Postgraduate Programmes in the SCHOOL of HISTORY and CLASSICS www.shc.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate Newsletter for Prospective Students in 2007/08, Issue 3, March 2007
‘Hello’ from the Head of School, Professor Douglas Cairns
to a vibrant and expanding scholarly community. American History in Focus In each edition, we will give you some details about developments in one of our programmes. In this edition, we are focusing on American History. Programmes in American History The MSc in American History is one of our newest degrees, expected to have its first intake in session 2007/08. The School has a strong record of supervising PhD students in a variety of areas of American History, and there is a lively cohort of current PhD students in this field. Conferences The School recently hosted the 8th Conference of the Scottish Association for the Study of America, organised by Kirsten Phimister, a current PhD student. It was held in the university's Old College on 2 March and, in part, marked the retirement of Professor Rhodri JeffreysJones, a founder of the association. See also the British Association for American Studies website, http://www.baas.ac.uk/. Edinburgh is also hosting the 2008 conference of the British Association for American Studies which will take place at the university between 27 and 30 March 2008. Please read more about our American History activities on our American History micro-site. http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/Am ericanHistoryFurther.htm
These are exciting times for the School of History and Classics at the University of Edinburgh. For one thing, we're about to become the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology (from August 2007). This will make us the largest unit of its type in the UK and a major centre for the study of human culture from the earliest periods to the present day. The benefits of this for postgraduate students are obvious: wide choice of topics and options and great depth of supervisor expertise. Increasingly, we offer programmes and courses at postgraduate level that make use of the specialisms of colleagues from right across the School, from Classical Art and Archaeology, though Gender Studies, Intellectual History, and Material Culture, to First Millennium Studies and Slavery and Forced Labour Studies, all new and innovative programmes that unite colleagues from several of our constituent areas. With new Professors in Classical Archaeology and in Social and Economic History starting in August 2007, and new appointments at more junior levels in other areas, we look forward to welcoming you
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Views from a current student Adam Burns, Current First Year PhD, American History I am a first year PhD American history student, and completed the MSc (by research) at Edinburgh last year. In terms of resources, the University library has a good collection, and the nearby National Library of Scotland provides a great supplementary collection. The American history staff are friendly and very supportive and, along with other postgraduate students, provide a great academic community for any new postgraduate student. In addition to this, the Department of History currently runs a bi-weekly American history reading group and a bi-weekly group to discuss work in progress. Since coming to Edinburgh University in 2005, I have found it really easy to get involved in university life, and as well as the clearly lively academic environment, the social and extracurricular aspects are equally accessible New Staff Appointments The School is delighted to announce the appointment of two new early career lecturers to permanent posts in History. Dr Paul Quigley (Lecturer in American History) has a BA in American History from Lancaster University and has just completed his PhD ('Patchwork Nation: Sources of Confederate Nationalism, 1848-1865') at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is currently working on a monograph based on his doctoral dissertation. Dr Monica Azzolini (Lecturer in European History) is currently Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of New South Wales, Australia. A graduate of La Cattolica, Milan, Monica holds an MPhil and a PhD ('Leonardo in Context: Medical Ideas and Practices in Renaissance Milan', 2002) from the University of Cambridge. She is the author of 4 articles, including 'In Praise of Art: Text and Context of Leonardo's Paragone and its Critique of the Arts and Sciences', Renaissance Studies 19 (2005), 487-510,
which won the Renaissance Society essay prize for the best essay published in 2005. Her next project is a monograph on the role of medicine and astrology in the politics of fifteenth-century Milan. The School is currently recruiting for a lecturer in Archaeology, and a Computing Officer. New Publications by our Staff
Religion and the Origins of the German Enlightenment: Faith and the Reform of Learning in the Thought of Christian Thomasius by ThomasAhnert
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British Universities Past and Present Robert Anderson The Campbells, 1250-1513 by Steve Boardman The Burgundian Renaissance: Court and Civic Society in the Low Countries by Andrew Brown Thomas Jefferson: Reputation and Legacy by Frank Cogliano The Politics of Self-Expression: the middle-class milieu of early 20th century India and Pakistan by Markus Daechsel Clearance and Improvement: Land, Power and People in Scotland, 1680-1914 by Tom Devine Henry I, King of England and duke of Normandy by Judith Green Women Police: Gender, Welfare and Surveillance in the Twentieth Century by Louise Jackson Hitler's Home Front: Württemberg under the Nazis by Jill Stephenson School of History and Classics Awards Five Fees Only Awards (UK/EU rate) (Masters Programmes) The awards are open to applicants for all taught and research Masters programmes, and will cover tuition fees at the home fee rate. Successful applicants who are required to pay the overseas fee rate will be liable to pay the difference between the home and overseas fee rate. You must either have been accepted for postgraduate study in the School or be in the process of making an application You are strongly advised to apply also to either the AHRC or the ESRC, whose awards cover both fees and maintenance. Applications should be made by letter stating the degree for which you wish to study and a statement of your intellectual and research ambitions. Applicants should also submit a CV, a copy of their academic record and two academic references. Applicants for MSc by Research programmes should include a research proposal; applicants for taught MSc programmes should submit a relevant piece of written work in place of a research proposal. These should be sent to:
Richard Kane, PG Administrator, School of History and Classics, The University of Edinburgh William Robertson Building, Rm 100, 50 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9JY Other Funding Opportunities For full details of the main sources of postgraduate funding opportunities, and links to other more specialised funding, as well as relevant application deadlines, please refer to the funding section of the School’s postgraduate pages. Details of some specialist funding sources, predominantly relevant to research students, can be found below (press ctrl+click to activate the link). The Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies invites applications for its dissertation grants. Grants are available for scholars whose research requires use of the library's collections on the history of women in America. The deadline is 5th April 2007 http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles/grants/diss ertation.php The Prize of the German Historical Institute London is awarded annually for an outstanding Ph.D. thesis on German history (submitted to a British university), British history (submitted to a German university), Anglo-German relations, or an Anglo-German comparative topic. The Prize is 1,000 Euros. The deadline is 9 November 2007. For further information, see http://www.ghil.ac.uk/ This is just a selection of potential funding sources – others are on the web.
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