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. 

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.  

You will be able to choose from two sets of optional courses, subject to availability. 

One set will allow you to study a language relevant to the degree (Latin, Arabic or Persian). 

The other set contains courses that reflect the research specialism of our medieval historians. There is also an opportunity to select up to two courses from all available postgraduate history courses

 

Option Courses for those students who started in September 2025 were:

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

Medieval History MSc - Skills courses

Select between 0 and 60 credits of the following skills courses

Course name   Credits  
Advanced Latin (PG) 120
Advanced Latin (PG) 220
Elementary Latin (PG) 120
Elementary Latin (PG) 220
Arabic 1a for PG Credit20
Arabic 1b for PG Credit20
Arabic 2a for PG Credit20
Arabic 2b for PG Credit20
Persian 1A for PG Credit20
Persian 1B for PG Credit20
Persian 2A for PG Credit20
Persian 2B for PG Credit20
Scottish Palaeography 12th-16th centuries20
Turkish 1A for PG Credit20
Turkish 1B for PG Credit20
Turkish 2A for PG Credit20
Turkish 2B for PG Credit20

Medieval History MSc - option courses

Select between 20 and 60 credits of the following Medieval History courses

Course nameCredits
Beyond Feudalism: Economy and Society in the Global Middle Ages20
Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Patristic and Medieval20
Jewish Texts through the Ages20
Nepotism and Venality: Corruption and Accountability in the Middle Ages20
Queens, Heiresses and Lords: Women Making Medieval Scotland20
Scottish Palaeography 12th-16th centuries20
Studying Women in Late Medieval England: Sources and Approaches20
The Global Renaissance20
The History and Culture of Iran20
The Medieval Indian Ocean: Climates, Communities and Commodities20
The Nine Lives of the Medieval Church20

Students could choose up to two courses from the courses on offer to all students studying postgraduate history.

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
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

*A maximum of one online course can be chosen.

Select between 20 and 60 credits of the following skills courses:

  • Arabic 1a for PG Credit
  • Arabic 1b for PG Credit
  • Arabic 2a for PG Credit
  • Arabic 2b for PG Credit
  • Elementary Latin (PG) 1
  • Elementary Latin (PG) 2
  • Intermediate Latin (PG) 1
  • Intermediate Latin (PG) 2
  • Persian 1A for PG Credit
  • Persian 1B for PG Credit
  • Persian 2A for PG Credit
  • Persian 2B for PG Credit
  • Turkish 1A for PG Credit
  • Turkish 1B for PG Credit
  • Turkish 2A for PG Credit
  • Turkish 2B for PG Credit

Select between 20 and 60 credits of the following medieval history courses:

  • Constantinople: The History of a Medieval Megalopolis from Constantine the Great to Suleyman the Magnificent
  • Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Patristic and Medieval      
  • Mariners, Monks and Mobility: the archaeology of the early medieval Atlantic Archipelago
  • Nepotism and Venality: Corruption and Accountability in the Middle Ages
  • Pretext, Context and Intertext: Navigating Viking Culture, Then and Now
  • Queens, Heiresses and Lords: Women Making Medieval Scotland
  • Saints Cults, Pilgrimage and Piety in Scotland
  • The Future of the Past? Doing History in the Digital Era
  • The Global Renaissance
  • The Medieval Indian Ocean: Climates, Communities and Commodities    

Select between 0 and 40 credits of the following history courses:

