Masters in Early Modern History

M.Litt/Postgraduate Diploma in Early Modern History

This degree will provide students with advanced training in the history of the early modern European and Atlantic worlds, including the Ottoman Empire. It will introduce students to a range of approaches to early modern history, and will give students unusually wide opportunities to undertake advanced study of the period. It will also provide both broad and deep preparation for subsequent doctoral research for students wishing to pursue further study. St Andrews has one of the highest concentrations of staff researching into early modern history in the world, and students can therefore expect a high level of specialised supervision in most fields.

The following programmes are available:

• Graduate Diploma: a nine-month programme comprising three taught modules (September to May)
• M.Litt.: successful completion of the Graduate Diploma plus a 15,000-word dissertation to be completed by the end of August.
• M.Phil.: a two-year programme – successful completion of the Graduate Diploma plus a 40,000-word dissertation

Course Structure:
Over two semesters students complete three modules

1. Core course

All students will take the core module, Approaches and Sources in Early Modern History (MO5001). This will be co-taught by early modern staff across the School in order to provide students with the widest possible exposure to research methods and to different conceptualisations of the early modern period: topics include diaries and memoirs, images as historical evidence, and travelogues.

2. Optional modules or Directed Reading (semester 1 or 2)

Students also select one or two optional modules taught by specialists in their field, listed below. Or they may take a Directed Reading module in which they explore the literature and sources in a field of particular individual interest with an expert member of staff.

For the seminar-style modules, the options available (subject to staff availability) are:

• “Religion and Identity in Early Modern Britain” (SC5201)
• “Society and Religious Change in Sixteenth Century France” (MO5006)
• “Political Thought and Intellectual History” (MO5010)
• “War, State and Society in Early Modern Europe and New Worlds” (MO5004)
• “The European Renaissance” (MO5007)
• “The Creation of an Atlantic World” (MO5008)
• “Law, Justice and Community: Court Records and British Society, 1400-1800” (MO5009)
• “Ideas and the Book in Early Modern France”

These seminar-style options are taught as a class, each lasting up to two hours over the eleven weeks of a single semester.

Directed Reading will give students the opportunity to pick a topic from a wide range of choices and study in the format of six one-to-one tutorials under the guidance of an expert supervisor.

Please contact the Postgraduate Secretary (pghist@st-and.ac.uk) to find out which Directed Reading supervisors and seminar-style options are available in any one semester.

For the core course, the seminar-style options and Directed Reading, students will be assessed through continuous assessment (both written – usually in the form of essays –  and oral – usually in the form of formal presentations).

3. Training Options (semester 1 or 2)

Training options are also available in, for example, specific foreign languages (including Latin) or palaeography. It is expected students will normally opt for one or more training modules to sit alongside either Directed Reading or a taught seminar-style optional module. The training in research skills that we offer is particularly appropriate for those aspiring to doctoral research after the M.Litt.. All students will be provided with training in the use of archives and research libraries.

4. Dissertation (summer months)

Students who satisfactorily complete the taught element of the programme (Postgraduate Diploma) will be allowed to continue to the three-month, 15,000-word dissertation (MLitt), or to a 40,000-word dissertation over the following fifteen months (MPhil). Each student will be assigned an appropriate supervisor, who will guide their research and writing via regular meetings.

Dissertation (MO5099)

For additional information, please contact the Postgraduate Secretary on pghist@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

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