King's is internationally renowned for medieval history and our MA offers training in Latin, Palaeography and research skills, and choice of options from Magna Carta and medieval women to digital humanities. We have particular strengths in Anglo-Saxon England, Britain in the central Middle Ages and early medieval Europe.
KEY BENEFITS
- One of the best history departments in the world, ranked 2nd in the UK by The Sunday Times newspaper (2011).
- Excellent graduate prospects, amongst the top five in the country (Times Good University Guide, 2010).
- International centre of excellence for the study of Medieval history.
- Introduces students to the burgeoning field of digital humanities through collaboration with the King's Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH).
- The central London location offers students unrivalled access to world-class museums, collections, archives and libraries as well as easy access to resources in Europe.
- Vibrant research culture, including seminars and conferences at which students are encouraged to participate and give papers.
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KEY FACTS
Student destinations
Leads to further research or careers in teaching, archives, the media, finance, politics and heritage industries.
Programme leader/s
Dr Stephen Baxter
Awarding Institution
King's College London
Credit value (UK/ECTS equivalent)
UK 180/ECTS 90
Duration
One year FT, two years PT, September to September.
Location
Strand Campus.
Year of entry 2013
Offered by
School of Arts and Humanities
Department of History
Closing date
1 September 2013.
Please note that applicants wishing to apply for funding (e.g. AHRC) must submit their application by the relevant funding deadline, which is usually early in the year. Please see
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/funding/sources/index.aspx for information on the available funding opportunities and deadlines.
Variable.
Fees
PT Home: £3950 (2013)
PT Overseas: £8125 (2013)
FT Home: £7900 (2013)
FT Overseas: £16250 (2013)
CONTACTS
Contact information
Postgraduate Officer, Centre for Arts & Sciences Admissions (CASA)
tel: +44 (0) 20 7848 2765 / 2232 / 7232
fax: +44 (0) 20 7848 7200
Email
Website
PURPOSE
To train scholars moving into academic work after completing an undergraduate degree, but also for those who want to deepen their knowledge of the period.
DESCRIPTION
King’s is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence for the study of medieval history, with particular expertise in the study of Anglo-Saxon England, Britain in the central Middle Ages and early medieval Europe, recently strengthened by the arrival of new members of staff. The MA programme is amongst the most successful of its kind worldwide, teaching students the skills and analysis required for medieval historical study and delving into significant topics of the period, from Magna Carta to the history of medieval women. Furthermore, the MA introduces students to the burgeoning field of the digital humanities through collaboration with the Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH). Staff and students also regularly contribute to and attend lectures by the multidisciplinary Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies (CLAMS).
The History department has particular expertise in Anglo-Saxon England, Britain in the central Middle Ages and early medieval Europe. Major research projects in medieval history currently being undertaken by MA teaching staff include the AHRC-funded online databases
Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE) and
Henry III Fine Rolls and the Leverhulme Trust funded project
Profile of a Doomed Elite: The Structure of English Landed Society in 1066.
Teaching
Modules on the MA in Medieval History are taught by weekly seminars where students are expected to contribute to discussion and prepare presentations. Students can also attend relevant undergraduate lecture series such as
European History 400-1500 or
The Making of Britain 400-1400. Students on the one year full-time programme attend 4-8 hours of taught classes per week, whilst students following the two year part-time MA attend 2-6 hours of taught classes per week. The compulsory 15,000 word dissertation enables students to research a topic of their choice, working one-to-one with an academic supervisor.
Institute of Historical Research (IHR)King’s history students are encouraged to make full use of the opportunities available to them through the Institute of Historical Research (IHR). Many members of the History department convene its period-based seminars, including the flourishing
Early Medieval History and
European History 1150-1550 seminars. In addition, the IHR offers a wide range of other events besides: from student-run workshops to specialist training days. This intersection between Department, School and the IHR makes King’s a uniquely productive environment for graduate study in History.
STRUCTURE OVERVIEW
Core programme content
120 credits of required modules (detailed list below):
- Includes a 15,000 word dissertation worth 60 credits (details below).
