Queen’s is one of the premier research centres globally for the study of Irish history and boasts a large and active team of researchers in this field. We have particular strengths in the history of Irish religion, politics, gender relations, social history, and Ireland's relationships with Britain and the wider world, economic development and thought, political ideologies, and the history of modern Ulster.

Our doctoral researchers benefit from a range of collaborations with research institutes both in QUB and internationally. History has a number of collaborative research initiatives with the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's and with other universities in Ireland, the UK and abroad, including Boston College, Vanderbilt and George Washington University. 

The Centre for Public History is a dynamic new development at Queen’s that involves historians with a variety of geographical and chronological interests; including PhD researchers undertaking internships and collaborations with bodies such as the BBC, Historic Royal Palaces and the Ulster Museum.

The History postgraduate community is centred around our weekly research seminars, in which students present their own research in a programme and which has also included historians from the universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Georgia, Glasgow, Princeton, UCL, Trinity College Dublin, and the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Our postgraduates present their work at conferences. Recent conferences have brought doctoral researchers from around the world to QUB; including Conferences on Anti-Communism (2019) and Activism in the USA (2020). Our postgraduates have published articles in Historical Journal, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Scottish History Review, Irish Historical Studies, Journal of American Studies, and History Ireland amongst other publications. 

As part of the AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership there are opportunities for co-supervised doctoral work with staff from Durham, Newcastle and other partner institutions.