History and English
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. She is currently 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 Paulina Kewes, Fellow and Tutor in English, took her DPhil at Jesus College, Oxford in 1996. She was the J. A. Pye Junior Research Fellow at University College, Oxford (1995-97) and held positions as Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (1997-2003) before returning to Jesus College as a Tutorial Fellow in 2003. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an Associate Member of the Centre for Early Modern British and Irish History at Oxford. Paulina’s research interests are in early modern English literature, especially drama, historiography, and ideas of authorship and plagiarism. Her publications include Authorship and Appropriation: Writing for the Stage in England, 1660-1710 (Oxford University Press, 1998) and two edited volumes: Plagiarism in Early Modern England (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and The Uses of History in Early Modern England (Huntington Library Press, 2006) as well as numerous articles on Shakespeare, Dryden, literary translation, and early modern drama. Paulina teaches English literature from the Renaissance to the Romantics, including Shakespeare, and also contributes to interdisciplinary courses for Classics and English and English and Modern History. She is a member of the steering committee of the Centre for Early Modern Studies at Oxford.
Dr Marion Turner, Fellow and Tutor in English, teaches the Old and Middle English papers (roughly the 7th to the 16th centuries), and has particular interests in late-medieval secular literature, especially Chaucer. Her first book - Chaucerian Conflict - was published by Oxford University Press in 2007 and she has also published many articles on Chaucer, Usk, and late-medieval political texts. Marion is currently editing a volume for Blackwell’s on the relationship between theory and Middle English literature, and is also working on literature and medicine, and on place and literary production in the late fourteenth century. For more information click here. Dr Turner will be on leave for the academic year 2011-2012.
Lecturers
Dr Conrad Leyser is a Fellow and Tutor in History at Worcester College. His interests lie in the religious and social history of the Latin West, 300-1100; law, memory and narrative.
Dr James Williams is a Career Development Lecturer in English. He teaches in the period 1740 to the present, and has research interests in eighteenth- to twentieth-century poetry, prosody, bibliography,translation, the English Bible, and the works of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.
About the Course
History and English is a Joint School which allows undergraduates to inform themselves about, and to participate in, many of the most exciting theoretical and practical debates in historical and literary studies. It is a challenging course covering many of the areas where the latest research is transforming the parent Schools. Both the History and English tutors are committed to interdisciplinary teaching and research, and to the expansion of the Joint School. Dr Kewes is Chair of the Joint Standing Committee for History and English and both she and Dr Gajda teach interdisciplinary bridge papers for History and English.
Teaching takes the form of tutorials and classes, many of which will be organized and taken by the Fellows and Lecturers of the College. You will also receive tuition from Fellows and Lecturers of other colleges, especially on the History side of the course. Attendance at, and production of work for, tutorials and classes is compulsory, and must be given priority over all other activities. The University organizes courses of lectures which cover the syllabus, but which are not compulsory, and which are not designed to prepare candidates for a particular examination paper. Tutors will, however, be happy to advise undergraduates concerning which lectures are likely to prove most beneficial.
The first year examination is taken in June at the end of the first year. On the History side, candidates must offer a period of British history, and either an optional subject, chosen from a wide range of options; or Historiography; or Foreign Texts. On the English side, two papers must be offered. The first of these is a general introduction to literary studies. For the second paper, candidates may choose Victorian Literature, Modern Literature or Old English Literature. All papers are taught through a mix of tutorials, small classes, and faculty lectures. 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.
In your second year you will study two interdisciplinary papers (chosen from three options) which enable you to study these by associating the literary and historical approaches to evidence. These are taught by historians and literary specialists in shared university classes. One such course offered at present is Representing the City, 1558-1640, which is co-taught by Dr Paulina Kewes and Dr Ian Archer. The five other papers have to include a history period and a period of literature and then more specialist options drawn from one or other side of the syllabus.
The Final Examination (FHS), is taken at the end of three years. Candidates take seven papers in total.
There are opportunities to write a 15,000 word thesis instead of, or in addition to, one of the five papers, and an extended essay can be written either for one of the English special options or as a replacement for the three-hour examination in one of the interdisciplinaries.
Cultural and Intellectual Life
Students at Jesus find themselves welcomed into a serious, lively, and good-humoured academic community with every opportunity to discuss their thoughts in tutorials, seminars, and College events. Students reading for the joint school of History and English enjoy the benefits of two subject societies:
The Herbert English Society provides a forum for exchange of ideas and discussion of literature, criticism, and the arts. The Society invites poets, playwrights, novelists, academics, journalists, and cultural historians. Our recent speakers have included Marina Warner, Philip Pullman, Bernard O’Donoghue, Craig Raine, Hermione Lee, Sally Shuttleworth, William St Clair, Blair Worden and the acclaimed poet Geoffrey Hill.
Jesus College students also run a lively History association, the J. R. Green Society, which is the oldest student History Society in Oxford. It hosts informal talks and organises a number of social events each year. Recent speakers have included Ian Kershaw, Peter Heather, Martin Kemp, Rana Mitter, Hew Strachan and Peter Hennessey.
Joint Schools
History and English can be taken as separate degree courses as well as together as a joint course.
Admissions
Successful candidates will read widely, will enjoy writing and talking about history, literature and language, and will be interested in pursuing a comparative approach to historical and literary texts.
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, taken at school in November, will comprise two passages for commentary, and will be used to help to determine which candidates will be interviewed. Further details can be found at Faculty of History website. NB Candidates for History and English will not be required to take the English Literature Aptitude Test (ELAT) as they take the History Aptitude Test instead.
For History, candidates will be asked to submit one piece of written work, which will be used for discussion at interview. For English, candidates are required to submit two recent essays.
Candidates will usually be given at least two interviews, one with the History tutor or tutors in the college, and one with the English tutor or tutors. In the English interview, the candidate may be asked to discuss a piece of prose or verse, provided before or at the interview.
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 and an A in English literature or English Language and Literature). 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 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.
The Graduate School of the Oxford Faculty of English is large and dynamic. The following degrees are offered at postgraduate level:
- MLitt or DPhil English Language and Literature
- MSt in English Language and Literature
- 650-1550
- 1550-1780
- 1780-1900
- 1900-present day
- MPhil in English Literature and Language 650-1550
Although the History and English 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.
Preliminary Reading and Further Information
Further information about History and English at Oxford can be found on the Faculty of History and Faculty of English websites. Information about admissions is available on the University's Undergraduate Courses pages.