Medieval and Early Modern Studies MA

Year of entry: 2025

Course length: 12 months Full-Time | 24 Months Part-Time

About the course

This is an interdisciplinary course designed to equip you with the critical skills and tools necessary for research in the history, literatures and art of the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods. Working closely with the collections of the John Rylands Library makes our course particularly suitable if you’re considering a future in heritage management, library, archive, or museum work, art business, or education.

Two pathways are available for students who wish to extend their knowledge in a particular chronological direction: Medieval, and Early Modern. This course consists of taught units and a dissertation.

Taught units cover topics including:

From Papyrus to Print: The History of the Book
Reading the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Palaeography, Codicology, and Sources
Perspectives on Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Shakespeare: Theory and the Archive
Old English: Writing the Unreadable Past
Wonders, Miracles & Supernatural Landscapes in Medieval & Early Modern Europe

These are example course units based on 2023/24 options and are subject to change each year.

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Benefit from access to extensive and excellent material research resources.

Study in Manchester, a living history book – from Peterloo and the anti-slavery movement, to Roman forts and medieval monuments.

The University of Manchester and John Rylands Libraries offer immense holdings of printed primary medieval sources and extensive holdings for early modernists.

Where will your degree take you?

This course is designed to equip you with the critical skills and tools necessary for research in the history, literatures, and art of the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods. Having the opportunity to work in close contact with the collections of the John Rylands Library makes our course particularly suitable if you are considering a future in heritage management, library, archive, or museum work, art business, or education. In addition to these professional career paths, other students go on to study for a PhD, with the degree proving an excellent basis for an academic career.

Catrin Haberfield

Medieval and Early Modern Studies MA

"The highlight of the course is getting to work closely with manuscripts from the John Rylands Library. Everything was virtual in 2020- 2021, but even then, the John Rylands had a fantastic digital set-up that meant we still got to see manuscripts in real-time, with a librarian handling them for us."

Kit Roberts

Medieval and Early Modern Studies | Trainee Reporter for Stoke-on-Trent Live and as a Freelance Shift Reporter for The Daily Star and The Daily Mirror.

“I wanted to explore more about Medieval literature and this course offered a more in-depth look at that. I was also very interested in exploring the Collections at the John Rylands Library, which this course was perfect for. News reporting and features are very different forms of writing from academic essays, but my MA certainly gave me the discipline in my writing which still helps me now”

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