Medieval Studies MA

Course overview

The Middle Ages are all around us. They shape landscapes and cities across much of the world. The Middle Ages gave birth to at least five major world religions and saw the spread of belief systems across Afro-Eurasia. They are also politicised in media and popular culture from computer games to the daily news.

The Leeds MA in Medieval Studies provides an environment to explore a variety of medieval topics and their modern significance through compulsory and optional modules, culminating in an independent research dissertation.

You’ll be taught by experts who have specialist knowledge across a range of chronological and geographical topics, with specialisms in varied disciplines and ways of thinking about the past.

The course takes advantage of the inter-disciplinary Institute for Medieval Studies to bring together experts from the Schools of History; Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies; English; and Languages, Cultures and Societies. It also draws on the extensive connections of the Institute with heritage institutions, sites and collections.

Alongside the University of Leeds’ own fantastic medieval collections, the University also has an official collaboration with the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, and long-established links with Ripon Cathedral, Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds City Museums & Galleries, and the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society.

Additional highlights

• Enrolment on the course provides free entry to the Leeds International Medieval Congress, the largest international gathering for medieval studies in the world. This is an opportunity to meet and hear from scholars from all over the world on any area of medieval studies. You will be provided with guidance on how to make the most of this experience.
• The multi-disciplinary staffing and teaching of the course means modules and possibilities for supported dissertation research extend across the entire medieval period and beyond.
• The course embeds medieval collections and sites, and connections between the Institute for Medieval Studies and regional resources, into teaching. You're also able to use these resources in your own work.
• A focus on language, and language learning, as a core medievalist skill, is unique to this course. It can accommodate existing language knowledge and ability, offering training from beginner to advanced level in several languages. Language is treated as a core means of engaging with diversity in the medieval world and in medieval studies today, welcoming different perspectives and creating shared spaces for people whose main interests are linguistics. This course aims to make medieval studies a more welcoming, inclusive and critically aware field by transforming language learning.

Staff expertise

• Staff in the Institute for Medieval Studies offer a wide range of expertise, which shapes modules and the dissertation supervision available. Current expertise includes specialists in Art History, History and a wide range of languages, including medieval forms of English.
• Within and across these disciplines, staff focus on varied approaches, including emphasis on textual, material and digital sources. They bring together cutting-edge research into legal, religious, military, medical, economic, embodied and spatial histories, and into Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well as the varied religions along the Silk Road.
• Staff research disabilities, gender, health and food, buildings, literatures, coins and cultures of learning. Few institutions, globally, can offer such a wide and varied range of approaches to the medieval world, while the Institute for Medieval Studies helps to break down traditional boundaries between university departments and fields.

Specialist Facilities

The University of Leeds has world-class facilities for the study of the Middle Ages. The Brotherton Library holds one of the most significant collections of books, journals and resources in the north of England. The strength of the Institute for Medieval Studies, as a hub for medieval studies since the 1960s, means that generations of experts have built up the depth and breadth of medieval material in this outstanding library. These are supplemented by world-class access to electronic material.

The University of Leeds Special Collections also contain significant medieval collections, including local links to the Leeds area and with broader, international scope. These materials are available for use in teaching and in independent research as part of the course. The British Library reading room at Boston Spa is 15 miles away (on a bus route), providing access to 80% of the London collection.

As a student on this course, you'll have access to the Le Patourel Study Room. This is a vibrant study and community space, used by both MA and PhD students, where you can gain from the expertise, institutional knowledge and experience of research students, and connect with colleagues on your own course. Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds is a holistic, immersive community experience, which is distinguished globally for its breadth, depth and scholarly reputation.

The University of Leeds is home to the International Medieval Bibliography, which is the leading multi-disciplinary bibliographical database of the medieval world, with contributors from across the globe, and opportunities for student internships.

Straddling multiple disciplines and linguistic, period and regional specialisms, the staff of the Institute for Medieval Studies provide teaching that is directly rooted in their world-class research. Their collaborations and conversations directly shape medieval studies in the world today. Their availability as module tutors and dissertation supervisors gives you access to a unique, enthusiastic community, which leads the way in the understanding of the medieval past.

