MPhil History (Second Year) - Course Handbook

2023-25

Disclaimer

The information in this handbook is accurate as at October 1st 2024. Although it may be necessary for changes to be made in certain circumstances, as explained at www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/coursechanges, it is hoped to keep such changes to a minimum. If changes are made the faculty will publish a new version of this handbook together with a list of the changes and students will be informed.

The Examination Regulations relating to this course are available at https://examregs.admin.ox.ac.uk or Appendix 2 below.

If you have any concerns or queries please contact the Graduate Office at graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk.

 

This handbook has been prepared for students starting the second year of the Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in History in Michaelmas Term 2024. 

It contains information about the structure of the course, teaching and assessment deadlines, how to format and submit your work, and the exam conventions that set out how your work is marked. It also acts as a signpost to more general information, including useful contacts and locations around the Faculty and university.

The term dates can be found here: Dates of Term | University of Oxford

As well as this handbook, you will also find the other sources of information useful:

Canvas: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/ To find information about your course, such as reading lists and available options.
The Oxford Historians Hub: https://ohh.web.ox.ac.uk/ To find information on studying history at Oxford, the termly lecture list, details of the Oxford History Graduate Network, how to present your work when submitting it, and other general information relating to your studies.
Examination regulations: https://examregs.admin.ox.ac.uk/. The definitive rules that govern the course.
Marking criteria and conventions in this handbook The rules by which your work is marked.

Your supervisor will review, monitor and comment on your academic progress using Graduate Supervision Reporting (GSR), which is accessible via Student Self Service (https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/selfservice). You are also encouraged to submit comments on this system.

An introduction to Oxford for new students is available on the university website: https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/new.

This programme is convened and administered by the Faculty of History. If you need help or advice relating to your course, and can’t find the answer in this handbook or on Canvas, you should contact one of the following:

Details of the administrative staff that support the Master’s courses can be found on the Academic Administration page of the History Faculty website: https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/administrative-staff.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the content of this handbook, please email them to graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk.

1| Course Content and Structure

All course information can be found on Canvas.

The course extends over 21 months and has five main parts:

  • The Core Courses: a) Sources and Historiography; b) Theory and Methods
  • An Option Course
  • Writing History Paper
  • Research Master Class (Historical Concepts and Controversies) *replaced for 2023 with second Option paper
  • Dissertation

You MUST check all deadlines against the Examination Regulations for your course. If there are any discrepancies with what is published here, the official Examination Regulations take precedence.

Extensions to deadlines for the submission of assessed work can be requested ONLY from the Proctors, where there is good cause, i.e. circumstances beyond your control preventing you from completing assessed work on time. Details of policy and procedure can be found here. Please note that you are responsible for the timely submission of your assessed work: submitting work, especially your thesis, after the original deadline may mean that your work will not be marked according to the usual timetable, and you must not make plans for graduation without first checking with the Graduate Office that your marks will have been ratified by the relevant Board of Examiners in time.  

Year One

Michaelmas Term (year 1)

Week 5, Friday (noon)

 

 Submit formative essay (Theory and Methods) Submit your formative essay for Theory and Methods to your course tutor

Choose Option Papers

 A link will be circulated two weeks before the deadline for you to submit your options

Week 7, Friday (noon)

 Submit formative essay (Sources and Historiography) Submit your formative essay for Sources and Historiography to your course tutor

 

Week 8, Thursday (11:59pm)

 

Online Exam Entry

Complete online exam entry - Exam Schools will contact you with details of how to do this.