- Part-time students take 40 credits of required modules in year one and 80 credits of required modules in year (including the dissertation module).
Indicative non-core content
60 credits of optional modules (detailed list below):
- Counting towards the 60, students can take up to 40 credits from outside the department, either at King's or intercollegiately (at one of the other Colleges of the University of London). Module availability information will be published in September.
- Counting towards the 60 or in addition to it, students can take a 20 credit language module: langage modules available in 2010/11. Alternatively, the Modern Language Centre at King's offers language classes to students which do not count towards the degree.
- Part-time students take 40 credits of optional modules in year one and 20 credits of optional modules in year two.
FORMAT AND ASSESSMENT
Students will take modules worth a minimum of 180 credits. Taught compulsory and optional modules assessed by coursework and/or examination plus a compulsory dissertation.
MODULES
More information on typical programme modules.
NB it cannot be guaranteed that all modules are offered in any particular academic year.
Module code: 7AAH1001
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 60 credits
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 15,000 word dissertation
The 15,000 word dissertation is the core of the MA in Medieval History. It offers students the chance to research a topic of their choice, working with a supervisor from the department (see list of core teaching staff). It is designed as a substantial research project based on primary sources, the equivalent of a major article for a historical journal or a chapter in a PhD thesis.
Recent topics have included:
- Caritas Ordinata: Public interest companies in Medieval Paris and Oxford
- Motherhood in Christina of Martyate
- The establishment of the Becket cult to Easter 1171
- William FitzStephen’s Life of Thomas Becket: A Biographival Paradox?
- Women in Christ: Anglo-Saxon Double Monasteries
- Who were the Brigands of Charles the Bald’s 873 Capitulary of Quierzy
Teaching staff: Mr Daniel Hadas
Module code: 7AAH1003
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Full-year
Teaching pattern: 20 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
written examination/s
1 x 3 hour examination
Latin for Graduates aims to provide students with the translation skills necessary to carry out research for an MA dissertation or PhD thesis in late antique, medieval, or early modern studies. The module consists of intensive instruction in Latin grammar, from the basics to complex sentence structures involving a range of clauses, indirect speech, participles, etc. Students will also read a variety of texts in order to achieve an understanding of the particular features of post-classical Latin. The module is divided into beginning and advanced sections: the beginning section presumes no previous knowledge of Latin, while those students who have studied Latin to GCSE level or above are welcome to enter the advanced section.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH1003.aspx
Teaching staff: Various, team taught
Module code: 7AAH1002
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
Examines the sources used for the study of medieval history and places them within their historiographical framework.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH1002.aspx
Module code: 7AAYM109
Credit level: 7
Assessment:
written examination/s; coursework;
Assessment will be by one three-hour unseen written examination, and sample manuscript description.
The aim of this module is to train students to read, date and describe Latin manuscripts from AD 1 - 1500 and to understand manuscript culture. It consists of a survey of the history of Latin handwriting from Cicero to the Renaissance. Students will also be taught how to describe a manuscript book and will be introduced to codicology. Basic Latin is a requirement of this module.
Teaching staff: Emeritus Professor Dame Jinty Nelson
Module code: 7AAH1005
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
The module develops students’ knowledge and understanding of the various Anglo-Saxon and continental kingdoms, promotes advanced critical engagement with the recent historical scholarship on the ninth century and promotes a comparative approach to the study of different contemporary polities. The module develops students’ understanding of the common themes in the histories of Anglo-Saxon and continental kingdoms, such as papal contacts and Viking impacts.