Course details

This course provides a unique insight into the world of the Middle Ages (roughly 500-1500 CE). The Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds is one of the most important multi-disciplinary centres for the study of the Middle Ages in the world.

Bringing together expertise in Art History, History, Languages and Literatures, as well as heritage and museums, and drawing on the University of Leeds Special Collections and medieval sites and collections across Yorkshire, the course provides a global and critical perspective on a period that is often romanticised or maligned.

Tailoring your MA to your own interests, from a focus on a medieval language through to comparative analysis of medieval bodies or religious outlooks, to taking a global overview of medieval material cultures, the course provides a supportive and wide-ranging understanding of the medieval world and how it is studied. It foregrounds the diversity and difference of the medieval world, while emphasising the importance of empathy, creativity and respect in uncovering past life experiences.

Modules are shaped by the profound research expertise in the Institute for Medieval Studies. Compulsory modules provide a strong sense of shared identity as medievalists - a global community of scholars united by a sensitivity to the complexities of a varied record of the past and a passion for worlds often seen as alien.

The course also provides opportunities to reflect on the current importance of the Middle Ages and stereotypes about them in the world today, from debates about post-colonialism and decolonisation to discussions of gender, the environment and the digital revolution.

As a full-time student, you'll take two compulsory core modules: Research Methods and The Language of the Past, and two optional modules. Alongside these, a 60-credit compulsory dissertation module provides guidance in planning a large, independent research project, which you’ll complete with the guidance of an expert supervisor.

These modules combine to enable you to tailor your MA to your own interests, from a focus on a medieval language through to comparative analysis of medieval bodies or religious outlooks, or taking a global overview of medieval material cultures. It will also give you a strong sense of community with your fellow students and a solid grounding in two fundamental elements of medieval studies: the importance of multi-disciplinary approaches and varied sources (addressed in Research Methods) and the significance of language for engaging with past worlds and the people who created them.

If you study this course part time, you'll study Research Methods and The Language of the Past in Year 1 and two option modules in Year 2. You'll take elements of the compulsory dissertation module, including some assessed work, in both years.

Compulsory modules

All students will take the following 120 credits of compulsory modules

30 credits: Research Methods
This module provides a broad view of the medieval world through a discussion of the kinds of sources and ways of using evidence which make the field unique and multi-disciplinary. This will include workshops held in the University of Leeds Special Collections. Sources discussed include both texts and objects. Approaches may include discussions of digital technologies, understanding museum and collection catalogues, working with buildings and landscapes, analysing coins and charters, and framing new questions based on social and cultural processes.

30 credits: The Language of the Past
Studying the medieval past is often associated with languages like Latin, Old English or medieval forms of modern languages such as Arabic, Greek or French. Even when using non-textual sources, such as buildings, objects or landscapes, scholarly literature about the Middle Ages is regularly published in a wide range of modern languages. Languages are not just necessary to study the Middle Ages, though: engaging with language also helps us to think differently about ourselves and the past. This module brings together students with any range of languages and expertise and focuses on techniques and approaches for learning languages, for using languages in research and for using language as a way of understanding change over time. It centres the uniqueness and cultural diversity of the medieval past and empowers students to engage directly with that world and to build their own linguistic skills.

60 credits: Research Dissertation
This module comprises a 45-credit research dissertation, completed independently, with the support of individual supervisions with a specialist, and a 15-credit research preparation element, attended by the whole cohort and based on developing skills in identifying research materials, honing a research question and planning a large research project.

Optional modules

Optional modules may vary year-by-year based on staff availability and changing research priorities. This list indicates modules which will usually be available. There will always be at least two Institute for Medieval Studies optional modules available to choose, in addition to modules cross-listed from other programmes, including specialised language tuition, ensuring that students have a wide choice of modules and can tailor their degree to their own interests.

