Graduates

Introductory Graduate Training Programme

Michaelmas

Cambridge for beginners

Presented by Dr Lawrence Klein and graduate representatives. Monday 17 October 2011, 2.00-3.00. Seminar Room 11, Faculty of History
An informal question and answer session for graduate students who are new to Cambridge.

How to give an academic paper

Presented by Professor Peter Mandler. Tuesday 18 October 2011, 2.00-3.00. Boardroom, Faculty of History

Tackling overseas libraries and archives

Presented by Dr Hubertus Jahn. Wednesday 26 October 2011, 2.00-3.00. Boardroom, Faculty of History
If you plan to work away from Cambridge, come along and find out how to handle the experience.

Plagiarism

Presented by Professor Christine Carpenter. Wednesday 2 November 2011, 4.00-5.00. Seminar Room 6, Faculty of History

Plagiarism can be unintentional as well as intentional. Both types of plagiarism may be punished severely. Unintentional plagiarism is often the result of bad note-taking as early as the first term of research. You are all therefore strongly advised to attend this session.

Good Research Practice

Presented by Dr Phil Withington. Tuesday 22 November 2011, 2.00-5.00 (originally scheduled for 9 November). Seminar Room 11, Faculty of History

In this session, we will address how we, as Historians embarking on graduate research work, plan and organise our time in order that we make optimal use of time, skills and resources and see our research to completion. We will consider such issues as:

Asking Good Questions – how we find good questions which can guide our research work
Finding Documents – where is the material most relevant to our research; how do we access it and use it to best effect
Searching for Information – tools and techniques for the historian in the 21st century
Taking Notes – how to save time when researching
Arguing and Telling Stories – understanding ‘problematic’ and constructing historical arguments
Positioning Yourself Relative to Others – historiography and the place of your work in the context of others’
Drafting, Editing, and Revising – seeing your research to completion and producing a, readable, dissertation.

The presentation will be followed by a discussion of research projects and there will be ample time for questions.

Cambridge Processes

AHRC Awardholders briefing session

Presented by Miss S Willson. Thursday 20 October 2011, 4.00-5.00. Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History
An informal session for all AHRC awardholders detailing important points and requirements attached to the awards. ESRC awardholders should contact the Degree Committee Office by email. Note: Applicants for AHRC/ESRC funding should attend the session on 3 November.

Leave to Continue

Presented by Miss S Willson. Thursday 27 October 2011, 4.00-5.00. Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History
An informal session for all current MPhil students, at which the procedures for applying for leave to continue to the PhD at Cambridge will be explained.

Graduate Funding

Presented by Miss S Willson. Thursday 3 November 2011, 4.00-5.00. Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History
An informal session for all graduate students who are considering applying for graduate doctoral funding. A brief outline of what is available will be explained followed by the opportunity to ask questions. AHRC Awardholders please attend the session on 20 October.

Cambridge University Library Training

These sessions might be of interest to history graduate students. For a full list of the University Library's training programme and to book a place on any of these sessions, please consult the UL website .

Social and Political Science Resources: Tuesday 11 October 2011, 2:30pm, Morison Room, UL
Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) Collection. Presented by Rachel Rowe. Wednesday Wednesday 12 October 2011, 2.15. Meet at 2.10 outside the Rare Books Reading Room, University Library.
The University Library and Online History Resources: Thursday 13 October 2011, 11.00am. Morison Room, UL.
International Relations: Thursday 13 October 2011, 2:30pm, Morison Room, UL
Parliamentary Resources: Tuesday 18 October 2011, 2:30pm, Morison Room, UL

Specific collections in Cambridge

Pepys Library, Magdalene College. Presented by Dr R Luckett. Monday 31 October 2011 at 2.00 (limited to 20 places).
Churchill Archives Centre. Presented by Ms Sophie Bridges. By individual appointment only. Please telephone 01223 336166 or email archives@chu.cam.ac.uk. Churchill Archives Centre is a major resource for the study of twentieth century history. It houses the personal papers of approximately 600 individuals, mainly politicians, civil servants, diplomats, military personnel and scientists, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. It also has a small reference library - the Roskill Library - of biographies and books on twentieth century political and military history.

Lent

Plagiarism

Presented by Professor Christine Carpenter. Tuesday 24 January 2012 4.30-5.30pm. Seminar Room 6, Faculty of History.

Repeat of Michaelmas session.

Publishing an article

Presented by Professor Megan Vaughan and Dr Joya Chatterji. Tuesday 21 February 2012, 2.00-3.00. Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History
Publication is of course the essential step towards academic fame and fortune, or at least, employment. A first publication is probably the most difficult, and also may be for you the most urgent. Publication in a respected refereed journal is probably the quickest and most direct way of making your mark as a significant scholar. Yet journals vary greatly in their range, prestige, readership, standards and waiting time. This session aims to give you some basic information about publishing a major article, and also to suggest some ways of choosing the right journal to approach and tailoring your work appropriately. It also points out some other ways of getting academically into print.

Monographs will be tackled in a different session for final year PhD students. As graduate students many of you will be thinking about publications. One aim of this session is to explain the processes of refereeing in scholarly journals, in order to help you think about preparing some of your own work for publication in article form. Many young scholars are also interested in writing reviews. This session will also discuss the importance of reviewing, and what makes a good review article. Booking not required, please just turn up.

Applying for fellowships: application procedures

Presented by Professor John Morrill. Wednesday 29 February 2012, 3.00-4.30. Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

The seminar will consider: applications for Oxbridge junior research fellowhips, ESRC, AHRC and the various IHR fellowships; the rather different things that the various bodies are looking for; how to pitch a successful application; how to avoid the common pitfalls and how to avoid squandering your research fellowship if you get one. The seminar will be focussed on practical issues concerned with maximising your chances of success.

Graduate Seminar Training Day (mandatory for 1st year PhD students)

Thursdays 16 February and 23 February 2012, 2.00-5.00.
Details on these sessions can be found here.

Publishing your first book

Presented by Michael Watson and Elizabeth Friend-Smith (Cambridge University Press). Tuesday 13 March 4.00-5.30. Seminar Room 6, Faculty of History.

Liz Friend-Smith and Michael Watson describe the changing global context of academic publication in today's digital environment, and give some specific practical guidelines for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows as they contemplate book publication for the first time. Liz and Michael have over twenty years publishing experience between them at Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, I.B. Tauris and Penguin and are responsible for the Press's publishing in British and European history from the middle ages to the present.

Preparing for the Registration Assessment Exercise (1st year PhD students only)

Presented by Dr Lawrence Klein . Thursday 15 March 2012, 2.00-3.00. Seminar Room 6, Faculty of History
The Registration Assessment serves a serious educational purpose, namely, to provide substantial advice and constructive criticism to students about their planned PhD project in a formal setting. It may, in certain circumstances, also become an examination in its own right, since its purpose is to confirm that satisfactory progress has been made, and that the research project can feasibly be completed within the appointed time-span. This is an informal session, so students should feel free to raise questions and discuss problems. Full details of the timing and requirements of the Registration Assessment Exercise are provided in the PhD Course Handbook.

Easter

Applying for grants: application procedures

Presented by Professor John Morrill. Tuesday 24 April 2012, 5.00-6.30pm. Faculty of History

Applying for research grants involves quite different processes and evaluation criteria from applying for research fellowships. The seminar will discuss: who is and is not eligible to apply to each body; how to get round not being eligible; how to cost applications; how to pitch applications to maximise your chance of success; how to avoid being crucified if you succeed in getting a grant (by promising too much). The seminar will be focussed on practical issues concerned with maximising your chances of success without paying too high a price.