PLEASE NOTE that this is compulsory, and that Exam Schools charge a fee for late entries and modifications to exam entries.
Week 10, Friday Methodology Essay title A link will be circulated two weeks before the deadline for you to submit the title of your Methodology essay *

Hilary Term (year 1)

Week 0, Monday (noon) Methodology Essay submission Submit your Methodology Essay and Annotated Bibliography (see Section 2 [Submission & Assessment guidance] on how to submit)
Annotated Bibliography submission

Week 6, Friday

Option Essay title

 A link will be circulated two weeks before the deadline for you to submit the titles of your essay*
Week 10, Friday (noon) Option Paper Essay(s) submission Submit your Option Essay (see Section 2 [Submission & Assessment guidance] on how to submit)

Trinity Term (year 1)

Week 6, Friday

 Writing History Essay Title A link will be circulated two weeks before the deadline for you to submit the title of your Writing History essay *
Week 9, Monday (noon) Writing History Essay Submission Submit your Writing History Essay and Dissertation Proposal (see Section 2 [Submission & Assessment guidance] on how to submit)
Dissertation Proposal Submission

Year Two

Michaelmas Term (year 2)

Course-related tasks

Choose Option Papers by Week 5, Friday. A link will be circulated two weeks before the deadline for you to submit your options.

Hilary Term (year 2)

Teaching

Second Option Courses, Weeks 1-6

Course-related tasks

Submit Option Essay and Dissertation titles by Week 6, Friday. A link will be circulated two weeks before the deadline for you to submit the titles of your Option essay and Dissertation.

Assessment

Submit Option essay by Week 10, Friday (noon) via Inspera. See Section 2 [Submission & Assessment guidance] on how to submit.

Trinity Term (year 2)

Assessment

Submit Dissertation by Week 8, Monday (noon) via Inspera. See Section 2 [Submission & Assessment guidance] on how to submit.

Teaching

The Core Courses in the MSt and MPhil in History consist of two key courses taught in Michaelmas Term, supplemented by specific skills training.

These consists of the following:

  • Theory and Methods: taught in Michaelmas Term (weeks 1-6). The format is a 1.5 hour seminar class, which meets once a week. This will cover current methodological and theoretical approaches and debates across the discipline. Students and course tutors will choose six of these from a syllabus of nine. Students will write one formative essay for this course (due to be submitted to the course tutors by Friday of Week 5). It will be read by the course tutors and returned with comments (but no numerical mark) by the end of week 7.
  • Sources and Historiography: taught in Michaelmas Term (weeks 1-8). The format is a 1.5 hour strand-specific seminar class, which meets once a week throughout the term. Classes will cover major themes in the historical study of  the strand’s particular field, period or theme, including the use of primary sources, either through a dedicated class or in other ways through the course. They will also provide an arena in which bibliographic work and dissertation planning may be discussed.   . Students will write one formative essay for this course (due to be submitted to the course tutors by Friday of Week 7). It will be read by the course tutors and returned with comments (but no numerical mark) by the end of week 9.
  • Auxiliary Skills: Up to forty hours of strand-specific lectures, classes or tutorials, which may take place over Michaelmas and Hilary Term (exceptionally, students on the Medieval History strand will be offered up to sixty hours of Skills teaching). These hours may be used in different ways: for instance, medieval historians and some early modernists will need to spend some of this on Latin, palaeography, and diplomatic sources, whereas for other students, modern languages, quantification or digital skills may be more important. Normal expectations will be set at strand level, and supervisors will discuss students’ individual skill requirements with them.

Oxford has a wealth of lectures and seminars, both within the History Faculty and across cognate disciplines in other faculties, departments, and centres, provided for both undergraduate and graduate students, that all graduate students are able to access. If you are entering the MSt/MPhil from a discipline other than history, are pursuing research that might involve methods drawn from other disciplines, or feel that there are particular gaps in your higher education to date, you should work with your supervisor to identify lecture programmes and seminars that will be useful alongside the provision within your core courses. 

Assessment

The Core Course is assessed by a Methodology Essay of 3,000-5,000 words, covering some aspect of the historiography or methodology of the candidate’s chosen strand.

This may be based on revising one of the two formative essays written for Theory and Methods and Sources and Historiography, or it may tackle another topic which comes out of these two courses.

No additional supervision (or reading of drafts) will be provided beyond the feedback already received on these two courses.

The title for this essay must be submitted to the Graduate Office by Friday of Week 10 of Michaelmas Term.

The Methodology Essay counts for 10% of the final mark of the degree.

For further advice on preparing your formative and summative essays, see ‘Guidance on Essays for the Core Courses.’ The Methodology Essay is an opportunity to engage historiographic or conceptual issues rather than showcase first-hand research.

