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Updated: 12-Oct-2009

MA in Biography

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Biography booksThis cutting-edge programme is unique to Buckingham. It is aimed at anyone who has an interest in biography or in researching and writing biography for themselves. Graduates have gone on to publish their own books, and to win prizes. Some have embarked on further research for the MPhil or the DPhil in Biography. All have found that their lives enhanced.

The programme is more than ever relevant today when many people are finding their lives changed by recession are taking time out of the job market to sharpen their skills and enrich their interests.

When it was founded in 1996, the Biography MA was the first of its kind not just in the UK but in the cosmos. Since then Life Writing has become part of the postgraduate menu, but the Buckingham course has kept its distinctive edge. Unlike most Life Writing degrees, it is not linked to Creative Writing, and there is a strong emphasis on research and historical biography. The programme is consistently rated 'excellent' by external examiners and inspectors.

The course will be London based from October 2009. Guest seminars on the course will be led by leading biographers, critics, publishers and agents. Teachers and speakers on the course have included Andrew Motion, Kathryn Hughes, Frances Wilson, Frances Spalding, Jeremy Lewis, Rupert Shortt, Caroline Dawnay and Andrew Lownie.

Programme structure

The course runs for a calendar year, with entry points in October and January. Teaching takes place over three terms running from October to December, January to March and April to June.

Students have a choice between following the taught MA, or opting for the MA by Research. The taught MA gives an opportunity to produce written term papers on a variety of topics as well as a dissertation. Students taking the MA by Research are required to write an extended dissertation of up to 40,000 words.

All students on the MA Programme – both taught and research – are required to attend seminars. These classes are one of the most distinctive and valuable elements of the MA. The modules on Biography and Autobiography are designed to combine the study of classic biographies and memoirs with contemporary writing. In addition, the Research Methods module provides an invaluable and innovative training, especially devised for biographers.

What you study

One of the distinctive features of the programme is the value attached to the supervision which is provided for students working on dissertations. One-on-one supervisions are held every two or three weeks during term.

Professor Jane Ridley
Professor Jane Ridley
Programme Director

Programme director

Professor Jane Ridley founded the Buckingham Biography MA in 1996. She is an Oxford-trained historian and biographer, and her publications include The Young Disraeli (1995) and The Architect and his Wife: A Life of Edwin Lutyens (2002), which won the Duff Cooper Prize. She has contributed widely to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and she is a regular reviewer for publications such as the Spectator, the Literary Review and the Times Literary Supplement. She is currently completing a biography of Edward VII, for which she was awarded a research fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust.

Study options

The programme may be followed part-time over 2 years. In the first year part-time students follow the taught courses and the second year is normally devoted to the dissertation.

Full time: Yes
Part time: Yes
Award: MA
Entry points:
(Term dates)		 January & September
This is a 4-term programme, which takes 1 year to complete by full-time study or 2 years to complete by part-time study.

For more information, please contact:

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