MA (Medieval Studies)
College of Arts, Social Sciences, & Celtic Studies
Key facts
Entry requirements
Either a Second Class Honours Grade 1 BA, or a GPA of
3.5 or equivalent international undergraduate degree (at
NFQ level 8), in a relevant subject. Selection is based on an
applicant’s academic record, academic references stating her
or his potential for completing a research project, as well as on
samples of the applicant’s written work.
Duration:
2 years, full-time
Next start date: September 2012
ECTS weighting: 120
Average intake: 15
Closing date:
You are advised to apply early, which may result in an early offer; see the offer round dates
Taught
Course overview
The MA in Medieval Studies is a two-year, programme providing a thorough grounding in the study of language, culture, and society from Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. The programme emphasizes both the interdisciplinary investigation of this period as well as the development of skills necessary for further academic study. The interdisciplinary requirements of the course encourage students to view the past in a multidimensional way, while the emphasis on languages and source study provides students with the tools they need to make original contributions to scholarship.
Course outline
The first year combines seminars and taught courses. All students take Sources and Resources, a seminar focusing on the study of manuscripts and texts, but including other auxiliary sciences as well, such as diplomatic, heraldry, philology, and chronology. This module also focuses on presentation skills and includes a major Internet-based project on a medieval library done in teams. All students also take Latin and one other medieval language. (No prior knowledge of any of these languages is required.) Modules in Archaeology, History, and Literature round out the first year of study.
The focus of the second year is on the preparation and writing of the thesis. In the first semester of the second year all students take Latin and one module in Archaeology, History, or Literature. The final semester of Sources and Resources focuses on the ways that disciplines use sources. In the Fall Semester students work intensively with their thesis supervisors in the Reading and Research module to shape the thesis question and do extensive bibliographical investigation of the topic area. The final semester of the course is devoted to writing the thesis.
Applications and selections
Applications are made online via The Postgraduate Applications Centre (PAC). Relevant PAC application code(s) above.
Who teaches this course?
Dr Jacopo Bisagni
Indo-European, Celtic and Latin linguistics; early medieval Irish monastic literature.
Dr Aidan Breen
Columbanus project.
Dr Clíodhna Carney
Old and Middle English; Chaucer; medieval poetics; medieval literary theory; Spenser; rhetoric, poetics.
Prof. Michael Clarke
Historical linguistics; epic poetry; medieval Irish heroic literature.
Dr Catherine Emerson
French language and literature, medieval literature (Romance, historiography), Historiographical literature, Islam in medieval French literature, Enlightenment thought.
Dr Elizabeth FitzPatrick
Gaelic and Colonial Ireland 1300–1650, royal assembly culture in medieval Europe, urban settlement in traditional societies, and churches and their landscapes.
Dr Graham Isaac
The contemporary linguistics of the Celtic and Indo-European languages, the ancient Celtic languages of Europe, literature of the Old- and Middle-Welsh.
Dr Catherine LaFarge
14th- and 15th-century literature in English; in particular the works of Malory;Henryson;Chaucer; Arthurian Literature; medieval romance; issues of gender and cultural, ethnic,and religious difference.
Dr Kimberly LoPrete
Social, political, and cultural history of medieval Europe, in particular, the 11th - 12th centuries and France; women in medieval society, notably, aristocratic women; gender and lordship; the first crusade and the history of crusading; medieval historical writing and the uses of the past in the Middle Ages; charters and chronicles, with special emphasis on diplomatic and the rhetoric of Latin narrative; manuscript studies, including palaeography, codicology, and the transmission of texts.
Dr Frances McCormack
Old and Middle English Literature; in particular the works of Chaucer, religious and devotinal literature, and heresy.
An tOllamh Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha
Medieval and Early Modern Irish language and literature early Irish law; aspects of early Irish history.
Mr Conor Newman
Ireland and the Roman world, Irish 'royal' landscapes from prehistory to the early middle ages, Irish art and iconography c. AD 300–700 and the Life and Legacy of Columbanus.
Dr Kieran O'Conor
Gaelic and Anglo-Norman Ireland 1100–1350, castles in their landscape and rural settlement across medieval Europe.
Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
Ireland, Britain and Europe during the Early Middle Ages; computistics; medieval latin palaeography; Irish traditional music and song.
Mr Michael Shields
Medieval music; Old- and Middle-High German literature.
Dr Mark Stansbury
Manuscript studies; Medieval Latin; Insular Christian culture; transmission of Classical texts.
Requirements and assessment
Assessment varies according to module and includes essays,
projects, presentations, and exams held in December or April/May.
A dissertation must be submitted in July of Year Two.
Find out more
Dr Kimberly LoPrete
T: +353 91 493 547
E: kim.loprete@nuigalway.ie
