Scottish History
Postgraduate Study

A key resource for research students is their supervisors. Members of staff in Scottish History offer expert supervision in almost all fields of Scottish history. Research students normally have two supervisors, of whom the principal supervisor is a specialist in the student’s field. The second supervisor is often a colleague working in a related field within Scottish History, but in some cases a second supervisor is appointed from elsewhere. This may be from one of the other subject areas within the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, or from further afield, such as Ecclesiastical History, or Law. For a list of potential supervisors, with information about their fields of interest, see the Staff pages.

Edinburgh postgraduates also have access to an extensive community of experts in Scottish history outside the university, employed by other public and private bodies across the city, including Historic Scotland. They find themselves at one of this wider network’s most important intersections: a weekly Scottish History research seminar that also attracts visiting scholars from elsewhere in Scotland and from other countries.

The postgraduate community

We organise an induction course in archives for all new postgraduates. Further training in research methods and palaeography is provided to those for whom it is appropriate. There is a research seminar programme, providing opportunities to compare notes and keep up with the latest findings of leading scholars. Many research postgraduates offer their own papers to the seminar, giving them the opportunity to try out their ideas before an expert audience.

Many PhD students have their own offices in a flat provided for the purpose at 18 Buccleuch Place. The flat has some networked computers and a shared kitchen. It also contains the offices of the Centre for Scottish Urban History and postdoctoral fellows. It is a lively research community. As well as these facilities within the Scottish History subject area, the School of History, Classics and Archaeology has its own Postgraduate Resource Centre.

Several of our current postgraduates have written about their postgraduate experiences.

Next: Applying for postgraduate study