MA/PDip in History 
MA/Dioplóma Iarchéime sa Stair 

Programme description Students taking the MA and the Postgraduate Diploma in History follow the same taught programme but only MA students write a dissertation. This programme aims to enhance students’ ability to explore and interpret the past. It seeks to increase their understanding of the nature of historical change and to deepen their understanding of other historical periods. Students are encouraged to critique representations of the past by academic and popular historians, by political activists and the media and to reflect on questions relating to commemorations.They acquire a range of investigative and interpretive tools that enable them to plan and carry out their own research, analyse and contextualise their findings, and present them in a scholarly manner.

All students take two core modules: Sources and Resources [15 ECTS] and Historical Debates and Controversies: Studies in Historiography [15 ECTS].  These are taught by historians working in medieval, early modern and modern history. 

Students take three optional modules [10 ECTS each]  from the lists below.  While these address a variety of themes and issues, they are particularly relevant to students interested in specializing in TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY, which studies the movement of peoples ideas and goods across national borders, and to those with a particular interest in LOCAL AND REGIONAL HISTORY.The core modules on the programme also address questions relevant to these two areas, among others.

We hope to be able to offer all the options listed above but cannot guarantee staff availability absolutely at this stage. All modules, apart from the last two, involve weekly seminars, generally two hours long.

How are these modules delivered?

Regional Identities and People on the Move: Studies in Migration are delivered differently as they are also available for MA students in the University of Limerick – see below for details.

How are these assessed?

These modules are assessed by a range of coursework assignments, including essays, portfolios, projects and presentations. 

Sources and Resources This team-taught module explores the ways in which historians have used a wide range of sources such as medieval charters and chronicles, estate rolls, memoirs, newspapers, government records, reports of commissions of inquiry and oral evidence. It considers questions such as the following: Who produced these sources? Why were they produced? In what context? Were they subject to censorship? Who was the target audience? What kind of research questions can we examine with such evidence?  What factors have affected the preservation of historical records? How can we study groups who have left few written records? What impact had developments such as mass literacy, television and the internet on the communication of knowledge and access to historical sources?

Historical Debates and Controversies: Studies in Historiography

This team-taught module examines perceptions of History as a discipline and methodological approaches to different periods and themes. It looks at perceptions of the groups, issues, events and periods considered worthwhile subjects for historical investigation and explores the role of ideology in framing historical questions. It examines case themes such as the following  closely: Decolonisation and Development; Gender and History; Comparative History; Counterfactual History; History, Conflict and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Key questions: why do historians disagree? Is “value-free History” possible? How important is empathy in historical investigations? Why do certain historical topics and come into and go out of fashion? What is the difference between modern history and journalism?  What challenges are involved in investigating conflict? Can historians make a contribution to public policy formulation?  Should they? How do historians approach commemorations?

Dissertation
All students carry out original research and produce a dissertation of 15,000-20,000 words. Students may research an area of their choice as long as the project they envisage allows them demonstrate the competencies being tested and an appropriate supervisor in the area is available. For information on History staff research interests click here.

OPTIONAL MODULES [10 ECTS each]

These options allow students to focus on Local and Regional History or Transnational History, or combine options in various fields.

The First Crusade and the Sources – Dr Kimberly LoPrete

This seminar examines the so-called ’First Crusade’ in its 11th- and early 12th-century context through close analysis of contemporary letters & narrative accounts of events (in translation), including several written by crusaders and some by Greek, Muslim and Jewish commentators. It opens with discussion of causes, from 'push factors' such as population growth, the peace movement, penitential pilgrimage and papal reform within Europe, to 'pull factors' such as realignments among competing Muslim polities & the Orthodox-Christian population of the Byzantine empire after Sunni-Muslim Seljuk Turks ’purified’ Baghdad & the Emperor Alexios I requested military aid. The main stages of the first crusade are then examined from participants' competing perspectives: Awareness of what cannot be known with certainty about this path-breaking enterprise is as important as what can be established on the basis of extant evidence.

Studies in Oral History – Dr Caitríona Clear

This course explores the potential of living people as a historical source.  It includes an examination of the history of oral history, an exploration of the differences between oral tradition and oral history (and what one can contribute to the other), the reliability and representativeness of oral history, the ethics of this mode of historical research, the ’I’ of autobiography, the difference between written and oral personal testimony.  Instruction will be given on practicalities like transcription, taping, question order and so on. As well as reading widely and preparing themselves for the interview situation, students  ’learn by doing’, carrying out their interviews early in the second half of the semester so that they can report back on them before the end of teaching.

