MA Maritime History

• Year 1

• You can study MA Maritime History full time over one year or part time split across two years. Your studies consist of four modules, two of which are core: key debates and research methods in history – an assessment of current trends and methodologies in the discipline of history, and public history – an examination of the theory and practice of how the past is presented to public audiences. 

  You supplement these with two option modules, where you select the areas of history that interest you the most as you choose from the research specialisms of the history team.* 

  The programme culminates in an independently researched MA History dissertation.

  Core modules

  • Key Debates and Research Methods in History (MAHI700)

    This module will provide students both with an understanding of current debates about approaches, theories and methodologies in History and a grounding in research skills such as locating and using primary source material and making effective use of library and database resources.

  • MA History Dissertation (MAHI702)

    In this module students complete a dissertation on an aspect of history of their own choosing. The topic is negotiated between students and teaching staff, who provide tutorial support and advice about all aspects of the project from initiation to completion.

  • All at Sea: Research Skills for Maritime History (MAHI730)

    This module will provide students with an understanding of current debates about approaches, theories and methodologies in Maritime History and a grounding in core maritime history research skills such as locating and using primary source material and making effective use of library and database resources.

  Optional modules

  • Piracy and Privateering, 1560-1816 (MAHI704)

    This module explores piracy and privateering activity in the seas around the British Isles and further afield from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the end of the second Barbary War in 1816. This course focuses on the social history of piracy and privateering, the organisation of pirate society, and the economic impact of piracy and privateering.

  • Independent Research Project in History (MAHI718)

    A research project leading to an essay (8000 words), devised with tutorial supervision, in a field not offered in the History module options, or where the student has previously studied the topic within a module at BA level 6 and is consequently not permitted to take the MA option version (also, in exceptional circumstances where the module option timetable means that a student is unable to choose an option).

  • Anglo-American Relations in Maritime Perspective (MAHI727)

    This module introduces Masters students to the major themes of the history of British and American maritime strategy, naval competition, and international co-operation between 1775 and 1991. It challenges students to rethink the so-called ‘special relationship’ through a maritime lens, while providing an exploration of naval history and international relations since the beginning of the American Revolution.

  • Maritime Explorations and Encounters (MAHI728)

    This module challenges students to rethink their ideas about the use of navies in exploration, leading explorers such as Sir Francis Drake, Captain James Cook and Charles Darwin, the place of Plymouth in maritime exploration and the nature of encounters with native peoples.

  • Sea Power in History (MAHI729)

    This module examines the major concepts and themes of Sea Power. Exploring the role of sea power in war and peace from the ancient world to the 20th century, it challenges students to rethink ideas about the use of navies, the wider meaning of sea power, its place in politics and society, and ultimately to move beyond the primacy of battle in conventional narratives of the course of naval history.

  • Coastal Cultures: Marine Anthropology in the Age of Climate Change and Mass Extinction (MAEH703)

    Using a range of anthropological theoretical frameworks, this module analyses how coastal communities use the sea - not only as a source of livelihood, but as a key ingredient in the construction of their identity and place in world. Drawing on a range of ethnographic case study from around the world, we study how coastal communities are responding to climate change, climate change scepticism, sea level rise, pollution, and extinction. Through such debates, we examine how anthropology in general and marine ethnography specifically can contribute to the protection and management of endangered human and non-human life-worlds.

Every postgraduate taught course has a detailed programme specification document describing the programme aims, the programme structure, the teaching and learning methods, the learning outcomes and the rules of assessment.

The following programme specification represents the latest programme structure and may be subject to change:

MA Maritime History programme specification 6922