  • An uncertain world: the West since the 1970s
  • Black Activism in Britain since 1800
  • Cinema and Society in England and Scotland
  • Cinema and Society in South Asia, 1947-Present
  • Conservatism in the United States, c.1930-c.1990
  • Constantinople: The History of a Medieval Megalopolis from Constantine the Great to Suleyman the Magnificent
  • Contemporary Scotland
  • Economic and Social Theory for Historical Analysis
  • Gender, Crime and Deviancy: Scotland and England c. 1860-1960
  • Genocide in Contemporary History
  • Global Environmental History
  • Intellectual History of the American Revolution
  • Nepotism and Venality: Corruption and Accountability in the Middle Ages
  • Queens, Heiresses and Lords: Women Making Medieval Scotland
  • Race, Religion, and Ridicule: The American South from Reconstruction to World War I
  • Saints Cults, Pilgrimage and Piety in Scotland
  • Scottish Reformation Culture, c. 1540-c. 1640
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • The Cold War in Latin America
  • The European Enlightenments, 1670 - 1820
  • The Future of the Past? Doing History in the Digital Era
  • The Global Renaissance
  • The Medieval Indian Ocean: Climates, Communities and Commodities
  • The Politics of History in the Arabic-Speaking World (c.1750-Present)
  • The United States and the Cold War
  • Thinking with Things: History and Material Culture Studies

Select between 0 and 20 credits of the following online courses:

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

Compulsory courses: 

  • Historical Research: Skills and Sources
  • Historical Methodology

Select between 20 and 60 credits of the following skills courses:

  • Elementary Latin (PG) 1
  • Elementary Latin (PG) 2
  • Intermediate Latin (PG) 1
  • Intermediate Latin (PG) 2

Select between 20 and 60 credits of the following medieval history courses:

  • Body and soul in early medieval thought
  • Debating Marriage between Antiquity and the Middle Ages
  • Nepotism and Venality: Corruption and Accountability in the Middle Ages
  • Queens, Heiresses and Lords: Women Making Medieval Scotland
  • Saints Cults, Pilgrimage and Piety in Scotland
  • Scottish Palaeography 12th-16th centuries
  • Studying Women in Late Medieval England: Sources and Approaches 

Select between 0 and 40 credits of the following history courses:

  • An uncertain world: the West since the 1970s
  • Black Activism in Britain since 1800
  • Body and soul in early medieval thought
  • Conservatism in the United States, c.1930-c.1990
  • Contemporary Scotland
  • Debating Marriage between Antiquity and the Middle Ages
  • Economic and Social Theory for Historical Analysis
  • Genocide in Contemporary History
  • Nepotism and Venality: Corruption and Accountability in the Middle Ages
  • Queens, Heiresses and Lords: Women Making Medieval Scotland
  • Race, Religion, and Ridicule: The American South from Reconstruction to World War II
  • Saints Cults, Pilgrimage and Piety in Scotland
  • Scottish Palaeography 12th-16th centuries
  • Studying Women in Late Medieval England: Sources and Approaches
  • The Civil Rights Movement
  • The Cold War in Latin America
  • The 'Dark Side': Dark Tourism and Difficult Heritages
  • The Demise of the Slave-Holding American South, 1846-1877
  • The European Enlightenments, 1670 - 1820
  • The Material Culture of Gender in Eighteenth Century Britain
  • The Politics of History in the Arabic-Speaking World (c.1750-Present)
  • The Sixties in the United States
  • The United States and the Cold War
  • 'The wisest fool in Christendom': the Ideas and Writings of James VI & I
  • Thinking with Things: History and Material Culture Studies 

Select between 0 and 20 credits of the following online history courses:

  • An Age of Great Dreams: The 1960s in the United States (online)
  • An Imperial Game? Cricket, Culture & Society (online)
  • Charles Martel in the Digital Age (Online)
  • Consensus to Thatcherism: Government and Politics in Post-War Britain (online)
  • Crisis and Conflict in Late-Victorian Britain (online)
  • Empire or Continent?: British Foreign Policy in the Era of the Great War (online)
  • Freedom and Coercion in the Making of the Atlantic World (online)
  • Islamic Africa (Online)
  • Medicine and Society in Modern Britain (Online)
  • Seeking 'Japan' in a Westernizing World: Revolution, Romance, and Imperialism, 1868 - 1945 (online)
  • The Crusades and the Euro-Mediterranean world of the Central Middle Ages (online)
  • The School of Statecraft: History, Leadership, and Policymaking (online)

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 may also 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 Medieval History. We expect the 2026/25 programme structure to be available from May 2026.

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