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, and must choose at least one course from each set. 

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 2024 were:

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

Medieval History MSc - Skills courses

Select between 20 and 60 credits of the following skills courses

Course name   Credits  
Elementary Latin (PG) 120
Elementary Latin (PG) 220
Intermediate Latin (PG) 120
Intermediate 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
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
Constantinople: The History of a Medieval Megalopolis from Constantine the Great to Suleyman the Magnificent20
Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Patristic and Medieval20
Mariners, Monks and Mobility: the archaeology of the early medieval Atlantic Archipelago20
Nepotism and Venality: Corruption and Accountability in the Middle Ages20
Queens, Heiresses and Lords: Women Making Medieval Scotland20
Saints Cults, Pilgrimage and Piety in Scotland20
The Future of the Past? Doing History in the Digital Era20
The Global Renaissance20
The Medieval Indian Ocean: Climates, Communities and Commodities20
Viking Studies (Level 11)20

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

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
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

*A maximum of one online course can be chosen.

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 Medieval History. We expect the 2025/26 programme structure to be available from May 2025.