The Methodology Essay must be submitted by Monday of Week 0 of Hilary Term in your first year, with the deadline being at Noon.

Candidates must also complete two additional assessments as part of the Core Course:

An Annotated Bibliography of up to 1,500 words. It should contain your project title, and a list of the most important primary and secondary sources to be consulted in researching your dissertation, together with a critical reflection of up to 1,000 words on the resources used in compiling it (2,500 words in total). You may find that your initial bibliography exceeds the word limit, in which case you should provide a selection of the most important items, and indicate that you have done this in the commentary. The bibliography should be formatted according to the ‘Conventions for the presentation of dissertations, essays, and theses’, which are available on the Oxford Historians Hub.

The intention is not for you to summarise or comment on the contents of the individual items contained in your bibliography – indeed, we do not expect you to have read all the works yet. Instead, it should be accompanied by a critical commentary on the resources used in compiling it. You should show evidence of having consulted the relevant databases, library and archive catalogues (including union catalogues), on-site archival finding aids, thesis search tools, and the bibliographies of other scholars. You should comment on the utility of these various resources, the types of searches you conducted, and the balance between the digital resources and catalogues and on-site finding aids (where appropriate to the project), or even personal contacts and communications. You may wish to indicate occasions when your searches have been frustrated, i.e. when your searches have yielded unsatisfactory results.

This is not intended to be a definitive bibliography, but rather to provide evidence that you have thought about how to frame a bibliography for a research project. You will be able to reframe the project as you actually conduct the research.

Your feedback will take note of the following:

  • Compliance with Faculty's bibliographic standards

  • Use of an appropriate range of resources

  • Evidence of having thought critically about appropriate methods of searching

  • evidence of having thought about the strengths and weaknesses of the various resources

You are expected to consult with your supervisors about the bibliographic exercise before submitting it.

The Annotated Bibliography must be submitted by Monday of Week 0 of Hilary Term in your first year, with the deadline being at Noon.

A Dissertation Proposal of between 2,000 and 2,500 words. It is logical, though it is not obligatory, for the research proposal to lay out the plan for the Master's dissertation. However, if you are already considering pursuing a career in historical research beyond the Master's degree, you can take this opportunity to lay out your proposal for doctoral study, which will form part of a re- admission application (in January). Candidates should agree with their supervisor whether to submit their proposal for the intended Master’s dissertation, OR whether to focus on a proposal for their future doctoral research.

A Research Proposal should include accounts of the following elements:

  • A research question (NB this need not be formulated as a question, but must identify the problem to be investigated; it may include a preliminary hypothesis as to the argument to be pursued);
  • An overview of the historiography from which the research question derives and with which it engages;
  • Identification of the primary sources (manuscript, printed or digitised documents; material sources; oral history, etc.) available for analysis;
  • An account of the methods to be used in analysis of the source.

You should expect your project to evolve and change as you pursue your research; the research proposal is a starting point, not a plan to which you are obliged to adhere. For further guidance see the Faculty’s criteria for a research thesis, bearing in mind the difference of scale and depth between a Master’s dissertation and a doctoral thesis.

The Dissertation Proposal must be submitted by Monday of Week 9 of Trinity Term in your first year, with the deadline being at Noon.

Students take two Option papers - one in the Hilary Term of their first year and one in the Hilary Term of their second year. The Graduate Office should be notified of their preferred Option by the end of Week 5 Michaelmas Term, (a link for doing this will be circulated two weeks beforehand). The options available to students are listed on Canvas. Students are not limited to selecting an Option paper from their particular strand, and may select an Option from another strand without prior approval.

Option papers will be provided by specialists in the subject area, and there is provision for annual rotation and revision of optional courses to ensure that students are in contact with the latest developments in their chosen subject. The availability of Options varies from year to year, depending on the availability of teaching staff, and the Faculty reserves the right to not run an option if insufficient numbers enrol.

