ACADEMIC STAFF
Admissions
We admit around eleven students each year in total to study History, Ancient & Modern History, History & Economics, History & Politics, and History & Modern Languages. We do not at present admit students to read History & English.
The Course
The first part of the History course, leading to the Preliminary Examination at the end of the first year, comprises four papers, chosen in each case fromThe first part of the History course, leading to the Preliminary Examination at the end of
the first year, comprises four papers, chosen in each case froma wide range: British History; a thematic GeneralHistory course; a source-based Optional Subject;and Historiography (including a choice of papers based on foreign texts). The second part, called the Final Honour School, comprises a research-based dissertation; Disciplines of History (including historiography, comparative history, and source criticism); and four other subjects chosen froma wide range: British History, General History, asource-based Further Subject, and a Special Subject examined by means of an extended essay and a documents paper.
Please see here [History Courses | Faculty of History (ox.ac.uk)] for details of how the undergraduate degree in history works at Oxford. Students have access to an exceptionally wide range of expertise across the whole university during their degree, especially as they move into the more specialised and in-depth papers. In many ways, the culmination is the research dissertation undertaken in the third year. This dissertation gives students an opportunity to engage in primary research of their own choosing, and often proves to be the highlight of the course: in recent years topics from Brasenose students have included the significance of goats in early medieval northern England; witchcraft and the devil in early modern England; changing notions of an ‘ideal’ woman in 20th century France; the charismatic authority of Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh; and colonial impressions of Egyptian women’s dress in the 19th century. In 2020, two Brasenose History students won faculty-wide prizes for their dissertations in Black History and Modern European History respectively.
We encourage students to study a wide chronological range: during their three years at Oxford, students must choose at least one medieval, one early modern, and one modernWe encourage students to study a wide chronological range: during their three years at Oxford, students must choose at least one medieval, one early modern, and one modernpaper from the list of British and European andWorld History courses.
Teaching is by University lectures or classes and by tutorials, in or out of Brasenose College depending on the choice of subjects, plus some College classes. The various joint schools combine elements of the History course with papers in Ancient History, Economics, Modern Languages, or Politics, as the case may be.
Brasenose has a strong tradition with History, with notable Brasenose historians including Simon Schama. From the windows of our own pleasant library one can see the world-leading Bodleian library and the Radcliff Camera housing History Faculty library. Our own rare books collection includes some treasures, as depicted in the photos here.
Our core teaching staff cover a wide range of areas. Professor Alan Strathern teaches European and world history of the early modern period while his research ranges across global history,
especially concerning Asia. Professor Abigail Green specializes in modern European and international Jewish history. In addition, Dr Helen Gittos teaches early medieval history and her current research ranges from connections between England and Byzantium to leading a research project on the abbey of Cerne Abbas in Dorset. Professor Emily West specalises in early American history, especially slavery, geneder, and motherhood in the US South in the nineteenth century.
The College also has a number of very good graduate students studying for the MSt and DPhil in History. There is also a vibrant student-run History society — the Ashmole Society — which organises events throughout the academic year.
Read more about History at Oxford.
Read more about History (Ancient and Modern) at Oxford.
Read more about History and Economics at Oxford.
Read more about History and Modern Languages at Oxford.
Read more about History and Politics at Oxford.
Careers
Those who have read History here in recent years have entered a wide variety of careers in the professions. A number have gone on to postgraduate research and now hold positions invarious British universities. We find, in common with colleagues in other universities, that employers value a degree in History very highly as a preparation for careers of every kind.