Empire
• The Nazi Capture of Power
• Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy: Comparisons and Contrasts
• Opposition and Dissent in Early Modern France
• Plots, Conspiracy Theory and Political Culture in Early Modern Britain and France
• Popular Politics in Early Modern Italy
• Power and Communication in Early Modern Europe
• Practitioners and Patients in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe
• Race and the Victorians
• Religion in Society and Politics: Britain and Ireland, 1801–2001
• Renaissance Florence: Society, Religion and Culture
• Re-reading German History, 1933–1945
• Re-thinking German History, 1918–1933
• The Rise of the Modern Consumer
• Roads to Genocide, 1914–1945
• The Reconstruction of Europe, 1945-1960
• The Soviet Experience: Stalinism Through the Eyes of the Individual
• Technology, Modernity and the Nation: Britain and Germany, 1880–1930
• The Victorian Communication Revolution
• Vichy France, 1940–1944.

You will find the British Museum and the British Library just a few minutes' walk from Birkbeck. Other nearby specialist centres of research include the Institute of Archaeology, the Insitute of Classical Studies and the Institute of Historical Research, all of which offer regular seminars on research areas covered by the department. 

The department has close links with institutions such as the Wiener Library (now in its new home in Russell Square), the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, and the University of London's Institute of Historical Research. In recent years, the department has hosted prestigious research projects on European history, such as the AHRC-funded project on 'Before the Holocaust: Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany, 1933–1939' and the Balzan-funded project on 'The Postwar Reconstruction of Europe, 1945–1950'.

Birkbeck also has active history and archaeology societies.

If you are interested in further research, we offer a PhD/MPhil in History.

Graduates go on to careers as teachers, civil servants, professional researchers, journalists, archivists and librarians. Many of our students have used this MA as a means to change their careers.

Teaching staff

Course Director: Dr Jessica Reinisch

Other staff who teach on this MA programme include:

• Professor Lucy Riall
• Dr Nik Wachsmann
• Dr Julian Swann
• Dr Filippo de Vivo 
• Professor Daniel Pick
• Professor Frank Trentmann
• Professor Joanna Bourke
• Professor David Feldman. 

• You should apply as early as possible.
• Interviews from January.