Candidates wishing to take an advanced paper (Option paper) from another programme offered by the History Faculty, and exceptionally, by other Faculties, may do so with the permission of the Programme Convenor, the person responsible for the delivery of the requested option/advanced paper, and the candidate’s supervisor. Candidates should seek permission for taking an advanced paper from another programme or Faculty and should contact the Graduate Office in the first instance (graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk).

PLEASE NOTE: Students taking an option paper from a programme other than that in which they are enrolled will be assessed on that paper according to the regulations of the programme under which the advanced paper is offered. This means that deadlines, length of assessed work, teaching timetable, and mode of assessment may be different to option papers being taken by other students on the same course. If you take a paper from another programme, please consider the impact on your workload based on the other deadlines for your own programme. The modes of assessment and deadlines for the other course elements of the programme for which the candidate is registered are unaffected. Advanced or Option papers from other programmes may run for 8 weeks. Please contact graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk if you have any questions. 

Teaching

Option papers are normally taught in 2 hour classes in Hilary Term, weeks 1-6.

The small class size provides an excellent opportunity for peer input and participatory learning. Emphasis will be placed upon class discussion, and on the creation of an intellectual community among students. Students will acquire a deeper, focussed understanding of a particular field of historical research, and they need not confine their studies to the issues explicitly raised in class.

Assessment

Hilary Term 2023 - One extended essay of between 6,000 and 7,000 words. A draft should be submitted to the course tutors by the end of week 7. They will read and return the essay(s) with comments (but no numerical marks) by the end of week 9.

Assessment for the Option Paper must be submitted for examination by noon on Friday of Week 10 of Hilary Term. The assessment for the Option paper accounts for 15% of the final mark of the degree.

Hilary Term 2024 - One extended essay of between 6,000 and 7,000 words. A draft should be submitted to the course tutors by the end of week 7. They will read and return the essay(s) with comments (but no numerical marks) by the end of week 9.

Assessment for the Option Paper must be submitted for examination by noon on Friday of Week 10 of Hilary Term. The assessment for the Option paper accounts for 15% of the final mark of the degree.

This discussion-led course complements previous work done on historiography, sources and methods by exploring the making of the 'finished product' of published works of history.  It involves critical reading and thinking about the choices historians make in conceptualising, structuring, and writing their works.  Ranging widely across all periods, places, and topics, readings and discussions focus on different formats of historical writing, the distinctive features of academic history writing, the relationship between author and their intended readership, and the relationship between topic, argument, and format. 

Teaching

The course is only for MPhil students.  It is taught in weekly classes over the first Trinity Term of the programme and, depending on the class size, may be taught in two sub-groups.  You will typically read a couple of books per week (some fat, others thin) and make a structured presentation on one of them. Assessment.

The Writing History course will be assessed by an extended essay of between 4,000 and 5,000 words, and accounts for 15% of the overall mark.

Your draft title of the essay should be as descriptive and precise as possible, posing a question or proposition that can reasonably be dealt with within the word limit.

The Writing History essay must be submitted for examination by Monday of Week 9 of Trinity Term in your first year, with the deadline being at Noon.

The Research Masterclass is taught in Michaelmas Term of Year 2 of the MPhil. It  is an opportunity for students to present and get feedback on broad historiographical or methodological issues surrounding their thesis research. While moderated by a Faculty member, the class is student-led. Each week, one or two students present for ca. 30 minutes (maximum). The rest of each session is devoted to discussion. There is no designated format for the presentation, but it should provide a brief overview of the dissertation and link this to a particular methodological, historiographical, or conceptual problem for the class to discuss – something that has been problematic or interesting in the course of research. The class is assessed on a pass-fail basis.

During the admissions process you are assigned a supervisor to direct your intended individual research. In the course of the first term, your research focus may change – and in some cases this may lead to a change in your supervision arrangements. If this happens, you should complete a GSO.25 form (change of supervisor or appointment of joint supervisor) and submit it to the Academic Office so that the student record system can be updated: https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/graduate/progression.

Your supervisor’s primary responsibility is to advise you on the programme of work necessary to complete your dissertation or thesis. To this end, they should maintain a general overview over your course work and academic development. They should help you to identify and acquire the knowledge and skills needed to complete your dissertation or thesis, and to further your aims for study or employment, insofar as these build upon the programme of graduate study.