Teaching staff: Professor Peter Heather
Module code: 7AAH1011
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
written examination/s; coursework;
1 x 2,000 word essay; 1 x 2-hour gobbet examination
This module introduces students both to the wide range of legal materials surviving from the early fourth century to the Carolingian Empire, and to the wide range of historical issues that they raise. Late Antiquity was a hugely formative period in the history of Roman law, and also dictated the nature of at least some of the formal legal texts (the so-called Barbarian Codes') produced in early medieval, post-Roman, Europe. Equally important, the period between c.300 and c.900 AD saw slow but steady progress towards the emergence of the Christian Church as an institutional entity. Part and parcel of this process was the generation of a body of rules and regulations - Canon Law – with the same individuals often implicated in the making of both secular and ecclesiastical law. The module investigates not only the formal codes produced between the fall of Rome and the Carolingians, but also takes full account of the mass and range of less formal legal materials produced in the period, such as charters, wills, and books of formulae. Between them, this range of texts provides a large percentage of all the source material to survive from the early medieval west.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH1011.aspx Students will read widely and extensively in the surviving legal sources, the vast majority of which are available in modern English translations. The focus of the module is as much social history as legal history. Why did kings and emperors publish law codes, and how were they used in practice? What degree of overlap existed between formal written law, and practical dispute settlement?
Teaching staff: Professor David Carpenter
Module code: 7AAH1007
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module begins by examining the causes of Magna Carta. It then looks beyond 1215 to consider both the achievements of the Charter and its defects, defects that meant that by 1258/9 far more radical schemes of political reform were imposed on the king. Central to the module will be a detailed analysis of the Charter of 1215, the later versions of 1216, 1217 and 1225, and the reforms of 1258 and 1259. The module will thus provide students with a comprehensive grasp of the issues in dispute between the king and his subjects in the central Middle Ages, and an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the constitutional means by which attempts were made to bring those disputes to resolution.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH1007.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Alice Rio
Module code: 7AAH1012
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 1 (autumn)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module will consider the history of slavery and unfreedom from the late Roman empire down to the Renaissance. The middle ages saw the disappearance of European slavery in the Roman mould, in which a restricted number of persons were under the complete legal and material control of their master, and its replacement with serfdom, a lighter form of subjection, but one which involved the majority of the rural population. Alongside these local developments, the slave trade, both in Northern Europe and in the Mediterranean, remained buoyant, and apparently subjected to fundamentally different rhythms of evolution. This course will be unique in offering students the opportunity to study this important topic throughout the medieval period, from late antiquity and the fall of the Roman empire through to the late medieval slave trade, in Western Europe as well as in Byzantine and Islamic regions.
The module will consider a variety of themes, such as enslavement, captivity and conquest; ways in and ways out of slavery; the slave trade; gender and sexual exploitation; the ability or inability of slaves to form families; slaves as the ‘other’; the scope for social mobility as well as exclusion; and the concept of social crisis, often linked with the subjection of the free by both contemporary writers and modern historians. The course will also consider slavery in the context of wider social change, since it cannot be assumed that the free-unfree divide, much insisted on by Roman masters and medieval lords after them, would always have been the most crucial form of social differentiation (the free poor, among others, constitute an important point of comparison). The available sources vary widely according to time and place: they include the writings of philosophers and moralists, letters, inscriptions, agricultural handbooks, laws, Christian polemic, saints’ lives, poetry, penitentials, archive documents and estate-surveys.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH1012.aspx
Teaching staff: Emeritus Professor Dame Jinty Nelson & Dr Serena Ferente
Module code: 7AAH1008
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 40 credits
Teaching pattern: 20 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
2 x 4,000 word essay
This module studies the evolution of the Church’s teaching and practice in the medieval period. A primary focus is on the changes of the 11th-12th century, and on the social and economic contexts of institutional reorganisation of the Church, and of movements of protest, dissent and heresy. The themes considered thereafter may take students into earlier and/or later medieval periods, through considering the official teaching and lay practice on saints’ cults and canonisation, marriage, penance, legitimate violence, ordeals, the care of the dead and the doctrine of purgatory, and the rise and fall of Catharism in the Languedoc and Northern Italy.
Teaching staff: Professor David Carpenter
Module code: 7AAH1013
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
During the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, there was a gigantic expansion in the records produced by royal government in England, an expansion itself reflecting a revolution in the workings of that government. Many of these records survive in The National Archives at Kew. They provide a resource for historians unparalleled in the rest of Europe. The aim of this course is to understand these records, and through them understand the development and workings of government and its increasing impact on society. The course will also show how the records can open windows onto the politics, economy and wider culture of the period. The course will thus engage closely with the records of the chancery, and its fine, charter, patent, close, and liberate rolls. It will do likewise with the records of the exchequer (the pipe, memoranda and receipt and issue rolls) and the law courts (the plea rolls of the king’s justices in the localities and at Westminster). The course will provide a grasp of both the burdens of government (through its financial exactions) and its benefits (through the developing procedures of the early common law). There will also be a session on the development of parliament. Students taking this course will be well for using the records in their doctoral research.