30 credits: Global History and the Middle Ages
For a long time, the Middle Ages were seen as part of European history. In recent years, though, there is increasing interest in global connections between medieval Europe and other parts of the world, in understanding how similar themes (such as food, power, health, trade, religion) were experienced in all parts of the world, and in exploring what the Middle Ages might mean globally today. This module gets to the heart of these live and extremely relevant debates.

30 credits: Medieval Manuscripts in the Digital Age
This module uses innovative digital tools and expertise in their use across international collections to explore how we can understand medieval manuscripts more deeply using digital technologies, examining issues from conservation and public accessibility to the ability to see more clearly how manuscripts were made and used by medieval people.

30 credits: Medieval Bodies
All humans have bodies but how we think about them, describe and depict them, dress them, wash them, how they might be damaged and healed, and how they are perceived to grow and age, are all culturally specific. Animals also have bodies that we should not take for granted. The body is used as a cultural metaphor globally. This module brings in sources and examples from around the medieval world from images and texts to artefacts to explore the meanings of medieval bodies.

30 credits: Religious Communities and the Individual Experience of Religion
One of the most distinctive features of the medieval world was the rise of communities of men and women who lived together and designed their lifestyles around a shared dedication to religion, but also saw an increasing focus on individual practices of faith and devotion for all believers. This module explores the development and transformation of religious communities, their aims, their everyday routines and global links and comparisons, which made religious communities such a significant medieval phenomenon.

30 credits: Tournaments
Taught in collaboration with the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, this module explores one of the most iconic aspects of European medieval culture - the tournament. From the symbolism of arms, armour and the use of flags and colour to the development of the formalised contests and their international reach in medieval Europe, this module takes a multi-disciplinary look at tournaments, using a truly world-class collection as its inspiration.

30 credits: Palaeography
Reading medieval manuscripts is not just a question of language. Medieval scribes were trained in specific handwriting techniques which changed over time and space but could also shift based on the purpose of a document. It is possible to ‘read’ huge amounts from a manuscript without even knowing what the specific words on the page mean. This module focuses on the study of old handwriting (palaeography). It can be studied without any prior linguistic knowledge but is particularly recommended as a complement to Latin modules or for students with a prior knowledge of Latin.

30 credits: Disability and Identity in Byzantium
This module explores disabled lives in the Byzantine world, from emperors and entertainers to scholars and military men, examining the intersection of disability with gender, sexuality and race. By studying a wide range of sources, including saints’ lives, histories, legal and medical texts, as well as satires, we will uncover ableism, but also disability gain and delight in the medieval period.

30 credits: various language modules.
These modules combine the internationally recognised expertise of the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies in teaching the core grammar, vocabulary and (where relevant) script needed to engage with a language as a beginner, intermediate or advanced level, with the world-leading specialisms found within the Institute for Medieval Studies in medieval languages. Students will be able to learn how the medieval form of a language was different from its modern or ancient forms and how to read medieval sources in it. A very wide range of languages can be supported, in discussion with the course director, if this is needed to provide the foundations for a specific research project or to respond to existing language skills; however, it is normally expected that students will choose between Latin, Arabic, Greek or Persian.

Learning and teaching

You'll typically be taught in small groups on this course, building a strong sense of belonging. This includes a range of whole-cohort compulsory modules, which offer the opportunity to meet all the students on the course.

Small-group teaching makes use of the highest-quality teaching methods, combining innovative classroom approaches and well-established best practice. Lectures are not a central part of teaching on the course but may be used in some contexts to provide a framework for approaching unfamiliar topics or debates. Seminar discussion groups are hands-on and interactive, with opportunities for pair and group-work, task-based learning. This is designed to build transferable skills and confidence in completing assessed work, and use of relevant technologies, including recording and visualisation technology.

Alongside small-group discussion and classroom activities and some lectures, you'll also be involved in hands-on work with University of Leeds Special Collections, in fully accessible, state-of-the-art study spaces, and opportunities for other field work or work with collections. This provides a multi-sensory engagement with medieval material and stimulus for diverse learners, giving everyone equal opportunity to bring their skills and experience to the course.

The independent research dissertation is a significant part of the course. This is a personal project, you'll be supported by individual supervisions with a specialist on the chosen topic and by whole-cohort group sessions, dedicated to how to plan and design a large research project.