A strand-specific dissertation workshop will be held early in Trinity Term, at which students will be expected to give a short presentation of their work. Further details will be provided during the course of the academic year.

You should agree a definitive title with your supervisor(s) and inform the Graduate Office of the title by the deadline. The dissertation should be on a topic falling within the scope of this programme.

The Examiners will expect your dissertation to be clearly distinct from coursework essays in either chronological or geographical range, or historical issue. The dissertation is expected to include some study of original source material, whether in printed, manuscript, or other form (e.g. archaeological, numismatic, visual evidence, etc).

For students on the Medieval strand, although you are permitted to make use of sources in translation, your dissertation should engage – to the best of your abilities – with textual sources in their original language(s).

The following notes for students and supervisors provide rough guidance for students and supervisors - individual progress rates will vary, depending (for example) on the level of your background knowledge; whether you need to acquire new technical skills; the speed at which you identify a workable topic; the accessibility of sources in Oxford or Britain; the time needed to process data; the extent to which the research programme makes feasible the drafting of chapters while research is in progress, etc.

Year One:

Michaelmas term:

  • Meet supervisor
  • Identify any training needs
  • Plan lecture/seminar attendance and a programme of secondary reading necessary to set the scene for proposed research
  • Initial exploration of primary sources
  • Discuss subject and nature of the research proposal you plan to submit as part of your examination
  • Expect to spend one day a fortnight on preparing your dissertation project, and arrange to see your supervisor perhaps two times after the initial meeting

Christmas vacation

  • Proceed, against the background of continuing work as above, to refine definition of dissertation topic

Hilary Term

  • Expect to step up work on your dissertation project to about one day a week, and again arrange to see your supervisor for perhaps one session
  • Identify and begin working through secondary literature; plan work on primary sources (including arranging archive access, planning any necessary travel, etc.)

Easter vacation/Trinity Term

  • Continue with dissertation research, modifying plan and structure as necessary; you should be working through all the relevant secondary literature (and using the Writing History class to think about different styles of historical writing) and identifying and, where possible, beginning to work on primary sources.
  • Give a short presentation of your work to the dissertation workshop that will be held early in Trinity Term

Long Vacation

  • You should expect to use the Long Vacation to carry out as much primary source work as possible; research trips, especially overseas, should be carried out in this time. Please do bear in mind the importance of allocating time to research over the vac between years 1 and 2, especially if you have other (e.g. work or family) commitments.

Year Two:

Michaelmas term:

  • Negotiate an appropriate timetable of meetings with your supervisor for the second year (up to five or six sessions)
  • Finalise plan of work remaining for dissertation and agree this with supervisor; plan to complete any remaining research in primary sources and secondary reading
  • Discuss whether applying for doctoral research in Oxford or elsewhere, and if so nature of doctoral research proposal (deadline for submission of the application mid-January)

Christmas vacation

  • If applying for re-admission to doctoral programme, AHRC funding, or other funding requiring a doctoral research proposal, work with supervisor to refine that well in advance of the application deadline in mid-January

Hilary Term

  • Complete any remaining research in primary sources; make a definitive plan for the dissertation and begin (if you have not already done so) to write your first draft. You should be spending most of your time writing up the dissertation at this stage.

Easter vacation/Trinity Term

  • Produce draft – make sure your draft is in your supervisor’s hands in plenty of time for them to comment (supervisors are not expected to comment on drafts received later than Monday of Week 6 of Trinity Term); revise draft in light of comments

The dissertation must be submitted by the given deadline. Refer to Section 2 for guidance on how to submit your dissertation, and for guidance on the presentation and submission of essays and dissertations.

The dissertation should consist of up to 30,000 words. It must be accompanied by a short abstract which concisely summarises its scope and principal arguments, in about 300 words; the abstract should be bound into the dissertation, immediately after the title page. Please see Word Count in Section 2, for detailed guidance on what is included and excluded from the word count. 

The dissertation must not exceed the permitted length. If it does the Examiners will reduce the marks awarded.

