Taught courses

You will take several courses across two semesters of teaching, including two compulsory courses and a range of optional courses.

Core courses

There are two required core courses for this programme: two history skills training courses (20 credits each), one in each semester, which are taken by all MSc students in History in the school.

The compulsory courses for this programme are:

Course name  Credits
Developing Historical Research20
Historical Methodology20

Optional courses     

You will choose a further 80 credits from a wide selection of optional courses, subject to availability. 

Option Courses 2025-2026

* * Please note that the list of courses below is provisional and subject to change.  

Further details and course information can be found on our Degree Programme Table.

Select between 40 and 80 credits of the following Contemporary History courses.

Course name   Credits  
A Modern History of Demographic Angst and Population Control20
An uncertain world: the West since the 1970s20
Cinema and Society in England and Scotland20
Ethnographies of the United States20
Genocide in Contemporary History20
Islamic Africa20
Muslims in Europe20
The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Nations in Collision20
The Civil Rights Movement20
The Cold War in Latin America20
The 'Dark Side': Dark Tourism and Difficult Heritages20
The Holocaust in History and Culture20
The Politics of History in the Arabic-Speaking World (c.1750-Present)20
War and Identities in Twentieth Century Britain and Ireland20

Select between 0 and 40 credits of the following History courses

Course nameCredits
A Modern History of Demographic Angst and Population Control20
An uncertain world: the West since the 1970s20
Beyond Feudalism: Economy and Society in the Global Middle Ages20
Capitalism and Slavery20
Cinema and Society in England and Scotland20
Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Patristic and Medieval20
Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Reformation and Modern20
Data Science for the Past: Statistical Thinking & Visualization20
Economic and Social Theory for Historical Analysis20
Genocide in Contemporary History20
Intellectual History of the American Revolution20
Islamic Africa20
Jewish Texts through the Ages20
Making Histories: Theories and Practices in Writing History20
Muslim Societies in Southeast Asia20
Muslims in Europe20
Nepotism and Venality: Corruption and Accountability in the Middle Ages20
Queens, Heiresses and Lords: Women Making Medieval Scotland20
Religion and the Enlightenment: The Birth of the Modern20
Scottish Palaeography 12th-16th centuries20
Scottish Reformation Culture, c. 1540-c. 164020
Studying Women in Late Medieval England: Sources and Approaches20
The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Nations in Collision20
The Civil Rights Movement20
The Cold War in Latin America20
The 'Dark Side': Dark Tourism and Difficult Heritages20
The Global Renaissance20
The History and Culture of Iran20
The Holocaust in History and Culture20
The Medieval Indian Ocean: Climates, Communities and Commodities20
The Nine Lives of the Medieval Church20
The Politics of History in the Arabic-Speaking World (c.1750-Present)20
Theology in the Long Reformation 1400-160020
Unfolding Afghanistan in a Globalised Context20
War and Identities in Twentieth Century Britain and Ireland20

Select between 0 and 20 credits of the following online courses

Course nameCredits
Before Scotland: The Transformation of Northern Britain in the First Millennium CE (Online)20
British Empires, 1601-1948 (online)20
Charlemagne and the End of Antiquity (Online)20
Islamic Africa (Online)20
Malfeasance and Misbehaviour in Finance - Perceptions and Realities, c. 1500 to the Present (online)20
Medicine and Society in Modern Britain (Online)20
Seeking 'Japan' in a Westernizing World: Revolution, Romance, and Imperialism, 1868 - 1945 (online)20
The Material Culture of Gender in Eighteenth-Century Britain (online)20
The Rise of Modern U.S. Conservatism (online)20
The School of Statecraft: History, Leadership, and Policymaking (online)20
The Shadow of Versailles: Europe Between the Wars, 1918-1939 (online)20

Courses for those studying from September 2026 will be available from April 2026.

Teaching and assessment

You will take a variety of seminar-style courses in small groups.

Most courses are assessed by means of an extended piece of written work, while some courses assess non-written skills. 

Further information

You can see more details about the 2025/26 programme structure on the Degree Programme Table for the MSc in Contemporary History. We expect the 2026/27 programme structure to be available from May 2026.