Fieldwork opportunities

There is no fieldwork requirement for this course. There are, however, a range of accessible and unique fieldwork and collections-based opportunities, thanks to our fantastic location in Leeds and West Yorkshire, and the long-term connections of our faculty and the Institute for Medieval Studies. There may be opportunities to visit the University of Leeds Special Collections, Leeds Royal Armouries, Leeds City Museums & Galleries, Kirkstall Abbey, and Ripon Cathedral.

The Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society (YAHS) is a charity and learned society founded in 1863 to preserve the archaeological and historical record of Yorkshire. The University of Leeds Special Collections holds the archives of the Society, and the Institute for Medieval Studies has an established and durable relationship with it.

The archives of the YAHS offer numerous and under-explored opportunities for research and fieldwork, including connecting studies in the archives to sites in the present, identifying changes in the interpretation of the medieval past, and studying the results of archaeological investigations of medieval sites.

On this course you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

Assessment

Applying

Entry requirements

A bachelor degree with a 2:1 (Hons) or higher, or equivalent. Previous specialised study in an aspect of the pre-modern world, especially medieval studies, would be an advantage.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in all components. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.

Improve your English

International students who do not meet the English language requirements for this programme may be able to study our postgraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.

This pre-sessional course is designed with a progression route to your degree programme and you’ll learn academic English in the context of your subject area. To find out more, read Language for Arts and Humanities (6 weeks) and Language for Social Science and Arts: Arts and Humanities (10 weeks).

We also offer online pre-sessionals alongside our on-campus pre-sessionals. Find out more about our six week online pre-sessional.

You can also study pre-sessionals for longer periods – read about our postgraduate pre-sessional English courses.

How to apply

Documents and information you need:

You’ll need to upload the following documents when completing the online application form:

• Your degree certificate and transcript, or a partial transcript if you’re still studying. Please provide official translations into English if applicable.

• A personal statement of around 500 words in response to the questions asked in the supporting statement section of the application form.

• If English is not your first language, you’ll need to submit proof of your English language results (eg IELTS).

We do not generally request references, unless further information is required to support the assessment of your application.

Where further information to support the assessment of your application is needed, we may ask for a recent sample of written work.

Deadlines

Please see our How to Apply page for information about application deadlines.

The ‘Apply’ link at the top of this page takes you to information on applying for taught programmes and to the University's online application system.

If you're unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.

The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures receives very large numbers of high-quality applications and regrets that it cannot make offers to all of its applicants. Some particularly popular schools may have to reject many that hold the necessary academic qualifications.

Read about visas, immigration and other information in International students. We recommend that international students apply as early as possible to ensure that they have time to apply for their visa.

Admissions policy

University of Leeds Admissions Policy 2025

This course is taught by

Institute for Medieval Studies
School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies
School of History
School of English
School of Languages, Cultures and Societies

Contact us

Student Education Service Office

Email: HistoryPGTadmissions@leeds.ac.uk
Telephone:

Fees

UK: £12,000 (Total)

International: £26,000 (Total)

For fees information for international taught postgraduate students, read Masters fees.

Read more about paying fees and charges.

Part-time fees
Fees for part-time courses are normally calculated based on the number of credits you study in a year compared to the equivalent full-time course. For example, if you study half the course credits in a year, you will pay half the full-time course fees for that year.

Additional cost information

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more on our living costs and budgeting page.

Scholarships and financial support

If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There may be help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government.  Find out more at Masters funding overview.

Career opportunities

The MA in Medieval Studies has a long history of launching and strengthening careers in a range of fields. Alumni of this course have gone on to careers in museums and heritage, editing and publishing, archive and library work, journalism, media, teaching, the public sector, and charitable and NGO work.

It's also enabled graduates to advance their careers in many of these sectors by developing specialist knowledge and enhancing existing qualifications, to switch careers by demonstrating historical and heritage experience, and to lay the foundations for successful doctoral study, leading to employment in university-based research and teaching.

Careers support

We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.

The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more about Careers support.