War: History and Politics MA (PGCert PGDip)

Course in brief

The MA in War: History and Politics is an interdisciplinary programme that focuses on modern history. It brings together current scholar debates from a range of specialist areas, exploring the causes, experience, effects, and memory of all important wars and conflicts of the last hundred years.

Looking at political, cultural and social history, this MA is for those who want to study war in all its multi-faceted complexity, from the everyday and the personal, to the national and the global. We offer expert teaching and supervision on British, European, American and Middle Eastern modern and contemporary history.

The main conflicts you will cover are: the First World War and the Second World War; the Balkan Wars of the 1910s and the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s; the wars of Decolonization and those of New Imperialism; the Cold War and its ‘side-wars’; the War on Terror and the current conflicts in the Middle East.

Key facts

Location Brighton: Grand Parade

Full-time 1 year

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Please make sure that you meet the entry requirements before applying. If you have any questions the course team will be happy to help.

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Entry requirements

The entry requirements listed here are our typical offer for this course if you wish to begin studying with us in 2017. They should be used as a general guide.

We operate a flexible admissions policy – this means that you could receive a lower conditional offer than the typical offer, informed by our assessment of your complementary non-academic achievements and experiences. For courses that require interview or portfolio review, this may also be considered in the level of any conditional offer that follows if your application is successful.

Degree and/or experience
Normally an undergraduate degree or equivalent. Appropriate accredited modules completed as part of other masters degrees (or their recognised equivalent) are taken into consideration in judging which elements, if any, need not be completed. Prior learning will also be accredited as appropriate.

For non-native speakers of English
IELTS 7.0 overall and 6.5 in writing.

Other
You will normally be interviewed so that we can assess your potential to study at masters level. For the Certificate of Seminar Attendance, candidates will normally be admitted with an undergraduate degree or equivalent.

International equivalencies

International equivalencies by country

Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

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

Visit our language institute

For English language preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For academic preparation courses.

Course in detail

Why study with us?

Studying this degree you will acquire expertise on:

War and conflict studies
Modern international history
Interdisciplinary learning and researching

You will be taught in a truly interdisciplinary manner, utilising a number of disciplines: cultural and social history, politics and international relations. You can build the degree structure that suits best your interests and future plans.

You can specialise in particular disciplines, or you can explore a wide range of new methods. You will also have the choice of three different types of elective work (e.g. extended essays or primary-source based seminars). Our students can also use the nearby world-famous Mass Observation archive. They also tend to be involved in the events and research projects run by the University of Brighton’s Understanding Conflict cluster, such as our latest initiative on ‘Contesting Britain at War’.

We offer flexible modes of study for those with personal or professional commitments. After finishing the MA you will be able to pursue a wide range of careers as well as opportunities for further postgraduate research.

Soviet propaganda from the Cold War

Areas of study

There are two Core Modules that you will have to take, one on the forms and one on the legacies of war. ‘Forms of Warfare and Violent Conflict’ examines the lead up to war and what is happening in wartime. It looks at: the political, ideological and wider structural causes of war; the human experience at the home-front and at the war-front; the politics and methods of warfare as they have evolved in time; the different modes of practical, political, and intellectual resistance against invasion and occupation. ‘Legacies of Warfare and Violent Conflict’ looks at the impact of war, at what is left after a conflict: the emotional and personal effects of war; how a conflict continues to exist on material and psychological landscapes; the multiple ways through which personal, collective and global memories of killing and sacrifice are constructed; the politics of what we decide to remember and what to forget; the activist, political and theoretical efforts to stop war from happening again.

Beyond the two Core Modules you can also pick a number of option courses that relate to you interests, for example: Public History and Heritage; Cultural Memory; ‘Race’, Nation and Ethnicity; Globalisation and Global Politics; Conflict, Security and Human Rights; Genocide; International Relations theory; Aesthetics and Philosophy; Cultural Theory; Philosophy and Critical Theory. Alternatively you might want instead to research and write a stand-alone extended essay, or you may opt for a more practical-based unit on teaching and learning higher education, offering you the opportunity to learn more about undergraduate teaching.

You will also take a Research Methods module that will help you develop the academic skills necessary to engage in the 20,000-word Dissertation, for which you are guided by one of our faculty with subject expertise.

War damaged buildings after the conflict in the former Yugoslavia

Staff profile

Dr Eugene Michail
Course leader

Dr Eugene Michail is the course leader of the MA in War: History and Politics. He is a senior lecturer in contemporary European history, specialising on Germany, Greece and the Balkans, and on transnational themes. He is currently writing on the political aims of the Greek Resistance against Nazi occupation, while his new project is on the history of migrants and refugees in modern Europe. His book The British And The Balkans: Forming Images Of Foreign Lands, 1900-1950 was published in 2011.

