Careers and employability
Your MA is your first step towards exciting career pathways or further education. Our students have a very high level of employability and their graduate destinations are broad and varied.
Careers and employment
The transferable skills you acquire and finesse during your MA – such as research, analysis and presenting – are vital in the job market. Not only will you develop these skills throughout your programme, but you’ll also benefit from dedicated career support that gives you a further competitive advantage. Specialists in our careers department assist you with all aspects of job hunting. They offer events tailored to History students on a variety of subjects, from CV and application writing to networking skills development. And as a Russell Group university, we have unrivalled links with a variety of industries.
Many of our graduates have done or are currently doing PhDs or are in academia in London and other institutions, from Oxford and Cambridge to Berkeley and Yale. These include:
- Dr Jessica Patterson, Lecturer in the History of Political Thought, Fellow and Director of Studies, Magdalen College, University of Cambridge
- Dr Paul Sagar, Lecturer in Political Theory, King’s College London
- Dr Adela Halo, Lecturer in History of Political Thought, University College London
- Dr Alessandro de Arcangelis, Lecturer in Intellectual History, University College London
- Dr Signy Gutnick Allen, Department of History, University of Zurich
- Dr Elias Buchetmann, Lecturer in Early Modern History and Research Associate, University of Rostock
- Dr Xinxian Zhu, Assistant professor at the Institute of Philosophy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China
- Dr Max Skjönsberg, Assistant Professor of Humanities, University of Florida, Hamilton Center
- Dr Vanessa Lim, Assistant Professor, Seoul National University
- Dr Lisa Kattenberg, Assistant Professor in Early Modern Intellectual History, University of Amsterdam
Students have also gone on to work at a number of prestigious organisations, such as the BBC and at prestigious academic presses like Polity Press. They’ve secured roles as political advisers in Westminster, the European Parliament, and on congressional campaigns in the US at NGOs like Global Witness as researchers in finance in teaching.
Further study
While researching and writing your MA, you may discover a specific subject area that you would like to investigate at doctoral level.
Our PhD students benefit from the expertise of our academics, Queen Mary’s fertile research culture, and easy access to London’s best libraries, galleries, museums and archives.
What does a PhD involve?
- A PhD in History is an exercise in original and individual research, framed within a historiographical context.
- Full-time, a PhD takes three years, or six years at part-time.
- This challenging undertaking is an individual endeavour, but one which is supported by an expert supervisor. You will also have the encouragement of a mentor and the diverse research environment of the School.
Find out more about what a PhD involves.
PhD staff
Our academic staff are always available to assist with applications and offer guidance on looking for PhD funding and supervision. In many cases, PhD students meet their supervisors during their MA programme.
Our academic range of research expertise is second to none. They cover a huge variety of historical periods, themes, regions and eras. Full details are available on staff profile pages.