Programs for Modern British History

[jocelynbymarcjacobs]

Hi all. Hope this admissions cycle brings great things for you.

I am looking to apply to a PhD program, specializing in Modern Britain with a focus in cultural and social history. I have a particular interest in post-WWII London and the Swinging Sixties. Does anyone have any recommendations for programs and professors who work primarily in this area? I have a short list going, but would appreciate any input. I will be applying in Fall 2019. 

Thank you!

[TMP]

@gsc should be good resource here.... since there aren't overwhelming numbers of British historians in the US, you may be best served to seek a British historian and an Europeanist doing cultural history (perhaps French or German). 

[gsc]

14 hours ago, TMP said:

@gsc should be good resource here.... since there aren't overwhelming numbers of British historians in the US, you may be best served to seek a British historian and an Europeanist doing cultural history (perhaps French or German). 

Exactly this. It’s likely there will only be 1 British historian where you are, so I’d recommend looking for a program with a strong modern European history field more generally that you can draw on. That goes not just for putting your committee together and getting feedback from professors (I work fairly closely with my dept’s French and German historians) but also for the department culture- a stronger field means more classes offered, more invited speakers coming through the department, more students working on similar ideas, etc. At the very least look for somewhere with at least one or two other European cultural historians.

For modern Britain and cultural history I think the biggest names are likely Columbia, Berkeley, Michigan, Northwestern, and NYU. Columbia and NYU have a consortium with Cambridge where grad students from the schools can all meet and network, etc. As with anything in graduate school, though, it depends on fit, and fit depends on your thematic interests and your approach to postwar London- if you’re interested in empire, urbanization, gender, race, etc.

Also all very good and strong in cultural history are Minnesota, UIUC, UCSB, Rutgers, UNC, Indiana, if you haven’t given any of those a look. There are of course others, and more than a few MA programs (though you said PhD) so I’d recommend grabbing the most recent program(s) from NACBS, the big British studies conference, and studying it to see who’s all where and what programs people are coming out of.

Edited February 19, 2019 by gsc