MSc in English Local History

The MSc programme draws on knowledge and skills acquired in many years of providing specialist classes in local history, and profits from close links with local, social and economic historians elsewhere in Oxford University.

The course is designed to combine a systematic training in historical research techniques with the study of a range of major local historical themes and the chance to undertake an individually researched dissertation. It will be relevant to potential or practising teachers, archaeologists, environmental planners, archivists, librarians, museum professionals and teachers in adult education, and indeed anyone wishing to pursue the subject for its own sake.

The programme is overseen by the University’s Continuing Education Board, and admission is through the Department for Continuing Education. All graduate students must apply also for membership of a college. Most choose to become members of Kellogg College, which caters particularly for part-time mature students and which is closely associated with the Department.

The Department’s graduate students are members of the Continuing Education Graduate School and have access to the full range of Oxford University’s library, archive and computing facilities.

The course in detail

The course is based at Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA. Some classes may take place at other venues in Oxford. Class details, reading lists and information about any field trips will be supplied when you have taken up your place.

Teaching and supervision on the MSc programme is provided by the Department’s University Lecturer, Dr Jonathan Healey, and specialist tutors from the Department and elsewhere in Oxford and further afield. An impression of the interests represented in the Department’s teaching and research supervision can be gained from the Advanced Papers currently offered as part of the Master’s course: Power and patronage in the later medieval localities; Kinship, culture and community: Provincial elites in early modern England; Poverty and the Poor Law in England, 1660-1800; Enclosure and rural change, 1750-1850; Religion and community in England, 1830-1914; The social history of English architecture, 1870-1940; the English suburb, 1800-1939.

Concepts and Methods: An Introduction to Research in Local History 
This part of the course introduces the principal theories and methods employed in local history. Teaching will be based on a study of secondary literature and original source materials. The aim is to enable students to understand uses and interpretations of data employed in the secondary literature, to begin to assess appropriate forms of data collection and analysis for their own researches, to use IT where appropriate, and effectively to present and integrate findings into historical writing.

Topics include:

• the development of local history as a subject
• theoretical issues for local historians
• the nature of historical evidence
• finding, extracting and organising historical information
• the strengths, weaknesses and potential uses of fieldwork, qualitative and quantitative source materials
• specific skills in the interpretation of maps, buildings and oral testimony as sources for local history.

Sources, Methods and Foundations in Local History 
All students take sources, methods and foundations in the early modern period in their first year, and choose between the medieval or modern periods in their second year. 

College affiliation

It is a requirement of Oxford University that Master of Science students are matriculated members of the University and one of its colleges. Masters students based in the Department for Continuing Education are encouraged to apply to become members of Kellogg College. In previous intakes almost all students on this course have chosen to join Kellogg. Continuing education and life-long learning in Oxford have been formally linked to the collegiate system of the University since 1990, when Kellogg College, the University’s 36th college, was established. Kellogg College is specifically geared to the needs of mature and part-time students.

Libraries and computing facilities

Registered students receive an Oxford University card, valid for one year at a time, which acts as a library card for the Departmental Library at Rewley House and provides access to the unrivalled facilities of the Bodleian Libraries which include the central Bodleian, major research libraries such as the Sackler Library, Taylorian Institution Library, Bodleian Social Science Library, and faculty libraries such as English and History. Students also have access to a wide range of electronic resources including electronic journals, many of which can be accessed from home. Students on the course are entitled to use the Library at Rewley House for reference and private study and to borrow books. The loan period is normally two weeks and up to eight books may be borrowed. Students will also be encouraged to use their nearest University library. More information about the Continuing Education Library can be found at the Bodleian website. 

The University card also provides access to facilities at Oxford University Computing Service (OUCS), 13 Banbury Road, Oxford. Computing facilities are available to students in the Students'Computing Facility in Rewley House and at Ewert House. 

Application details

Prior to applying, prospective applicants are encouraged to contact the course team.

Please visit the course page on our website for details of course fees and costs, funding opportunities and how to apply.