MA Biography by Research

University of Buckingham

The University of Buckingham’s Master’s in Biography (by research) is led by Ophelia Field, an acclaimed biographer whose research interests span the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. The MA (and its associated PhD) is the only academic programme offered by a UK university which focuses solely on how to research and write biography. The MA may be undertaken either full-time (over one year) or part-time (over two). Each student’s prime objective during that time is the completion of a dissertation of 25,000 words on a subject of their choice. The range of choices is almost limitless, extending from the already well-known – among them princes and Prime Ministers – to the unfamiliar, including unjustly negected figures in literarture and the arts, to the researcher’s own ancestors. Family history is an increasingly prominent part of biographical studies. In conducting their research, students receive guidance from experienced practitioners of the art of biography whose expertise spans from the sixteenth to twenty-first centuries. Students meet with their supervisors at least once a term (if studying part-time) or twice as often (if studying full-time) one-to-one and in person. (Meetings can also be arranged online if the student so prefers.)