MSc Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation

About the MSc programme

This programme, run jointly with the Government Department, focuses on the phenomenon of imperialism. A core course designed to provide students with a broad knowledge of empires from classical antiquity to the present day, is thus flanked with a wide range of specialist options from the Departments of Government, Economic History, and International History.

Students also develop highly transferable skills valued by employers and go on to work in the foreign service, the EU, political think tanks, risk assessment, journalism, the NGO sector, or stay on to take a research degree.

Students engage at an advanced level with the latest academic research in the field, and undertake their own research based term papers and third term dissertation.

Compulsory courses

• Empire, Colonialism and Globalisation
• A dissertation of no more than 10,000 words on an international history topic 

Options 

(* half unit)

Either two units from list A, alternatively one unit from List A and one unit or two half units from list B. Note that not all the courses listed will necessarily be available in any one year.

List A

• The Napoleonic Empire: The Making of Modern Europe?
• Anglo-American Relations From World War to Cold War
• Cultural Encounters from the Renaissance to the Modern World
• The Rise and Fall of Communism in Europe, 1917-1990
• Race, Violence and Colonial Rule in Africa
• East Asia in the Age of Imperialism, 1839-1945 
• The Origins of the Cold War, 1917-1962
• Crises and Détente in the Cold War, 1962-1979 
• Western Intellectuals and the Challenge of Totalitarianism
• War Cultures, 1890-1945 
• The Emergence of Modern Iran: State Society and Diplomacy
• From Cold Warriors to Peacemakers: the End of the Cold War Era, 1979-1999
• Media and Politics, 1890-c.1970/80 (UK, Germany and the US)
• Nusantara: State and Rebellion in the Indonesian Archipelago from the Colonial Period to Reformasi

List B

• India and the World Economy* 
• Economic Development of East and Southeast Asia
• Latin American Development: Political Economy of Growth*
• Latin American Development: Case-Studies in Growth, Poverty and Social Change* 
• Shipping and Sea Power in Asian Waters
• National and Ethnic Conflict Regulation* †
• Globalisation and Democracy*
• The West: Identity and Interests*
• Warfare and National Identity*
• War, Peace and the Politics of National Self-Determination* †
• Development: History, Theory, Policy
• Gender, Globalisation and Development: An Introduction*
• Gender, Postcolonialism, Development: Critical Perspectives and New Directions* 

Or

A course from another master's programme run by the Department of International History (subject to approval by the programme director) or a related course from another department (subject to approval by the programme director) 

† availability not guaranteed, but subject to space and by agreement with the course convener