Masters Degrees (Mythology)

Our researchers are internationally recognised experts in their fields, with three quarters of their research rated world leading, internationally excellent or internationally recognised in the latest Research Assessment Exercise.

The Hispanic Studies division was rated 5A in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise.

Supervision is provided in the major areas of Spanish, Spanish American and Portuguese literary and cultural studies. Members of staff have research interests in the following fields: Medieval: modern literary theory as applied to medieval texts; mythology and fantasy; oral literature; questions of transmission and textual criticism; Golden Age: Cervantes and the development of fiction; political and social thought; theatre; European Baroque culture; Modern Peninsular: Generation of 98; modern and contemporary fiction; narrative forms; Spanish American and Brazilian: Argentinian culture; women writers; gender, sexuality and representation; and theory.

Training and support

We offer supervision in the major areas of Spanish, Spanish-American and Portuguese literary and cultural studies, with particular research strengths in the 19th century, theatre of all periods, and the visual arts.

Thanks to the breadth of language research undertaken within the graduate school here at Edinburgh, we can also accommodate an interest in cross-cultural research with a programme of joint supervision.

Our staff pursue a diversity of research interests, offering you a wide choice of areas for study. Research staff have interests in the following fields:

• Cervantes and the development of fiction
• European Baroque culture
• gender, sexuality and representation
• Golden Age
• medieval (modern literary theory as applied to medieval texts)
• modern and contemporary fiction
• modern peninsular: generation of ’98
• mythology and fantasy
• narrative forms
• oral literature
• political and social thought
• questions of transmission and textual criticism
• Spanish American, Brazilian and Argentinian culture
• the essay and newspaper columns
• theatre
• women writers

Facilities

You will have access to the impressive collections of the University’s Main Library, in addition to the nearby National Library of Scotland and its outstanding collection of early modern Spanish material.

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An invitation

A ship is setting sail from England.

It’s a very old, very particular kind of ship.

It’s the magnificent, creaky timbered, curly roped, burgundy sail kind. You’ve seen bigger ships surely, and certainly more streamlined, but this one is hard to get over. It’s the kind that straightens your back and brings a tear to your eye as you shyly lift your gaze to its regal shape. This is the kind of ship that shouldn't exist anymore. 

Standing on the dock in the dusking light, you can hear singing carried over the waves, and excited laughter. Figures are calling to you from the deck, beckoning to you, calling to you in your old names. These are the names no one should know, the ancient names, how can this possibly be happening?

The evening moon is emerging from behind clouds. But let us lean forward, the captain is lifting her lantern: To all scholar-explorers and heretical investigators … there is something pressing to say, something urgent. This is an invitation.

We are setting sail to un-map the world.

Join us for this voyage … the world’s first postgraduate programme in Myth and Ecology – The Mundus Imaginalis.

Background

In a time when every square inch of the globe seems to be neutered, quartered and googled, we intrepids are journeying out to glimpse the Otherworld that is secreted most wonderfully in this one - to peer into the steaming foliage and bright feathered world that still exists underneath the grid - whilst we still can. The hour is late.

This is an Otherworld that wriggles in your fist like the archaic trout of the smoky Thames and disappears (carrying all of Shakespeare in its scales) when we attempt to tell it what-it-is. This right-by-our-side Otherworld causes ink to slide off the page and evaporate when we produce the T-square too avidly.

We set sail to do nothing less ambitious than to court the mysteries: the small and gentle ones, the elaborate and complex gnashing teethed ones, the ones you glimpsed at the edge of your garden when you were little. We set sail to un-map our presumption that we know what the earth is.

When we un-map the world, we start the un-colonising of our own imagination and we move from personal fantasy to an imagination that is bigger than ourselves. We understand that psyches don’t only dwell within, we dwell amidst them, and their imagination help create our reality every day. When we un-map the world it starts to talk back to us, we begin to trail not trap. We start to witness not just thinking about the earth, but thoughts from the earth.

Our travels through the waters of time and place will bring us to people and traditions where the weaving of the human and non-human are at their most permeable, their most acute and most sophisticated. In the end, we will trade our tired maps for the best compass of all, the one that really matters - a truth north - what the Troubadours called ‘the educated heart’. It is time, as the poets say; ‘to think in ways we’ve never thought before’. It is time to trade comfort for shelter.

Make no mistake, study awaits. An un-gridded world reveals not just knowledge but wisdom, an un-mapped world will reveal not chaos but cosmos. With that wisdom, with that cosmos, comes tangible learning and focused application. Be prepared. This will be the most exacting journey. Take not one single step towards the gangplank without knowing that we take no passengers. So, here we stand on the dock. It is night, but the scholar-explorers are preparing to raise anchor. The captain leans forward with her lantern one more time, peers towards us and asks:

“Shall we go?”

