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General information on
master's programmes
Research Programmes
General Guidelines on
the Presentation and Evaluation of Work
Master of Studies in
Medieval Studies
General outline and
assessment requirements
This nine-month interdisciplinary programme
(October to June) can be taken either as a
free-standing degree or as the first step towards
one of the research degrees of M.Litt. or D.Phil.;
students can choose during the year in which
direction they wish to proceed. The degree balances
taught courses and independent research. It is aimed
explicitly at students who wish to follow courses in
more than one discipline in medieval studies, and
who are keen to extend the range of their skills.
The degree places considerable emphasis on language
training and will ask all students to study a
medieval language they have not already studied.
Students will also take a palaeography course. In
their first two terms students will choose optional
papers, from topics offered by the participating
departments. (These include the faculties,
departments, or inter-faculty committees of English,
History, History of Art, Modern Languages, Byzantine
Studies, Oriental Studies. Options are likely to be
available also in Music, Theology and Philosophy.)
In addition, in their first term students will
participate in workshops on research methods and, in
second term will attend an interdisciplinary
seminar. The dissertation, written up in the third
term, will normally have two supervisors from
different Faculties. In most cases there will be no
formal examinations and the degree will be assessed
as follows: 20% for an essay in each optional
subject ; 20% for an essay or transcription in
palaeography; 40% for the dissertation (up to 12,000
words.) Language skills will normally be assessed by
a class test but depending on the language it might
sometimes be possible to substitute the learning of
a language (such as Arabic or Old Irish) for one of
the option papers and this language might then be
examined.
Every candidate is
required to
- attend such lectures, seminars, classes and
language courses as his or her supervisor shall
determine, and do any language tests set by
language teachers;
- submit essays prepared according to the
regulations of the relevant faculty, based on the
work for the option papers taught in Michaelmas
and Hilary terms (i.e. the first two terms)and
selected in consultation with the convenor(s) of
the option;
- submit an essay of between 5,000 and 7,000
words based on the work for the course in
palaeography or provide a transcription as laid
down by the relevant Faculty.
- By 9th week of Trinity (i.e. the final) term
submit a dissertation of up to 12,000 words on the
candidate’s own research topic. The topic should
cover an issue that includes at least one element
of more than one discipline. It will have been
approved by the programme committee and will
normally be supervised by two supervisors from
different Faculties or sub-Faculties, one major,
one minor.
For formal assessment criteria and
submission deadlines see individual ‘Instructions
to Candidates’.
Contact
information
The
current programme convenor is Dr
Helen Swift (St Hilda's College).
Overall programme
administration is handled by the History
Graduate Office:
telephone: (01865) 615002 (or 15002 from an internal
phone)
fax: (01865) 250704
address: History Faculty, Old High School for Boys,
George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL
Teaching Outline and
academic environment
This degree is a taught degree with a strong
research element. Students will follow core courses
and option papers but can expect to spend at least a
third of their time doing independent research. The
onus in such research lies on the individual
student. S/he should construct the contents and work
pattern of the research element of the degree in
close and regular discussion with his/her
supervisor(s).
The formal teaching for the degree consists of the
following:
- Compulsory Language classes in each of the three
terms, chosen from a variety of possibilities
normally including Latin; Old English; Old Norse;
Old French; Old Occitan; Old High German; Middle
High German; Old Irish; Middle Welsh; Greek;
Hebrew; Arabic. The language selected should
normally be closely related to the student’s work.
- Paleography/codicology classes: either English,
or Medieval and Modern Languages, or Byzantine
Greek. Depending on the language chosen this
subject will be studied either in Michaelmas or in
Hilary terms, or in some cases over both terms.
- Option Papers:
these are courses on short periods or specific
themes; students have a free choice of any of the
subjects on offer in any given year from any of
the participating Faculties as well as from
Theology and Music. Option Papers will be studied
in Michaelmas and Hilary Terms. They will be
taught through a series of classes, seminars or
tutorials (as appropriate), in which primary and
secondary sources will be discussed collectively,
and their wider implications brought out.
- Compulsory Interdisciplinary seminar: to be
held in Hilary Term on a theme to be chosen by the
convenor. The seminar will stress the different
but complementary approaches to medieval sources
offered by different disciplines.
- Dissertation: students will be expected to
discuss the topic of their dissertation from the
beginning with a view to provisional decisions on
titles by the end of Michaelmas term and final
approval of titles by the end of the fourth week
of Hilary Term. Four hours of supervision will be
provided.
- Research methods workshop: to be held across
Michaelmas and Hilary terms, a series of classes
designed to address a number of issues encountered
by researchers in medieval studies at master's
level, but also intended to be responsive to and
shaped by student concerns.
- A day conference: to be held in Trinity Term.
Students will present work in progress on their
dissertations to each other and to tutors.
Themes for the compulsory interdisciplinary
seminar (past, present, future)
Hilary Term 2008: What
does it mean ‘to see’?
How visionary culture can be understood will be
explored from the varied perspectives of the
disciplines represented in this degree. We will look
at the theories that lay behind medieval visionary
experience, from St Augustine onwards; at how
visions were subsequently understood and expressed
in both literary and artistic mediums; at whether or
not late medieval culture became pre-occupied with
sight and in what ways ‘seeing’ might be gendered.
The guest speakers invited to the 2008 seminar were
Professor Caroline Walker Bynum and Professor
Barbara Newman.
Hilary Term 2009: Looking and laughing
Taking the previous year's theme of visionary
culture as a springboard, we shall focus on the
question of humour, addressing such issues as: by
what means and in what contexts the comic is
portrayed across disciplines; how visual
representations may be judged humorous or otherwise;
what functions humour could perform; and what it
meant 'to laugh' in medieval culture. The guest
speaker invited to the 2008-9 seminar is Professor
Kathryn Kerby-Fulton.
Hilary Term 2010: Passing On: tradition and
inheritance in the medieval context and beyond
We shall
look at a number of aspects of "passing" from one
generation to the next: bequest and inheritance,
texts and traditions, family and social values. The
guest speaker invited to the 2009-10 seminar,
Professor Roberta Gilchrist, will speak on the
subject of heirlooms, drawing on the archaeological
evidence of burials.
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Alternative History master's
programmes
• Medieval History
• Late Antique and Byzantine
Studies
• History of Art and Visual
Culture
• Modern British and
European History
• Global and Imperial
History
• US History
• Economic and Social History
• History
of Science, Medicine, and Technology
• English
Local History
• Women's
Studies
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