King's College London - Faculty of Arts & Humanities

MA in Early Modern History

Our course looks at the history of Britain, Europe, and the wider world between c.1500 and 1800, highlighting themes of political, cultural, religious, and social history. Taught by experts in the histories of the Reformation and the Enlightenment, gender and the body, the material world of the Renaissance, race and racism, medicine and science, violence and conflict, and on Britain, Ireland, the German lands, Portugal and the Iberian world, our course offers you the opportunity to choose from a wide range of study options at one of Europe’s leading History departments.

Our course leads to careers in museums, journalism, finance, and the cultural sector, as well as further study in History and related disciplines.

Key benefits

• One of the best history departments in the world, ranked 3rd in the UK for Research Power (REF 2021) and seventh among departments of history in Europe (QS World University Rankings 2023)
• King's graduates enjoy one of the best employment rates and starting salaries in the UK
• King's is ranked 6th in the UK for graduate employability (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022)
• A wide set of optional modules all taught by established experts in the field
• Two rigorous core courses that train students in historical research in archives, manuscripts, print, visual culture, and objects and a range of methodological and historical approaches Central London location and staff expertise offers students unrivaled access to world-class museums, collections, archives, and libraries as well as easy access to resources in Europe
• Vibrant research culture of seminars, workshops, and conferences in the department and at the Institute of Historical Research, in which students are encouraged to participate

Course essentials

This Early Modern History MA looks at the ways in which cultural, political, and social themes stretch across the period c.1500–1800 while bridging the division between British and European history.

You’ll learn from experts in the histories of the Reformation and the Enlightenment, gender, the material world of the Renaissance, race, and racism, covering Britain, Ireland, the German lands, France, Italy, and the Iberian world.

The first required module in your master’s will introduce you to methodological and theoretical approaches to writing early modern history that you will then interrogate and deploy yourself. It’s taught by the entire early modern history team in rotation, which means you’ll get to know each of our academic experts early in your degree. You will test concepts such as identity, mentality, and religion by challenging models of change, including modernisation, state-building, the civilising process, Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, and revolution.

You will also get the chance to try out different methodologies, such as cultural history, gender, thinking with material objects, global history, and using digital data. You will also become equipped with the essential skills you’ll need to study early modern history at an advanced level with a particular emphasis on research-specific skills to prepare you for your own independent research. Opportunities to study Latin or other languages, and to learn palaeographic skills to work with original materials, can usually also be provided. The second required module in this Early Modern History MA addresses the nature of historical practice. You will explore history as a discipline–and its interdisciplinarity–to empower you to use and critically evaluate a range of theories, methods, and approaches.

You’ll also learn how to interrogate the archive by questioning its power structures and political implications, who controls access to it, how to read material against the grain, how to explore the history of underrepresented groups, and more. You’ll do this alongside King’s historians, who are experts in, among other approaches, feminist history, decolonising curricula, histories of slavery and ‘race’, histories of sexuality, and disability history.

Your research skills in quantitative approaches, visual and textual analysis, and oral presentation of materials will all be strengthened, preparing you to conduct your own research, whether diving into physical or digital archives. As you write your own essays, you’ll master the skill of critical synthesis, which is vital for further research and transferrable to many other fields of work and study.

The rest of this MA in Early Modern History is comprised of optional modules. This flexibility allows you to craft your own curriculum and choose the topics that interest you most. You’ll delve into primary sources and analyse the most recent historiographical interpretations.

For example, you could study the body and society in early modern Europe, learn about the public history of science, technology, and medicine, explore British moral and political thought in early modernity, and consider God, man, and nature in Europe.

You can focus your optional modules on the study of early modern history or broaden your experience with interdisciplinary modules offered by a selection of other master’s programmes at King’s. For example, you could take modules in early modern English, French literature, the Iberian world, or Digital Humanities. You could also choose to learn or improve another language by taking a module at the King's Language Centre, and you can even take modules from the wide range of options elsewhere in the University of London.

You may also be able to undertake an internship as part of your master’s. This exciting opportunity will see you work on a research project, either with someone at King’s or a participating institution, to boost your CV and enhance your research skills.

This Early Modern History master’s culminates in a dissertation, where you’ll explore your own research question under the supervision of a member of the academic team. There are many opportunities to enhance your education through extracurricular activities. You will have the opportunity to join active programmes of academic seminars, small conferences, and reading groups, including at the Centre for Early Modern Studies, the Institute of Historical Research, and more. If you wish, you can attend the undergraduate lecture series, called ‘Early Modern Worlds, 1500-1800’, to broaden your knowledge base.

Thanks to your location in the heart of London, you’ll have leading archives, museums, collections, and historical organisations on your doorstep. Plus, you’ll have access to King’s own collection of archival and manuscript resources from the early modern period. This means you can sift through the British Library’s Manuscripts and Rare Books Collections one day, then dive into the Maughan Library at King’s the next, where you’ll find an extensive collection of early printed books. You will also find visual resources from the early modern era easily accessible at the National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery, Courtauld Institute, Tate Britain, Wellcome Collection, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Duration: One year full-time, two years part-time, September to September