Aboard The Ship

This is a residential and immersive postgraduate programme that takes imagination seriously. It is delivered by Schumacher College, and is validated by University of Wales Trinity Saint David and led by mythologist Dr Martin Shaw and anthropologist Dr Carla Stang. Carla brings her knowledge of different cultures, her fieldwork and phenomenological study, Martin brings mythology and two decades of work as a wilderness rites-of-passage guide. As they rove through mythology, anthropology, philosophy and poetics, they will also invite guest teachers on a module by module basis.

This is a year-long programme where you will walk in and out of other centuries. It will be a deep and exacting study of image, cosmology, storytelling, myth and lived experience that reaches out to an earth that is profoundly more than human. From Amazonia to Siberia, from the Hermetic, Troubadour, Sufi and Romantic faiths and traditions, we are journeying out to study cultures that celebrate a world ensouled, alive and radiating intelligence.

The main counterweights of the year will be a progression through western mythologies (many hidden or barely remembered), and the lived philosophy of the Mehinaku people of Amazonia. There will be the study of many other lifeworlds, together with which we will learn how people in different times and places have and do respond to an earthy consciousness of extraordinary wonder, regarding such as both magical and utterly ordinary. Such experiential study is how we will begin to tune our ear.

Cloistered in the beautiful setting of the Dartington estate and upon the wild moors of Devon, England, is the chance to apprentice to subtle and often secret knowledge, the reason being that we are living in a time when many of these secrets need to become public, need to be practiced and need to be lived. In doing so we encounter the wonder of ordinary reality and that far from being a rarefied state available to only a few, we will find that a dynamic relationship to what the neo-platonists called the ‘Anima Mundi’- is our natural state.

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Few words are as evocative and intriguing as ‘Celtic’, bringing to mind the intricacies of Bronze Age jewellery, the massive structures of Stonehenge and Newgrange, the legends of Arthur and Cú Chulainn and the Bardic craft of medieval kings and princes. But ‘Celtic’ is also about the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the New World; Romanticism, Revolution and the struggles for survival in modernity of languages, literatures and entire national identities.

This new course from Bangor University gives students the opportunity and ability to sift fact and fiction, and to answer in detail the question:

‘Who were – and who are – the Celts?’

Over a single academic year, modules will be taught by experts in the Schools of Welsh, History, and Music, focusing on literature, archaeology, religion, mythology, antiquarianism, art history and music, to explore the culture and identity of the Celtic peoples from the hillforts of prehistory to the devolved and independent parliaments of today.

Students on the course will also be guided as they perform their own research towards a Master’s thesis on a topic of their choice.

All instruction is available through English or Welsh, and comprehensive ESOL support is available where necessary.

Major issues covered on the MA ‘Y Celtiaid – The Celts’ include:

Do ‘The Celts’ actually exist, and if so, who and what are they? How can we discuss such questions, with what methodology and with what evidence?
How has the word itself (‘Celt’, ‘Keltoi’, etc.) been used through the centuries, from Classical historians to modern pop musicians?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of ‘Celtomania’ and ‘Celtoscepticism’? How has the concept of the ‘Celt’ has been discovered and discarded in various fields such as Literature, Archaeology, Linguistics, Music, Religion?
How did nineteenth-century Continental scholars contribute to the creation of the ‘Celt’?
How do and how did the Celtic-speaking peoples negotiate their own identities? What do the medieval texts (Laws, Legends, Court Poetry, Saints’ Lives) and archaeological findings tell us, and what does recent history have to say?
What are the main sources of evidence for the histories and identities of the ‘Celtic’ peoples (i.e. those speaking Celtic languages in the modern period)? How do we use these sources? Can Arthur and Cú Chulainn tell us anything useful?
How have the ethnic and national identities of the modern ‘Celts’ been represented and negotiated with reference to this concept of the ‘Celtic’?
What has been – and what is – the political and ideological relevance of the ‘Celt’?
With issues such as these in mind, the MA ‘Y Celtiaid – The Celts’ is designed to develop participants’ skills through a scheme of specialist advanced study. An important objective is to provide participants with relevant analytical training, so that they are familiar with the latest theoretical and practical developments relating to Celtic Studies. On completing this course, students will have a solid grounding in the main methods and sources of the discipline, and will also have developed widely-transferrable skills which will be of clear relevance to a broad range of careers.

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Our innovative MA in Classics and Ancient History gives you the chance to study for a world-class degree with the flexibility to tailor the programme to match your own interests. We will give you a supportive and stimulating environment in which to enhance the knowledge and skills you picked up at Undergraduate level.

