Postgraduate research degrees in history
With support from our expert staff, deliver specialised research that informs our present and shapes our future.
Why study history at York?
Our research output is diverse, from the soundscapes of medieval cathedrals to contemporary histories of migration. We collaborate closely with heritage organisations, NGOs and policymakers to ensure that our research makes a difference on an international scale. You'll be supported by our expert academics to develop specialised research on your topic of choice.
Study with us and join a thriving academic environment that also benefits from the broader historical activities at York. Collaborate with other historians, students from different disciplines across the University, and other institutions internationally.
Our courses
- History (MPhil and PhD)
- History (PhD by distance learning)
- History by Practice (PhD)
- History (MA by research)
Or search all postgraduate research courses.
Areas of research expertise in the Department
The expertise of our Department covers a wide range of topics, time periods and geographical areas. We welcome applications from candidates whose proposed project aligns well with the expertise held in the Department. You should approach a potential supervisor to discuss their project idea at an early stage to get feedback and advice. You can see the list of supervisors and their research interests here.
Please only contact one person at a time. If you are not sure who to contact then please email the Chair of the Graduate Schools Board, Dr Sabine Clarke (sabine.clarke@york.ac.uk)
Visiting postgraduate researchers
Spend up to a year in York as a visiting research student from a university outside the UK.
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Scholarships and funding
Find out about scholarships and studentships that are available to students in the Department of History.
Careers
- You'll benefit from our Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past (IPUP), which draws together researchers, students, practitioners and communities to deliver innovative research through public lectures and student internships.
- You'll have the opportunity to work with our topic-based research centres and networks, helping you develop distinguished research. Our period-focussed interdisciplinary Centres - the Centre for Medieval Studies, the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, the Centre for Modern Studies - will enable you to explore wider perspectives and different approaches to the study of societies and cultures.
- We work closely with heritage organisations, NGOs and policymakers to develop research that has real-world impact. Find out more about our recent research projects.
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- Anna Adima (2022) The influence of globalisation and decolonisation on women's writing in English in 1960s Kenya and Uganda
- Jane McRae Campbell (2022) Utopian dreams, colonial realities: changing visions of society and culture in early modern utopian literature, New World colonial projects and settlements, 1516 – 1717
- Jinming Yi (2022) Bureaucracy, Legitimation and History: A Study of the Civic Records of York, c.1270-c.1370
- Declan McCormack (2022) Theatre and Associational Life in Northern England ca. 1760 to 1815
- Joshua Scarlett (2022) Instruments and Their Makers: a study of experiment, collaboration and identity in seventeenth-century London
- Lu Chen (2021) China in the Worldwide Eradication of Smallpox, 1900-1985: Recovering and Democratizing Histories of International Health
- Susira Dolamulla (2021) Reconsidering middle-Income country approaches to a global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) problem: A case study of Sri Lanka
- Thomas Flowers (2021) The Reform of Christian Doctrine in the Catechisms of Peter Canisius
- Huw Foden (2021) A hagiocentric early middle ages? Theodulf of Orleans' theologies of res sacratae and relics in the Opus Caroli as a test of the paradigm
- Alison Gaines (2021) The problem of church government and emergent presbyterianism in the Long Parliament, 1640 – 1643
- Tali Kot-Ofek (2021) Appearance, citizenship and clothing controls in Britain, 1939-1951
- Cheng Li (2021) Projecting Law Reform: Jeremy Bentham’s networks in Hanoverian Britain, c.1790-1830
- Elizabeth Marsh (2021) The Impact of the Decline of the Cleveland Ironstone Industry
- Thomas Shillam (2021) Socialist Internationalism in South and Southeast Asia, c1947-1960
- Robert Smith (2021) Legislating for the four nations at Westminster in the age of Reform, 1830-1852
- Aidan Collins (2020) Bankruptcy in the Court of Chancery, 1674-1750
- Amy Creighton (2020) Labouring Bodies: Gender, Work and Skill in Early Modern England, with Special Reference to Yorkshire, c. 1660-1750
- Catherine Rose Hailstone (2020) Fear in the Mind and Works of Gregory of Tours
- Maria Fernanda Lanfranco-Gonzalez (2020) Women’s Activism and Feminism in the Chile Solidarity Movement
- Sidney Ross (2020) Establishing the authentic corpus of the Latin verse of Paul the Deacon; a philological, textual and statistical study
- Nigel Sheppard (2020) The Social Anatomy of a Beeching Railway Closure A Case Study of Goathland and the Whitby Area 1963-65
- Sophie Vohra (2020) Railways and Commemoration: Anniversaries, Commemorative Cultures and the Making of Railway History
- Harriet Beadnell (2019) Veterans of the People’s War – The Representation and Identity of Second World War Veterans since 1945
- Arnab Chakraborty (2019) Medical Transformation in Madras Presidency: Military and Civilian Perspectives (1880-1935)
- Yiyun Ding (2019) Yang Yinyu (1884-1938): China's First Female University President and the Educational Reforms in Her Era
- Sky Duthie (2019) The Roots of Reform: Vegetarianism and the British Left, c.1790-1900
- Antony Ford (2019) The rise and fall of an independent service provider on Britain's Railways: A transport business history, 1910-1964
- Rachael Hardstaff (2019) Heresy and aristocracy in thirteenth-century Languedoc
- Bethany Hume (2019) The idea of medieval heresy in early modern France
- Hannah Jeans (2019) Women's Reading Habits and Gendered Genres, c.1600 - 1700
- Sarah Jensen (2019) Representations of the Dead: Cultures of Memorialisation in Early Modern England, 1660-1770
- Daniel Johnson (2019) Spectacles of Punishment: Representations of Poverty and Punishment in British Prison Museums
- Florence Mok (2019) Political Culture and Policy Making in British Hong Kong, c. 1970-80
- Joshua Ravenhill (2019) The Experiences of Aliens in Later Medieval London and the Negotiation of Belonging, 1400-1540
- Stephanie Williams (2019) Between Art and Journalism. The importance of the artist’s self-image in the French illustrated press, 1881-1914
- Claire Benson (2018) Boundaries of belonging in early modern London, 1550-1700
- Devin Dattan (2018) Adventure, Empire and Representation in the Writings of British Professional Adventurers, c. 1880-1914
- Carolyn Dougherty (2018) The carrying trade and the first railways in England, c1750-c1850
- Jennie England (2018) The Crown-Wearing Abbeys of Westminster, Winchester, and Gloucester in text and written record, c.1100-1170
- Sarah Hartley (2018) The Role of Maternal and Child Health in Decolonisation in Fiji 1945-1970
- Victoria Hoyle (2018) Who Do Archives Think They Are?: Archives, Communities and Values in the Heritage City
- David Jones (2018) American Polities: Statecraft in Post-Revolutionary Argentina and the United States, 1776-1828
- Joanna Lunt (2018) Water marginalised: findings in international, British colonial, and post-colonial health discourses c. 1925-1975
- Annamaria Valent (2018) Early modern Anglo-Iberian food and recipes:transmission, reception, identity
- Benjamin Walker (2018) Reframing International Health and Development: Medical Mission in Ghana, c.1919-1983