Economic and Social History
Postgraduate Experiences

Lauren Mackay - a Postgraduate student in Economic and Social History

As a, then, shy girl from a small town in the Scottish Highlands, moving to Edinburgh could have been a very frightening experience. However, studying at the University of Edinburgh has helped to make the city my home. I graduated in 2006 with an MA Scottish Historical Studies (Hons) and felt compelled to continue. After four years in Edinburgh, it was hard to imagine a better place to be a postgraduate. Living and studying in the capital meant having the National Library and the National Archives on my doorstep. It is easy to take this kind of access to resources for granted, but it is one of the major benefits of studying history in Edinburgh.

Starting my MSc

At the autumn of 2006 I began a MSc in Social and Cultural History, allowing me to concentrate on the areas of history that really interest me. The courses available were incredibly varied and appealing, even for someone like me with ‘eclectic’ tastes! The lecturers are passionate about teaching and allowed me to tailor the classes to my own preferences. This was entirely unexpected, but understandable when the breadth of knowledge covered by the staff in Economic and Social History is considered. Even with more ‘unusual’ research interests (my own research centres on attitudes towards death in Nineteenth Century Britain) there is always someone who can be recommended to give help and advice.

A close community

There is a sense of community as a postgraduate, with everyone sharing similar experiences and this means there is always someone around to talk to, even when you should be getting on with work. As well as that, you get to interact with others who genuinely love what they are doing and who, like you, have chosen to dedicate time to studying history. With the commitment and quality of the postgraduates and staff, there is a real feeling of enthusiasm for the subject; one which I think is unique to a friendly, student-orientated subject area like Economic and Social History.

Harriet Cornell- a Postgraduate student in Economic and Social History

In the summer of 2006, when I was coming to the end of my undergraduate History degree at Edinburgh and my friends were thinking about the world of work and job applications, I knew that I wanted to do pursue something different. I enjoyed the experience of my first degree immensely - from the courses I chose at Honours level to the buzz of living in a great Capital city - and the idea of staying on in such an environment appealed significantly more than fighting my way up the corporate ladder fresh out of an M.A.!

Opportunity and freedom

Although my degree was in History, throughout the four years I had spent as an undergraduate I had come to realise that it was the Economic and Social History courses I had taken that I had really enjoyed. Although I had previously considered myself a person of the British political world of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, increasingly the functioning of society in Early Modern Britain was an area that I wanted to investigate more and more.

The M.Sc. by Research programme offered by the Department of Economic and Social History presented the perfect opportunity and freedom to allow me to do this. I am currently working on the Kirk Session records of Early Modern Scotland between the Reformation of 1560 and the Act of Union of 1707 and specifically what the experience of Church authority can tell us about inter-personal relationships and the experience of life for different groups within society at this time.

Guidance and support

I cannot recommend the Department highly enough for its levels of guidance and support and the training courses that are on offer to first year research students have really stood out for both their relevance and helpfulness. Furthermore, the advantage of being a part of the School of History and the facilities it offers - such as the Postgraduate Resource Centre with its computers, comfy chairs and endless coffee and the newly-revamped History Society - are compounded by being part of a smaller Subject Area with the high level of personal care that that brings. I have found it to be a great combination, and in a city like Edinburgh with its great academic resources and picture-perfect surroundings any research student would count themselves very lucky!