MSt History - Course Handbook

2024-25

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 Master of Studies (MSt) in History in Michaelmas Term 2024. We hope that it will be particularly useful to you when you first arrive in Oxford, but you are advised to refer to it throughout your course, as it will be of considerable help throughout the period of your study.

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.

To note that you are required to complete an online course on plagiarism and how to avoid it. On successfully completing this course you will receive a certificate, which you should email to graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk by the end of Week 1 Michaelmas term.

Introductory events often take place during Week 0 of Michaelmas Term.

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. 

Welcome to your Master's course in History at Oxford. I look forward to meeting you in person at some point in the coming year and wish you every success in the months to come. Above all, I hope that you enjoy postgraduate study here and find it rewarding. 

Our Faculty is one of the largest history departments in the world. It brings together an extraordinary array of scholars pursuing an unparalleled range of research. This is reflected in the abundance of research seminars, regular graduate workshops, special lectures and discussion panels that take place throughout the academic year. As a postgraduate student, you will probably be spending more time in independent study than you did as an undergraduate, and the live, in-person discussion available at a regular research seminar can be important for both social support and intellectual stimulation. You will find events listed on the Faculty website; while you will need to prioritise attendance at lectures and seminars in your own specialist area, you are welcome to attend anything that interests you. In this respect, I also encourage you to explore Oxford's intellectual life beyond the Faculty, in the Colleges, the lecture lists and seminar series of other faculties and departments, and at TORCH (the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities). 

The Graduate Joint Consultative Committee (GJCC), made up of academic staff and student representatives, meets every term. It works in conjunction with the Oxford History Graduate Network (OHGN), a student-led forum that organises social and academic events and raises matters of concern to students with the Faculty's graduate office. You can find more details of both these organisations at the links above and I would encourage you to think about getting involved 

The MSt and MPhil in History bring together nine "strands", or different areas of historical research. You therefore belong to two cohorts: a smaller one focused around your strand and a larger one encompassing all students on the master's program. In your first term, the Sources and Historiography seminar will be your introduction to your specific strand, and your Theories and Methods class will bring you together with other students on the larger degree course. We hope that you will benefit from both the stimulus of working with historians of other periods and places, and the specialist expertise of the tutors on your strand. 

Like any large institution, the collegiate University of Oxford is a complex place to navigate and it is entirely normal to find it difficult to get around both the place and its processes. Whenever you have questions that aren't answered in this handbook or elsewhere on the Faculty or University websites, you should contact your thesis supervisor or (for College or welfare issues) your College advisor, Tutor for Graduates, or College welfare team; your course tutors; or the convenor of your strand. You are also welcome to contact the Graduate Office, whether in person, by phone (01865 [6115011) or by email (graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk). If you still don't have an answer to your question, or if you have concerns you don't wish to share with your supervisor, tutors, or the office, please do contact either Richard Reid, the Convenor of the MSt/MPhil in History, or me. 

While graduate study can be very exciting, it can (and should) also be challenging. We hope most of the challenges you face at Oxford will be intellectual ones, but other challenges – whether financial, personal, or related to physical and/or mental health – are not uncommon. If you feel you’re struggling for any reason, don’t go it alone: we may be able to help. So do reach out to one of the people mentioned or the Faculty’s welfare lead, Maya Blackwell (maya.blackwell@history.ox.ac.uk). 

 

This handbook is intended to be a comprehensive guide to the teaching, assessment and administrative arrangements of the course (but please note that the formal rules governing the programme are set out separately in the University's Examination Regulations); it also contains useful information on other aspects of life in Oxford as a postgraduate historian. You can find further information about graduate matters on our Canvas pages. 

Once again, welcome to graduate work in history at Oxford. 

 

Dr Katherine Lebow 

Director of Graduate Studies in History 

 

1| Course Content and Structure

All course information can be found on Canvas.

The course extends over nine months and has three main parts:

  • The Core Courses (Michaelmas Term): a) Sources and Historiography; b) Theory and Methods
  • An Option Course (Hilary Term)
  • Dissertation (all year)

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.  

Michaelmas Term

TEACHING

Source and Historiography, Weeks 1-8

Theory and Methods, Weeks 1-6

 

COURSE-RELATED TASKS

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

Online Exam Entry by Week 8, Thursday (11:59pm). All students to complete online exam entry - Exam Schools will email you with details of how to do this. Please note that this is compulsory - Exam Schools charge a fee for late entries and modifications to exam entries.

Submit Methodology Essay title by Week 10, Friday (noon). A link will be circulated two weeks before the deadline for you to submit the titles of your essay.

 

ASSESSMENT

Submit formative essay (Theory and Methods) by Week 5, Friday (noon) to your course tutor.

Submit formative essay (Sources and Historiography) by Week 7, Friday (noon) to your course tutor.

Hilary Term

TEACHING

Option courses, Weeks 1-6

 

COURSE-RELATED TASKS

Submit Annotated Bibliography and Dissertation Proposal by Week 0, Monday (noon) via Inspera. See Section 2 [Submission & Assessment guidance] on how to submit. 

