Key information
- Duration:
- Up to 4 years full time, 8 years part time
- Start date:
- Choose to start in September 2026, January 2027 or April 2027
- Apply by:
- 1 month before start (UK), 3 months before start (international)
“Sussex History’s reputation for cutting-edge scholarship allows you to complete a PhD to genuinely stand out from the crowd – original and distinctive, with unimpeachable scholarly authority.”
Professor Martin Francis Professor of War and History
Sussex is well-situated for accessing an extraordinary range of resources and documentary materials.
The Keep, a world-class archival centre on our doorstep is home to the German-Jewish archives, the papers of Rudyard Kipling and Leonard Woolf, and the , an unparalleled resource for the study of modern British history.
Sussex also has easy access to the British Library and National Archives in London.
Areas of study
We combine a long tradition in a field of scholarship pioneered at Sussex with a commitment to fostering new and emerging fields of inquiry.
Core supervisory expertise is offered in the following:
- all aspects of 20th-century British history
- the history of the United States
- trans-national and comparative histories of race
- gender history
- the histories of youth and popular culture
- the impact of war in the modern world
- German-Jewish history
- the history of emotion.
We particularly welcome outstanding applications that reflect Sussex’s distinctive interdisciplinary and comparative approach to historical research.
We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision. We’ll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities described in this prospectus. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to government or regulatory requirements, or unanticipated staff changes, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.