Taught courses

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

Core courses

You will take two compulsory courses, which will provide a general introduction to graduate study in history and give you the opportunity to develop your research skills.

Course nameCredits
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 2024-2025

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

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

Course nameCredits
An uncertain world: the West since the 1970s20
Architectural Theory: Texts and Discourses20
Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Patristic and Medieval20
Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Reformation and Modern20
Education and Empire: Decolonising the Mind20
Enlightenment and Romanticism 1688 - 181520
Idolatry: Images and the Sacred in the Americas and Europe, 1400-1700.20
Intellectual History of the American Revolution20
Making Histories: Theories and Practices in Writing History20
Martyrdom, Monasticism and Mysticism: Women Writers of the Early and Medieval Church20
Picturing Authority: Art and Politics at the Tudor and Stuart Courts20
Religion and the Enlightenment: The Birth of the Modern20
Science, Knowledge and Expertise20
The European Enlightenments, 1670 - 182020
The Global Renaissance20
The Politics of History in the Arabic-Speaking World (c.1750-Present)20
Theology in the Long Reformation 1400-160020
Thinking with Things: History and Material Culture Studies20

Select between 0 and 40 credits of the following History courses

Course nameCredits
An uncertain world: the West since the 1970s20
Black Activism in Britain since 180020
Cinema and Society in England and Scotland20
Cinema and Society in South Asia, 1947-Present20
Conservatism in the United States, c.1930-c.199020
Constantinople: The History of a Medieval Megalopolis from Constantine the Great to Suleyman the Magnificent20
Contemporary Scotland20
Economic and Social Theory for Historical Analysis20
Gender, Crime and Deviancy: Scotland and England c. 1860-196020
Genocide in Contemporary History20
Global Environmental History20
Intellectual History of the American Revolution20
Making Histories: Theories and Practices in Writing History20
Nepotism and Venality: Corruption and Accountability in the Middle Ages20
Queens, Heiresses and Lords: Women Making Medieval Scotland20
Race, Religion, and Ridicule: The American South from Reconstruction to World War I20
Saints Cults, Pilgrimage and Piety in Scotland20
Scottish Reformation Culture, c. 1540-c. 164020
The Civil Rights Movement20
The Cold War in Latin America20
The European Enlightenments, 1670 - 182020
The Future of the Past? Doing History in the Digital Era20
The Global Renaissance20
The Medieval Indian Ocean: Climates, Communities and Commodities20
The Politics of History in the Arabic-Speaking World (c.1750-Present)20
The United States and the Cold War20
Thinking with Things: History and Material Culture Studies20

Select between 0 and 20 credits of the following online courses

Course nameCredits
British Empires, 1601-1948 (online)20
Debating Marriage Between Antiquity and the Middle Ages (online)20
Gender, Empire, and Labour in the Nineteenth Century: Perspectives from the Wider World (online)20
Myth and the History of Scholarship in Early Modern Europe (online)20
Race, Religion, and Ridicule: The American South from Reconstruction to World War I (online)20
The Closest of Enemies: Cuban-American Relations 1898-2014 (online)20
The Contemporary Theory of War (online)20
The Holocaust (online)20
The Lords of the Isles: Clan Donald, c.1336 - c.1545 (online)20
Theories of Empire in the Early Modern Period (online)20

Courses for those studying from September 2025 will be available from April 2025.

Teaching and assessment

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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 may also assess non-written skills. 

Further information

You can see more details about the 2024/25 programme structure on the Degree Programme Table for the MSc in Intellectual History. We expect the 2025/26 programme structure to be available from May 2025.