Mediaeval History MA (Hons)

In the first two years of your degree (known as sub-honours) you will take the required modules in Mediaeval History alongside modules in at least one other subject.

1st Year

Students will take the following compulsory first-year modules:

• The Fall of Rome and the Origins of Europe (400-1000): examines how political, cultural and social life changed in the Byzantine, British and ‘barbarian’ worlds in response to major upheavals.
• Scotland and the English Empire 1070-1500: compares and relates the societies of the English crown and the kingdom of Scotland in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England.

Students will take the following compulsory second-year module:

• Mediaeval Europe (1000-1400): examines key themes that helped to shape Western Europe from the 11th to 14th centuries, a period known as the ‘High Middle Ages’.

and choose at least one from the following:

• History as a Discipline: Development and Key Concepts: provides an introduction to key theoretical and methodological approaches which have characterised the emergence of History as a discipline since mediaeval times.
• Introduction to Middle Eastern History: provides an introduction to Middle Eastern history from the dramatic reconfiguration of the Middle East in late Antiquity to its contested and contentious recent past.
• Mediterranean Communities: deals with the human settlement and material culture of the entire Mediterranean World throughout classical antiquity.
• Scotland, Britain and Empire (c. 1500-2000): provides an introduction to how and why the British nation state evolved from the separate kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland and how and why it has survived over the last three centuries.

If you decide to take Mediaeval History in your third and fourth years, you choose from a wide variety of advanced options, with topics ranging from the fall of the Roman Empire to the dawn of the modern age, and from Britain to the Eastern Mediterranean.

Here is a sample of Honours modules which have been offered in previous years:

• Age of Conquest: Edward I - Scotland and Wales (1239-1307)
• Holy Lives in Late Antiquity
• Justifying Mediaeval Warfare
• Normans, Natives and Norsemen: Scotland c.1050 to 1250
• Power and Identity after Rome 500-700
• Women and Gender in the Later Middle Ages.

Some modules at Honours level are intended to build your portfolio and provide you with career experience. For example, the Recording the Past module allows you to submit a multimedia historical project in the form of a radio programme, video documentary, website or another appropriate medium.

In fourth year, students also undertake a dissertation of around 10,000 to 12,000 words on a topic of their choice. This independent project enables you to develop key research skills which are desired by both prospective employers and by graduate schools offering postgraduate degrees.