History
Academic Staff
Fellows
Professor Patricia Clavin is a Fellow and Tutor in History at Jesus. She has written books on the history of international economic diplomacy between the two world wars, the history of the Great Depression in Europe and the history of Europe from 1789 to the present (with Asa Briggs). She has also published some thirty articles and book chapters on the international history of the twentieth century. The research for her current book project, Bread and Butter Internationalism and the League of Nations, 1919-1945, was funded by a large research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and in 2008 Patricia was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship by the British Academy for this work. From 2006-2010 she served as Research Director of the Modern European History Research Centre in the History Faculty, and from 1999-2006 served as an editor of Contemporary European History. Patricia teaches the history of Britain and Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and offers specialist teaching on the history of the two world war wars and the history of international and transnational co-operation in the first half of the twentieth century.
Dr Alex Gajda is also a Fellow and Tutor in History at Jesus. She read history at New College. She researched her DPhil in Oxford under the supervision of Susan Brigden and was a JRF at St Anne’s College, Oxford. She has taught at Royal Holloway, University of London, and at the University of Birmingham where she also served as head of the Centre for Reformation and Early Modern Studies. She has published on the political, religious and intellectual history of early modern Britain and Europe and her new book Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex will appear in the Oxford Historical Monographs Series in 2011. Alex teaches sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British and European history, with specialisms on Tudor politics and religion, and religion, literature and politics in the early modern period.
Dr Susan Doran is a Senior Research Fellow in History at Jesus College. She teaches early modern (c1400-1700) British and European undergraduate papers, and her research specialism is in Elizabethan religion and politics.
Dr Hugh Doherty is a Hugh Price Fellow at Jesus College, and held a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Medieval History at the College between 2008 and 2011. He teaches undergraduate options up to c1300, and his research interests cover 12th-century rulers and their officials; acts, deeds, charters, and seals in the British Isles and Europe (1000-1300); the Angevin kings; and the English Exchequer.
Lecturer
Dr Conrad Leyser is a Fellow and Tutor in History at Worcester College, who also teaches at Jesus College. His interests lie in the religious and social history of the Latin West (300-1100); law, memory and narrative.
About the Course
The History School is among the largest at Oxford, and the undergraduate intake for the University is 300 each year, not counting the large number of students engaged in postgraduate research. There are over 100 members of the History Faculty, most of them teaching the subject.
The very extensive library resources of the University - the Bodleian Library, the Faculty Library, the separate and well-stocked college libraries - enable a wide variety of optional courses to be offered and enable the student to pursue his or her own scholarly interests in depth.
Structure
I The Preliminary Examination ('Prelims')
Those reading History take the Preliminary Examination in June at the end of their first year. This comprises four separate courses or 'papers'.
One of these is a section of British History, chosen from the seven papers that cover the period from the early Middle Ages to the present. Jesus students will take either Paper IV, 1500-1700, or Paper VII, 1900 to the present.
Another paper is a period of General History, covering European and extra-European history. Here you will choose one of four papers, covering periods from the third century to the nineteenth century.
The third paper is an Optional Subject, which will give students the opportunity to study a theme in some depth, using original documents as well as secondary sources. This will be taken in the third term of the year, and students will have plenty of time to choose between subjects when they have settled into Oxford.
The fourth paper will be studied over the first two terms, in parallel with the other papers. Here there is a choice between a paper in historiography and a series of papers on foreign-language texts. The purpose of these papers is two-fold: first to encourage students to reflect on the different ways in which history may be studied; second to develop skills in quantitative method or language that may be of value to his or her subsequent work.
The examination is intended only to consolidate your work at the end of the first year and the result does not count towards the final degree classification.
II The Final Honour School (FHS)
The second and third University years are examined in the last summer term of a student's career. In the Honour School, seven papers are taken. One of these, the comparative and historiographical paper entitle 'The Disciplines of History', is taught in college seminars or 'classes', supported by university lectures. A mixture of tutorials, lectures and some university classes are given for work in five of the other papers. These include:
- The outline papers covering aspects of British History and General History. You can choose to study one of the former and one of the latter. The General History papers for the FHS cover not only European History, but American History periods and one paper on Europe and the Wider World.
- A so-called Further Subject (one paper) which examines in greater depth some aspect of General or British History. The choice here is wide and includes in its twenty-one options such topics as Seventeenth-Century English Society, The Near East in the Age of Justinian & Muhammad, The Comparative History of the First World War and Imperialism and Nationalism 1847-1963. The course includes some study of primary sources.
- A Special Subject (two papers). One paper is on set texts, one involves larger themes and is examined by extended essay. There are now 26 options to choose from, spreading chronologically from St Augustine to The Great Society, on America in the 1960s.
The last 'paper' is a compulsory dissertation of up to 12000 words, prepared, under tutorial guidance, on any subject of a candidate's choice.
Within the general framework of the History School, there are opportunities to take subjects which might at other universities be studied under separate disciplines - e.g., the History of Architecture, Art History, or the History of Literature. There is breadth as well as depth in the course.
