Overview

The History Department at King’s is one of the top 5 history departments in Europe (QS rankings 2019). Our aim is to provide outstanding training and supervision in most branches of medieval, early modern and modern history to prepare students for careers both within the academy and beyond. It has received the highest ratings for research in the RAE/REF national audits since 1992. The most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) confirmed the world-class standard of research undertaken in the School of Arts & Humanities and its leading international reputation. The Department of History is ranked 6th in the UK according the framework's 'power' metric, which takes into account both the quantity and quality of research activity.

The department has strength in all periods (from late antiquity to the present day) across an array of global settings. It is closely associated with inter-disciplinary research centres such as the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War, the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, and King’s Contemporary British History.

You will be supervised by leading figures in your field, and participate in a lively and supportive historical research culture within the department (which has around 65 staff and 90 PhD students), and the wider London historical community, notably with our partners within the London Arts and Humanities Partnership: UCL and the School of Advanced Study (which includes the Institute for Historical Research). London also hosts quite outstanding library and archival resources for most historical specialisms, covering most of the world. We offer specialist supervision in many areas, including from the medieval to the modern periods, covering in each period, British and Irish, European, and Global and Imperial History, as well as the History of Science, Technology and Medicine.

The Department receives major research grants from the AHRC, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy and Welcome Trust. Students work on projects including cooperative ones with museums and other organisations and participate in exchanges and visits with many partner organisations including the University of North Carolina and Jawaharlal Nehru University. There is also an option of undertaking a joint PhD with Hong University or the National University of Singapore.

Description:

We offer MPhil and PhD programmes, both full and part-time, for those wishing to do a research degree. We offer supervision across a wide range of fields, from modern global history to British and European medieval history, from the history of science, technology and medicine to recent British history.

Course study environment:

All students are allocated two supervisors and are expected to meet with their primary supervisor (or both if jointly supervised) on a regular basis. Shared supervision across the partner institutions in LAHP is encouraged. Monthly supervision reports are filed for all full-time students and supervisors must submit progress reports every six months in consultation with the student. There will be a further review by two members of the department at the end of the student's first and third years. After 9-12 months the student will normally be upgraded from MPhil to PhD status with a transfer to 'writing up' status usually occurring after three years full-time study. Upon submission of the thesis, assessment is by means of an oral examination (viva).