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.

We pay great attention to the delivery of our MA programme. Attending this degree you will receive: 

• tuition in small seminar groups from a team of specialist researchers and lecturers
• close supervision from your actual 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.

Soviet propaganda from the Cold War

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

Staff profiles 

International requirements

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

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.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2019–20.

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/EU 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.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.

You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. 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. Before you apply check with the school that provides your course using the contact details in the Find out more tab (at the end of this page) for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.

See our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps

Accommodation

University building

City campus map