Sports History and Culture

Our well-established Sports History and Culture distance-learning MA will give you a firm grounding in the development of modern sport, from its traditional forms to present-day practices. This is a flexible and interactive programme that, thanks to its close links with the International Centre for Sports History and Culture (ICSHC), ensures your learning is at the cutting edge of research in this area.

You will investigate the origins of modern sport, examine its cultural and global significance, discover how sport can help us understand society and different communities, as well as consider how historians of sport can use primary sources. The scope of the course is global, not only analysing how modern sport spread from its British origins but also how other nations embraced sport within their own cultural contexts.

The course is set up in such a way as to allow you to personalise your study. Though there are multiple core elements, all students have a choice of module options, select where and when to undertake certain assignments within their chosen study pathway and can customise essays and, especially, dissertation topics to reflect their interests.

In this fully online MA degree, module materials such as written lectures and related reading and tasks are all placed in our Virtual Learning Environment – Learning Zone – at regular intervals. Though course staff will offer broad recommendations on when certain module tasks should be completed, and while there are set assignment deadlines to work towards, students have a great degree of freedom over how they approach and organise their study.

Though it is a distance-learning degree, course staff are easily accessible through video/phone calls and tutorials, email communication and, where practicable, in-person. You will also be invited to attend numerous seminars and conferences, such as those organised by the ICSHC and partnership groups such as the British Society of Sports History and the European Committee for Sports History. These partnerships, coupled with our academic team’s expertise and real-world experience, will provide you with a challenging and rewarding intellectual experience.

Alongside gaining a deep understanding of the history of sport, you will develop skills in independent research by producing sustained pieces of writing and primary source analysis assignments. As a graduate, you will be ideally placed for a career in sports writing, sport development, management, the media, teaching or to undertake PhD research.