Some of his recent publications on the themes of war and conflict are:
‘The Balkan Wars in Western Historiography, 1912-2000’, in Katrin Böckh and Sabine Rutar (eds), The Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Experience, Perception, Remembrance (Palgrave: 2016)
‘Western Attitudes to War in the Balkans and the Shifting Meanings of Violence, 1912-1991’, Journal of Contemporary History, 47/2 (2012), 219-39 ‘“A Sting of Remembrance!”: Collective Memory and its Forgotten Armies’, in Jessica Meyer (ed), First World War and Popular Culture (Brill, 2008), 237-57.

Careers and employability

Our graduates are particularly well-equipped to follow career paths in sectors that deal with violent conflicts, their consequences and resolution, such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the Ministry of Defence, and international bodies (e.g. United Nations).

Much more broadly our degree opens the path to sectors that value critical research skills and a good knowledge of modern history and politics, such as media and journalism, politics and government, museums and archives, and publishing.

Working in schools and in academia are, of course, standard options. Alternatively, many of our students go on to study for Doctorates with one of the Research Centres in Brighton.

Fees and funding

Your fees

UK/EU (full-time) 6,120 GBP

International (full-time) 14,490 GBP

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.

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2017–18. Tuition fees are payable for each year that you study with us.

Where UK/EU students are subject to regulated fees, the annual fee increase cannot exceed the UK government’s maximum regulated tuition fee limit set for the relevant year. For all other students, ie those not subject to regulated fees, tuition fees are subject to a maximum annual increase of the higher of 5% or RPI.

You can find out more about our fees in the 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- 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.

Location and living here

Location

About Brighton

Brighton has been called the happiest place in the UK, and it’s easy to see why. With five miles of pebble beach, more than 300 pubs and a packed festival calendar, Brighton is the ideal place to spend your student years.

Arts and culture: The Royal Pavilion is the most famous landmark in Brighton, opening its doors to around 400,000 tourists every year. Right next door is the Brighton Dome, the south coast’s premier multi-arts venue, and the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, which holds a diverse collection of decorative arts, textiles and archaeological artefacts.

Festivals: The Brighton Festival is now the largest arts festival in England and a major milestone in the international cultural calendar. Meanwhile, The Great Escape has been established as the UK’s leading event for new music, with over 300 bands playing 30 venues across the city over three days.

Nightlife: Aside from the many nightclubs that line the city’s seafront, student favourites include The Haunt, Concorde 2 and Patterns, which attract leading bands and DJs from around the world. If you don’t feel like dancing, you can take your pick from the many hundreds of pubs and bars that dot the city centre.

Shopping: The quirky North Laine district houses Brighton’s finest collection of boutique shops and independent cafes, while the narrow, winding streets of the South Lanes house collections of jewellery and antiques. Churchill Square is the city’s main shopping centre and serves all of your high street needs.

Sports: Brighton’s seaside location offers the perfect opportunity to try paddle boarding, kayaking and windsurfing. Further into the city, The Level has a skate park for skateboarders and BMX riders to practise their skills.

Campus where this course is taught

Grand Parade campus

Our Grand Parade campus is in the heart of Brighton, across the road from the Royal Pavilion and a five-minute walk from the beach. After your lectures you’ll be right in the city centre, close to all the best pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes that Brighton has to offer.

The campus is home to a creative community of arts and humanities students, specialising in everything from fashion and textiles to politics and philosophy. It is also the location of the University of Brighton Gallery and Sallis Benney Theatre, which host events throughout the festival season and beyond.

The world-renowned University of Brighton Design Archives are in the basement of Grand Parade and offer extensive resources for the study of British design in the twentieth century. St Peters House, the campus library, is also nearby and houses a specialist collection of arts books and journals.

Accommodation

Brighton

Our Brighton halls of residence are located across the city in Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb, Varley Park and Falmer.

Our Grand Parade campus is in central Brighton and has one hall of residence, Phoenix Brewery, within walking distance. We have around 300 rooms available in Phoenix Brewery, which are all ensuite and self-catered.

Moulsecoomb is two miles from the city centre and also has one hall of residence, Moulsecoomb Place, on campus. All accommodation in Moulsecoomb Place is catered, offering breakfast and an evening meal during term time. There are more than 150 rooms available here, with six to eight rooms per flat.

Varley Park offers the biggest choice of student accommodation with ten halls of residence. The site is four miles from Brighton centre but within walking distance of Falmer train station.

Falmer campus has two halls of residence: Great Wilkins and Paddock Field. Great Wilkins offers 150+ self-catered single rooms and one-bed couples flats, while Paddock Field offers 450+ catered and self-catered single rooms only. All rooms in Falmer are en-suite.

Aside from halls, you have the option of Unihomes, which we let out to our students on behalf of private landlords. The rent covers all utilities and includes £5,000 of contents insurance for your personal belongings.

You can also choose to join the many students who live away from campus in private rented accommodation. We have a list of high-quality, university-endorsed private sector accommodation and can help you find housemates to move in with.

Find out more on our Brighton accommodation webpages and if you have any questions, our accommodation team will be happy to help. You can contact them by email at accommodation@brighton.ac.uk or by telephone on 01273 644100.

Paddock Field