You can choose to follow an open pathway to mix your modules and interests or one of the specially designed research streams that match our own specialisms. The research streams we currently offer are:

• Ancient Philosophy, Science and Medicine 

• Ancient Politics and Society

• Classical Receptions 

• Cultural Histories and Material Exchanges 

• Literary Interactions

At the heart of the Department is the A.G. Leventis Room, our dedicated Postgraduate study space, which you will have full access to. You might also take the opportunity to participate in Isca Latina, our local schools Latin outreach programme. We have a vibrant Postgraduate community which we hope you will become an active part of.

If you decide to join us at Exeter you will become part of one of the largest and most successful Classics and Ancient History Departments in the UK. We have an excellent reputation for both our teaching and our research with league table rankings to match.

Programme Structure

The programme is divided into units of study(modules).

Compulsory modules

• Research Methodology
• Dissertation

Optional modules

The optional modules determine the main focus of your MA study. Some examples of the optional modules are as follows;

• Food and Culture;
• Ancient Drama in its Social and Intellectual Context;
• Hellenistic Culture and Society – History;
• Hellenistic Culture and Society – Literature ;
• Cultural Transformations in Late Antiquity;
• Migration and the Migrant Through Ancient and Modern Eyes;
• Ancient Philosophy: Truth and Ancient Thought;
• Roman Myth; Rome: Globalisation, Materiality;
• The City of Rome (subject to availability);
• Greek;
• Latin;
• Fast-Track Greek;
• Classical Language and Text: Greek and Latin Epic.

The modules listed here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

Research areas

Our academic staff have a broad range of expertise and ground-breaking research interests, some of the research streams available on our MA reflect these. We regularly review and update our MA programme to reflect both the needs of our students and the latest emerging research within the field.

Research expertise

Some of the areas we have a special research interest include:

• Ancient and modern philosophy, especially ethics

• Classical art and archaeology

• Classics in the history of sexuality

• Comparative philology and linguistics

• Food in the ancient world

• Greek and Roman epic, tragedy and comedy

• Greek and Roman mythology, religion and magic

• Greek and Roman social history, especially sexuality

• Hellenistic history, especially the barbarian interface and the Greek culture of Asia Minor and dynastic studies

• History of medicine in antiquity, especially Galen

• Later Greek literature, including Lucian, Athenaeus, ecphrasis

• Latin literature

• Palaeography

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Develop a critical understanding of the Celtic world in this interdisciplinary programme drawing on archaeological, historical, literary and mythological sources.

Studying in a modern Celtic capital with experts from Archaeology, English, History and Welsh, you are additionally well-placed to access key specialist collections and western Britain’s major Celtic sites.

You will be able to critically assess the work of others and of your own, to engage effectively in debate at an advanced level, to plan, design and carry out a coherent research strategy, and to produce detailed and coherent reports and presentations.

The wide-range of non-transferable skills acquired are a particular strength for the pursuit of careers outside of archaeology and the heritage sector.

You will develop a critical understanding of people to whom the term Celtic has been applied, from the earliest European evidence through to the historical and literary evidence of early medieval Britain.

Distinctive features:

• Detailed concentration on the Celtic world.
• Literary, historical and archaeological approaches.
• Opportunities for interdisciplinary approaches.
• Expert supervision of dissertation topics.
• You may have the opportunity to build on your existing skill-set through participation in projects and excavations.
• Specialist library facilities.
• Cardiff's location in western Britain makes it geographically central to much of the material under discussion.

Structure

You take a total of 180 credits of modules over one year (full-time) or three years (part-time) consisting of:

• core skill modules (40 credits)
• your choice of option modules (80 credits)
• dissertation (60 credits)

Following successful completion of the taught stage you will progress to the dissertation (60 credits).

For this element of the programme you research and write your 20,000 words on a subject of your choice, approved in consultation with academic staff.

Core modules:

Postgraduate Skills in Archaeology and Conservation
Skills and Methods for Postgraduate Study
Dissertation

Optional modules:

Pwnc Arbennig 1 / Special Subject 1
Pwnc Arbennig 2 / Special Subject 2
Special Period/ Topic Study 1
Special Period/ Topic Study 2
Later Prehistory of Britain
Post-Roman Britain and Ireland
The Early Celts
Celtic Mythology and Religion

Teaching

You will be taught through a mix of seminars, lectures and tutorials (depending on modules chosen).

On successful completion of the taught elements of the programme you will progress to a dissertation of up to 20,000 words on a topic or theme of your choice (subject to the approval of your supervisor).

Teaching is through the medium of English though there are many opportunities to learn Welsh.

Assessment

Taught stage assessment is via essays, presentation and coursework. As part of the programme, you will deliver presentations to your fellow MA students within our supportive community.

Career prospects

Graduates of this and similar degree programmes have embarked on careers in a range of professions from academia, the heritage sector, journalism and law to media research (media, commercial, academic), teaching and publishing. A significant number choose to continue studies at PhD level.

