War: History and Politics MA (PGCert PGDip)

Why study with us? 

You should take this degree if you want to move beyond the familiar themes of conflict studies, and if you want to learn instead:

• the main ideologies and structural forces that have informed war-making since 1900 across the globe
• the most recent scholar theories from a variety of disciplines from across the humanities on the causes, forms, experience, and memory of war
• the ways in which war is promoted and normalised, and how you can challenge this.

Tuition

• Tuition is in seminar groups from a team of specialist researchers and lecturers
• Close supervision from your tutors.

The War: History and Politics MA is part of the Humanities Programme, giving you access to:

• a variety of option modules and modes of assessment so that you can pick what suits your particular interests and intellectual trajectory best
• an even greater number of open-access undergraduate lectures you might want to follow, to build up your knowledge in specific areas
• the lively and welcoming research culture of our Centres for Memory, Narrative and Histories and for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics
• a vibrant postgraduate student community, active in organising workshops and reading groups.

This MA also offers:

• flexible terms for part-time study
• easy access and established contacts to local and London-based archives, such as the Mass Observation archive in Falmer, and the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth.

Areas of study

There are two core modules, an option module and the final dissertation.

Core modules evolve around some key critical questions. What are the causes of modern wars and the ideologies behind them? How do modern states justify the use of military force and violence? How do societies under attack resist? How is it living and fighting in a war?

Core modules

Causes of War provides an advanced introduction to key theories in historical and political studies on the deep origins and short term causes and justifications of modern wars and violent conflicts, looking every week at a different case study.

Forms of Conflict looks in particular on how military power is imposed and sustained, and how it is resisted, using as case studies some of the most significant examples of occupation, resistance and anti-war movements across the globe. You will examine theories on imperialism, nationalism, civil war, wartime resistance, anti-colonialism, just war, pacifism, the bio-politics of war, drone warfare, terrorism and other topics from the last hundred years of warfare.

Option modules
Options for the MA are chosen from across the Humanities MA programme, giving you a wide variety of subjects to choose from.

Popular module choices among our students are:

• Cultural Memory
• Globalisation and Global Politics
• ‘Race’, Nation and Ethnicity
• Conflict, Security and Human Rights
• Public History and Heritage
• International Relations Theory
• Aesthetics and Philosophy
• Cultural Theory
• Philosophy and Critical Theory.

Final dissertation
For your final dissertation you can take advantage of the wide variety of specialisms that we cover across the Humanities Programme. Our external examiners have persistently praised the variety of topics covered by our students’ research projects. Recent examples include: Croatian Nationalism and the Fall of Yugoslavia in 1991; The Role of the United States in the 1973 Coup in Chile; A Critique of the Arguments for Intervention in the Recent Syrian Civil War; Gendered Violence: the Holocaust’s female victims.

War damaged buildings after the conflict in the former Yugoslavia

Meet the team 

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included in the fee, while studying a course in the School of Humanities are listed here.

• For a number of courses you will have the opportunity to attend field trips and off-site visits. These are optional and are not required to pass your course but under normal circumstances we would expect a budget of approximately £150 per year will cover the costs of particular trips. The amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken.
• You will have access to computers and necessary software, however many students choose to buy their own hardware, software and accessories. The amount spent will depend on your individual choices but this expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses.
• In most cases coursework submissions are electronic but you may wish to print notes and should budget up to £150 per year for printing.
• Course books are available from the university but you may wish to budget up to £200 to buy your own copies.

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships, as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2021–22.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Local area

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