Teaching staff: Dr Alice Rio & Dr Serena Ferente
Module code: 7AAH1009
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Semester:
Semester 2 (spring)
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
The module considers images of women, religious and secular, through such evidence as saints’ lives, literary texts, art, and handbooks of instruction for wives and daughters. It examines the varieties of women’s position in law, and of women’s economic activities in town and countryside and at different social levels. Special attention will be given to the role of gender in the work of women writers from Dhuoda to Christine de Pizan and, in social and political history at large, to the interplay of gender and class.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/chs/modules/level7/7AAH1009.aspx
Teaching staff: Dr Serena Ferente
Module code: 7AAH1010
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20 credits
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars
Assessment:
coursework
1 x 4,000 word essay
This module offers a broad overview of texts and debates on fourteenth- and fifteenth-century politics and society, with a focus on Italian thinkers. An age of incessant political and institutional experiments, the centuries between Aquinas and Machiavelli shaped the political languages of modern Europe. We will analyse canonical and less canonical texts as voices in wider debates and contexts. The conflict between secular and religious power, the different ways in which the body politic was imagined, the subordination of women and the young in the family-state compact, the problem of legitimate and illegitimate political authority are some of the themes that will be explored. We will read the works of Dante, Marsilius of Padua, Bartolus of Saxoferrato, Christine de Pizan, Leon Battista Alberti, Lorenzo Valla, Savonarola and others, together with everyday texts such as letters and memoirs.
ACADEMIC ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
General entry advice
First class or 2:1 honours undergraduate degree (or overseas equivalent) in history or a related subject such as politics. Students without a history degree may be required to show relevant research skills in order to be accepted.
APPLYING TO KING'S
To apply for graduate study at King's you will need to complete our graduate online application form. Applying online makes applying easier and quicker for you, and means we can receive your application faster and more securely.
King's does not normally accept paper copies of the graduate application form as applications must be made online. However, if you are unable to access the online graduate application form, please contact the relevant admissions/School Office at King's for advice.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
We interview all applicants, either in person or over the phone if they are normally resident overseas. Once references and transcripts are received, we aim to process all complete applications within four to six weeks although this may take longer in February, March and over holiday periods.
PERSONAL STATEMENT & SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Please list the optional modules in which you are interested.
FUNDING
Peltz Scholarships
Two scholarships will be offered to the strongest candidates applying to take one of the Masters programmes offered by the History Department on a full-time basis, and without any other scholarship funding. These awards will be available on academic achievement and promise, and are available to UK, EU and overseas students. Each scholarship is worth £5,000. No additional application is necessary: all MA applications submitted by 1 July will be considered. Successful candidates will be notified as soon as possible after 15 July.
Further details of funding opportunities can be found on our website:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/history/study/fund/index.aspx
Student profiles
Medieval History MAFor as long as I can remember, I have been enthralled by medieval English history. When I decided on a career path in academia in high school, I began dreaming of obtaining a post-graduate degree in England. My undergraduate work at the University of Florida allowed me to develop an interest in Anglo-Saxon slavery, and King’s hosts
Dr. Alice Rio, one of the few scholars of early medieval slavery in the world. Naturally, I leapt at the chance to study at King’s.
I have even been awarded funding, which has enabled me to fulfil my dream of earning a degree in England. Being a student at King’s has opened my world to a wealth of resources I could have scarcely imagined as an undergraduate; London is the perfect place to study medieval history. Here exists a community of renowned historians, both at King’s and in the University of London’s Institute for Historical Research. Top-notch libraries and research facilities are at my fingertips, and the King’s
Department of Digital Humanities has exposed me to the essential subject of digital resources.