Comparing Slavery, Antislavery, and Nation-Building: The Americas, the Atlantic and Europe – Dr Enrico Dal Lago

This seminar introduces you to the historiography and current debates on comparative history of slavery, unfree labour, antislavery, and nationalism in the Americas, the Atlantic and Europe, while also focusing on specific case studies.  The first part of the course starts with general considerations on the methodology of comparative history applied to slavery studies, and it then focuses on the comparative history of Atlantic slave trades and of slave societies in the Americas in the colonial period and in the Age of Revolutions (1770s-1830s).  The second part of the course deals with the nineteenth century and focuses on the “second slavery” in the Americas an contemporary forms of “free” and “unfree” labour in the Atlantic and Europe, on Atlantic Abolitionism and antislavery, and finally on slave Emancipation in the classic Age of Nation-Building (1830s-1880s) in the Euro-American world.

Irish Contacts with Europe, 1770-1973 – Dr Róisín Healy

This module addresses a neglected aspect of Ireland’s transnational past – its engagement with continental Europe after the extensive emigration that followed the early modern conquest of Ireland and before Ireland’s entry into the EEC in 1973. Students will evaluate the small, but growing, body of scholarship on Irish links with the continent and identify avenues for future research by means of analysis of primary sources. Key questions will include the movement of people to and from different parts of the continent, domestic responses to nationalist movements abroad, involvement in continental wars and diplomatic relations after independence.

Studies in the History of Imperialism and Colonialism – Dr Laurence Marley

This module offers an introduction to some of the key thinkers and concepts in the writing of British imperial history, with an emphasis on the economics of empire, Britishness and empire, colonialism and cultural formations, and de-colonization. Issues such as landed rights, class, race and gender will be explored in detail. Students are required to participate fully in class discussion and debate, and to make individual presentations based on readings of specific library and on-line texts, some of which will be available on the Blackboard site for the course.

Studies in Local History – Dr John Cunningham

This is a practical course in which participants will be enabled to ’do’ Irish local history for themselves. Students will learn how to locate, to interpret, and to contextualise a wide range of sources for Irish local history; they will become familiar with approaches that have been used in the study of Irish local history, and they will consider the applicability to local history of certain other approaches to historical writing, including ’history from below.’

Regional Identities

This is module involves blended learning: instead of weekly seminars, students attend two day-long workshops and on-line study.

This module introduces concepts of regional identity and explores various interpretive approaches. Students will examine the role of issues such as language, religion, history and geography in the construction of identity. They will consider the relationship between regions and states. Case studies such as the following will be examined in detail: Settlement in Early Modern Ireland: The Pale; The Ulster Question (plantation; unionism and partition) The West of Ireland (including the Gaeltacht), the Celtic regions and identities (Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany) and Regional identities in Central Europe.

People on the Move: Studies in Migration

This is an online-module offered by the University of Limerick.

This module introduces students to the key concepts and ideas of migration. It will examine the Irish experience of migration from a theoretical and experiential perspective, looking at concepts such as “push-and-pull” factors, “step-by-step” and “chain” migration, as well as assisted and involuntary migration.  Students will be asked to examine the factors and characteristics of Irish demographic movement in order to test the theories and explanations that historians, sociologists and geographers have offered. In addition, students will be expected to examine and critically evaluate primary source material, including emigrant letters and diaries, newspapers, official papers, census records and other material.

The application procedures and requirements for the MA in History and the Postgraduate Diploma in History are the same. For information on offer round dates see http://www.nuigalway.ie/postgrad/assessmentdates/

The minimum requirement is an honours degree with at least a 2:2 overall and at least 2:1 in History or cognate discipline.  U.S. students normally require a GPA of 3.5. Selection will be based on the applicant’s academic record and academic references testifying to academic ability and enthusiasm for history, as well as a satisfactory personal statement of approximately 500 words explaining why the applicant is interested in postgraduate studies in History.

Two academic references should be completed on the standard reference form that can be downloaded at: http://www.nuigalway.ie/postgrad/Downloads/referee_guidelines.pdf  These should be completed by the referees and returned to the applicant in a sealed envelope signed across the seal. The references and personal statement should be mailed to Postgraduate Application Centre (PAC), 1 Courthouse Square, Galway, Ireland.

History Contact:
Dr Mary Harris, History
School of Humanities
National University of Ireland, Galway
Email: mary.harrisnuigalway.ie
Tel: 00 353 91 493290
Fax: 00 353 91 494556

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