Part of the exercise of writing a dissertation lies in devising a topic that can be effectively handled within the word limit. However, in exceptional circumstances – for example if a large section of your dissertation is taken up with translations or lengthy appendices – you can apply to the Director of Graduate Studies for permission to exceed the word limit. This should be supported by your supervisor.

Formative Feedback

Formative feedback is provided on work done during the course, to help you improve your work as your progress through the programme.

  • Students will receive regular informal feedback on their class presentations and contributions from the class leaders and their peers.
  • Students are entitled to receive comments from a class tutor on ONE draft of the formative essay for Theory and Methods and on ONE draft of the formative essay for Sources and Historiography. Such a draft must be handed in to them by Friday of Week 5 of Michaelmas Term at the latest for the Theory and Methods essay and Friday of Week 7 for the Sources and Historiography essay, so that they have the opportunity to comment on the draft before the end of term, and so that you have received feedback before the end of term and can decide what topic you will choose for the assessed Methodology Essay. No further supervision is provided for this essay. 
  • Students are entitled to receive comments on ONE draft of the Option Essay from a class tutor. Such a draft must be handed in to them by Friday of Week 7 of Hilary Term at the latest, so that they have the opportunity to comment on the draft by Friday of Week 9, well in advance of the final revision of your submission of the essay for examination. 
  • Formative feedback on your annotated bibliography and dissertation proposal should be obtained from your thesis supervisor by mutual arrangement. Feedback on your dissertation work may be obtained from your supervisor as it progresses in the course of Hilary and Trinity terms. Be sure to discuss the timetable of your thesis work with your supervisor; supervisors will have other commitments which may make it necessary that you provide them with your full draft well in advance of the deadline. Supervisors might not be expected to provide comments on drafts later than Monday of Week 6 of Trinity Term  ( Supervisors will generally do everything they can to support your research and writing, but it is your responsibility to make contact with your supervisor, agree a timetable of work, and provide drafts in time for them to comment and return them to you.
  • Students may also receive formal (written) or informal (oral) comments on their work at graduate research presentations, seminars, or  a dissertation workshop. These are generally held in Hilary term.
Summative Feedback
  • The examiners will provide summative feedback on your assessed essays and your dissertation. Indicative marks and feedback for your Methodology and Option essays will be shared via Canvas by the Graduate office once they have been approved by the MPhil Exam Board. Feedback for your dissertation will be shared the same way, however, given the proximity to the summer Exam Board, your dissertation mark will only be released alongside your final classification.
  • Please note that marking is inherently subjective, and it is not uncommon to receive two separate pieces of feedback that may differ in tone or perspective.

The programme of teaching is supported by regular graduate seminars, which run throughout the academic year and will be attended by graduate students and staff. Details can be found in the Lecture List on the Oxford Historian Hub, but note that a weekly email alert will tell you about all the seminars, lectures and visiting speaker presentations organised by the Faculty of History.

It is possible to switch from the MPhil to the MSt, but it requires the approval of your supervisor, the Faculty’s Director of Graduate Studies, and your college. Please note that such a change may have an effect on your funding and/or visa status, and that all applications to change programme must be completed by 8th Week of Hilary Term.

The Change of Programme of Study form for this process (GSO.28) can be found here.

Appendix

The History Faculty is able to provide some support for student research through its trust funds, but you are expected to explore also other sources of support such as your college. Details regarding trust funds can be found on the Oxford Historians Hub.

The Faculty also offers annual prizes for the best dissertations. A central list of all University prizes can be found here.

Contacts

Director of Graduate Studies: 

  • Dr Simon Skinner

Programme Convenor: Professor Richard Reid

The main office contact for all graduate matters is: graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk

Graduate Officer: Joe Shepherd

Assistant Graduate Officer: Maya Blackwell

Teaching Officer: Callum Kelly

Admissions Officer: Liz Owen

Useful Links

History Faculty Website

Lecture List

History Faculty Canvas

History Faculty Library

Examination Regulations

Oxford Students Website

Student Self Service

Guidance for using Self Service