Additionally, the structure of the program ensures that I build on the skills I need. Having taken years of only classical Latin, it is refreshing to sit in a course dedicated to medievalists. I also have the opportunity to study palaeography, a subject overlooked by many universities and yet crucial to historians. I know that my experience at King’s, as well as the people I’ve met, will provide me with a strong foundation for doctoral research and continuing on into the world of academia.
Medieval History MA
When I came to King's College London from Los Angeles and the University of Southern California for a full time MA in Medieval History, I already knew that I wanted to study for a doctorate afterwards; I thought I just needed the skills to make that happen.
Well, I got the skills at King's - I had never studied Latin before, and here I took part in a Latin play this year. I also got a lot more than that: academics who cared about the personal attention they gave their students; intelligent classmates drawn from across the country; and the academic resources of London, such as the British Library, the Courtauld Institute and the Institute of Historical Research on my doorstep.
For a historian, London is a great place to be, and for a North American it's especially great, as the European continent is just a short hop away. I've made it Venice, Amsterdam and Bruges within the past few months. I'm getting ready to start my doctorate next year, and I know that my entire King's experience has put me in good stead for the future.
Staff profiles
Medieval History MA
The MA in Medieval History is one of the very best programmes of its kind. The History Department has an excellent reputation, with a great tradition of medieval history; it is also a very friendly and supportive environment, with committed teachers and a genuine sense of community. I was a postgraduate student here myself, and loved King’s and the department so much I leapt at the chance to come back as a lecturer.
The MA offers students training in the essential skills needed for research (paleography; Medieval Latin, from beginners’ to advanced levels), and courses in a wide range of topics. There is a real link between lecturers’ teaching and their research: for instance, my own current work is on medieval slavery, and I also teach it as a course.
Students can also take advantage of courses taught in other departments, and even at other London colleges. This huge range of options makes the programme very flexible, with scope for interdisciplinarity. The programme is ideal as preparation for a PhD, but it is also wide-ranging and challenging enough to satisfy those who are simply interested in furthering their knowledge and understanding of the medieval period beyond their first degree.
There are also plenty of things to do outside regular teaching: the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies has a lecture series and a postgraduate reading group; and London more widely offers unparalleled resources for medievalists, with the Institute of Historical Research’s library and numerous seminars, the British Library and its manuscripts, and the medieval collections at the British Museum and elsewhere.
Medieval History MA
King’s has one of the top-rated Medieval History Departments in the world. We offer an extremely wide range of expertise to students, whether you’re interested in technical training, taught master’s degrees, or doctoral supervision. Through membership of our department, students also gain access to all the medieval seminars and training events organised centrally under the umbrella of London University’s Institute of Historical Research, and the extraordinary library and research opportunities afforded by the rich cultural heritage of the UK’s capital city.
We have a flourishing MA programme, hosting 20 students a year, tailor-made to produce independent-minded, fully-trained medieval researchers. Postgraduates are the backbone of our own flourishing doctoral programmes and those of other prestigious institutions as well, making the department’s overall contribution to medieval historical studies in the UK and beyond extremely powerful.
Medieval History MA
The MA in Medieval History at King's is one of the best graduate programmes in this field in the country. It is an intense but very rewarding experience. Our students work with some of the UK's leading medievalists, in a 5* rated department, and take full advantage of the unique opportunities offered by London's cultural institutions. King's interdisciplinary Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies and the Institute of Historical Research offer an unrivalled choice of seminars and lectures for medievalists.
Our research areas include Carolingian Europe, the Norman Conquest, English royal government, and women's history. My own field is late medieval and Renaissance Italy, particularly the dynamics of political conflict, political ideas, and the intersection between women's history and the history of the state.
Since they receive intensive training in Latin and Paleography, along with methods of historical analysis and historiography, by the end of their MA year our students are able to read and understand original sources produced between the fifth and the 15th century.
Visits to The National Archives or Westminster Abbey are a regular feature of the programme and, as members of the Department of History, students can join the CLIO society, which organises a number of events throughout the year, including parties, lectures, and trips to Europe.