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 Methodology Essay by Week 0, Monday (noon) via Inspera. See Section 2 [Submission & Assessment guidance] on how to submit. 

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

 

Trinity Term

ASSESSMENT

Submit Dissertation by Week 9, Monday (noon) via Inspera. See Section 2 [Submission & Assessment guidance] on how to submit.

*Modification of your essay and dissertation titles is only possible up to five days before the submission deadline, and requires the permission of the course/option tutor or (for your dissertation) your supervisor. Once permission has been obtained, the new title should be sent to the Graduate Office by email (graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk).

Please note that most title changes that are approved are small adjustments to the title and/or focus of an essay or dissertation. Proposed title changes that radically alter the topic of a piece of work are unlikely to be granted approval at a late stage

Teaching

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

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: Additional lectures, classes or tutorials may take place over Michaelmas and Hilary terms to provide general historical or field-specific training in e.g. document or object handling, languages, paleography, etc. Medieval historians and some early modernists will be expected to work on Latin, palaeography, and diplomatic sources, whereas for other students, modern languages, oral history training, quantification or digital skills may be more important. Normal expectations will be set by strand convenors, and students should discuss their individual skill requirements with their supervisors.

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. 

Methodology Essay

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. The Methodology Essay is an opportunity to engage historiographic or conceptual issues rather than showcase first-hand research. 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 Methodology Essay counts for 20% of the final mark of the degree.

Information on the submission and assessment of the essay, including a detailed breakdown of the word count can be found here

For further advice on preparing your formative and summative essays, see Guidance on Essays for the Core Courses.

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

The Methodology Essay must be submitted via Inspera by Monday (noon) of Week 0 of Hilary Term.

Students take one Option paper (also called Advanced papers) in Hilary term, and should notify the Graduate Office 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.

Option papers will be provided by specialists in their 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.

Students are not limited to selecting an Option paper from their particular strand and may select an Option from another strand within the MSt in history without prior approval.

Candidates wishing to take an Option paper from another programme offered by the History Faculty, and exceptionally, by another Faculty or Department, may only do so with the permission of their Programme Convenor, the person responsible for the delivery of the requested option/advanced paper, and their  supervisor. Candidates  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. Class discussion and the creation of an intellectual community among students will be emphasised. 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

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 30% of the final mark of the degree.

During the admissions process you are assigned a supervisor to direct your intended individual research. During 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 of your coursework 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, as far 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  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 expect your dissertation to be distinct from coursework essays in 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 can use translation sources, 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.

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 week on preparing your dissertation project, and arrange to see your supervisor three or four times after the initial meeting

End of Michaelmas Term:

  • 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

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

  • Definitively identify and work with primary and secondary sources central to your proposed

  • master’s research

  • 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 January application deadline

Hilary Term

  • Finalise plan of work remaining for dissertation and agree this with supervisor
  • Revise the structure of your master’s dissertation in the light of this ongoing exploration
  • Expect to step up work on your dissertation project to about two days a week
  • Again, arrange to see your supervisor for about three sessions

Easter vacation/Trinity Term

  • Complete research, modifying plan and structure as necessary in process
  • Give a short presentation of your work to the student-led dissertation workshop that will be held early in Trinity Term
  • Produce draft – make sure draft is in supervisor’s hands in plenty of time for supervisor to comment (supervisors are not expected to comment on drafts received later than Monday of 6th week)
  • Revise in light of comments: make the most of the opportunity to work full-time on your dissertation up to submission, extensively consulting original sources and carefully revising your dissertation, giving it a tightly argued structure and presenting it in idiomatic English which makes it accessible to a non-specialist reader

You will need to submit 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 noon on Monday of Week 0 of Hilary Term.

You will need to submit a Dissertation Proposal of between 800 and 1,000 words, laying out the plan for your Master's dissertation. A Research Proposal should include:

  • 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 sources..

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. This advice is designed for DPhil students, but the conventions also apply for theses prepared for the MSt and MPhil qualifications. Students should bear in mind the difference of scale and depth between a Master’s dissertation and a doctoral thesis.

The Dissertation Proposal must be submitted by noon on Monday of Week 0 of Hilary Term.

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

The dissertation should consist of up to 15,000 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.

The Dissertation accounts for 50% of the final mark of the degree.

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 MSt 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 may be possible to change programme from the MSt to the MPhil, but this requires the approval of your supervisor, of the convenor of the MPhil progamme, of the Faculty’s Director of Graduate Studies, and of your College, subject to space and teaching capacity on the MPhil course, and consideration of your progress on the MSt. The MPhil is a separate programme, with a separate admissions quota, and admission to the MSt does not confer a right of admission to the MPhil (or to any other graduate course in the University). Please note that if you do change programme, this may have an effect on your funding and/or visa status. Applications to change programme must be made during Hilary term; if you are considering this, you should make inquiries as early as possible. It will not usually be possible to consider such applications after Friday of 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 can provide 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