Students are taught largely by tutorials (which take place at least once a week in the first two years) and by lectures. Classes at both college and university level are also an essential part of the teaching programme. The lecture courses are very numerous; each term the list of lectures being offered covers several pages. Lectures are voluntary; tutorials and classes are compulsory. The latter are particularly important as the major form of teaching on the Further and Special subjects in the second and third year. The emphasis of the degree course is on the need for each student to learn for himself or herself, primarily by reading, but also by friendly discussion of written work with a College tutor or within a class group.
Much teaching for the course is done by the Jesus College History tutors, but the wide range of optional topics makes it necessary for all historians to go also to tutors in other colleges, so each student has quite a variety of academic contacts during his or her three years.
Historians normally produce two or three tutorial essays a fortnight in their first year. During the second and third year, when the more specialised work is done, this changes to an average of one a week. Much of the penultimate term is assigned for the writing of the dissertation. Oxford terms are on the short side - eight weeks - so in the vacation students are expected to do a good deal of reading and to consolidate work undertaken during term.
Jesus College students also run a lively History association, the J.R. Green Society, the oldest student History Society in Oxford. It hosts informal talks and organises a number of social events each year.
Joint Schools
In these courses a candidate is allowed to concentrate more on one side of the course than the other. The examination structure is similar to that of the main school. Prelims are taken at the end of the first year, and consist of four papers drawn from the two disciplines with added language examinations in the case of History and Modern Languages.
NB History and Modern Languages is a four-year course including a compulsory year abroad during the third year. It is important that you advise your LA or other funding body from the outset that you will be taking a four-year course.
It is usually possible to construct optional papers in such a way that the two disciplines in these joint schools complement and reinforce one another. It is worth warning that those who wish to do History and Modern Languages should normally have an A-grade in one or two foreign languages before contemplating this course. Those taking History and Economics should have an interest in Mathematics, and an A2 level in Maths is desirable.
Admissions
We would normally expect an A2 or AS level in History. The other subjects do not matter especially, though an A2/AS level in a classical or modern language is of particular use. For those reading Joint Honour Schools, please see above.
Candidates are selected on the basis of academic record (e.g. GCSEs) and potential, as shown by their UCAS reference, submitted written work, performance in the History Aptitude Test (HAT) and in interviews if shortlisted. The History Aptitude Test will comprise two passages for commentary, and will be used to help to determine which candidates will be interviewed. Further details about the History Aptitude Test can be found on the the History faculty website. Candidates will also be asked to submit one piece of written work which will be used for discussion at interview. About 80% of candidates will be interviewed.
In a total College entry of about 100 undergraduates, 8 are offered places in a typical year to read History and related joint schools. Offers made to pre-A level candidates will be conditional upon A level results (normally AAA, with an A in History). Offers made to post-A level candidates will usually be unconditional.
Deferred Entry: Applications for deferred entry to Jesus College are welcomed. You must apply for deferred entry at the time of application to Oxford: you cannot change your mind after an offer has been made. Please refer to departmental web sites for subject-specific advice. You should be aware that applicants who are offered places for deferred entry will generally be among the strongest of the cohort for their subject. We would not usually offer more than one or two deferred places per subject in order not to disadvantage the following year's candidates. In some cases, an applicant for deferred entry may be offered a place for non-deferred entry instead. If you require any further advice, please contact the Admissions Officer.
Postgraduate Studies and Careers
The Faculty of History offers a range of taught graduate courses at master's level and two research programmes leading to the degrees of Master of Letters or Doctor of Philosophy. In addition to the traditional fields of historical research, in political, social, and cultural history, History at Oxford embraces more specialised areas, such as medieval history, economic and social history, the history of science, medicine, and technology, and the history of art.
Although the History degree is not vocational in any strict sense (and many students undertake the course for reasons of sheer intellectual pleasure) it does equip students with a set of transferable skills applicable to many careers.
Historians are used to the sifting of large quantities of often conflicting information; they are skilled in the evaluation of differing interpretations; they are trained in presenting complex issues in a lucid and convincing fashion; their verbal and critical skills are highly developed. These qualities have enabled generations of Oxford historians to excel in a wide range of careers. Oxford historians typically move on to careers in business, the law, investment banking and consultancies, advertising, accountancy, the civil service, publishing, journalism and the media, global charity work, museums, librarianship and archive work, and teaching.
Historians at Jesus seem to enjoy the course, even though it involves a lot of sustained work. Not every student is enthralled by every topic he or she studies, but the combination of unity and diversity, and the chance (especially in the final year) to get down to really detailed work on primary sources, make it a rich and varied degree programme.
Preliminary Reading and Further Information
One good way of broadening your historical horizons is to read one of the History magazines: History Today or BBC History.
History Off The Shelf (HOTS) is a site run by Oxford history students featuring videos of lectures and talks, blogs and resources.
Further information about History at Oxford can be found on the Faculty of History website. Information about admissions is available on the University's Undergraduate Courses pages.