Recent graduate destinations include CADW, Church in Wales, Council for British Archaeology, Glamorgan Archives, Heritage Lottery Fund, National Trust, Tate Gallery, Welsh Assembly Government and a range of universities in the UK and overseas.

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Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study Ancient Narrative Literature at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).

The MA in Ancient Narrative Literature is the first of its kind in the world. It draws on world-level expertise to explore the various types of narrative produced in ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt.

Key Features

This MA in Ancient Narrative Literature focuses on the narratives of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, both fictional and factual, in a variety of literary forms, including the novel, epic poetry, mythology, historiography and biography. It is taught by a team of scholars associated with the KYKNOS research centre, whose research in this field is internationally recognised.

The MA in Ancient Narrative Literature introduces students to the key concepts of literary and cultural theory connected with narrative and encourages them to explore new ways of reading ancient texts. As well as some of the classics of ancient literature, the MA in Ancient Narrative Literature also examines some less familiar texts that articulate the stories of sections of the ancient population marginalised by gender and social status.

The MA in Ancient Narrative Literature offers excellent preparation for students who intend to undertake further research in this exciting and rapidly developing area of Classical literature. Students will have the opportunity to begin or continue the study of Greek and/or Latin.

Students of the MA Ancient Narrative Literature can take advantage of the College of Arts and Humanities' Graduate Centre which fosters and supports individual and collaborative research activity of international excellence and offers a vibrant and supportive environment for students pursuing postgraduate research and taught masters study. The Centre provides postgraduate training to enhance academic and professional development and facilitates participation in seminar programmes, workshops and international conferences.

Modules

Modules on the MA in Ancient Narrative Literature typically include:

• Narrative Theory and Genres

• Ancient Greek or Latin language

• Being Greek Under Rome: Greek Literature and Culture in the Imperial Period

• Romance Refracted and Novels Renewed

• Greek and Roman Magic :Exploring the Sources

• Reading Academic German

• Explorers, Travel and Geography

• Saints and Sinners in Christian Late Antiquity

• Word, Metaphor, Allegory: effective models of reality

Student Quote

"I studied at Swansea University for my Undergraduate degree and fell in love with the city, the university campus and the lecturers and supporting staff at the university. Deciding to do my MA in Ancient Narrative Literature here was therefore partly influenced by this. However, Ancient Narrative Literature at Swansea University was an attractive choice mostly because of the quality of the lecturers here. Both Professor John Morgan who is already a highly esteemed scholar within the area of the Ancient Greek novels and Dr Ian Repath who is a rising star in the same subject area make Swansea University the ideal place to study Ancient Narrative Literature at MA level."

Ida Meland

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The MA Classical Studies concentrates on the literature and culture of the Greco-Roman world. Students have the opportunity to study some historical subjects if they so wish. The study of ancient languages is an essential part of this degree, but no existing knowledge of either Greek or Latin is required for admission.

Course Overview

A degree in Classical Studies gives you the opportunity to study a wide range of modules from mythology to religion and all genres of ancient literature, such as epic, tragedy. As understanding texts in their original language is an essential part of further studies, the study of an ancient language is compulsory.

Modules

-Women in Ancient Myth
-Medicine in the Ancient World
-Erotic Poetry in the Ancient World
-Stories, Histories, and Ticket-Sales: Greeks and Romans on the Silver Screen
-Myth in Greek and Roman Epic

Key Features

The MA in Classical Studies will have a special appeal to those students who wish to study the ancient world with a focus on language and literature, and the interpretation of ancient texts. Providing our students with a range of learning opportunities and excellent teaching is the primary aim of the School of Classics. We employ innovative methods and approaches that enhance our students’ learning throughout their studies.

All our modules are taught by specialists and active researchers. The influence of our research on our teaching offers our students the opportunity to learn from the best in the subject and follow the latest scholarly trends and discoveries.

Our programme is designed to help learners both on campus and at a distance. Our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a live forum through which students and staff can interact, through which students are better able to revise and explore difficult topics and through which students are better able to access the electronic resources available in the virtual world.

Studying Classical Studies with us here at University of Wales Trinity Saint David means research-led teaching and research-active learning in an environment that allows for both full use of the virtual world and the personal approach of expert tuition.

Assessment

An MA degree in Classical Studies involves a wide range of assessment methods. In addition to traditional essays, you will be assessed through bibliographic exercises, presentations – oral and PowerPoint-based, creation of abstracts, in-house conference papers, article reviews, creation of project plans and, of course, the dissertation. This variety of assessment helps develop skills in presenting material in a clear, professional and lucid manner, whether orally or in writing.

The assessment is on the student’s own subject of choice in relation to each module, always in consultation with the relevant tutor. Most modules are assessed by long essays, but some modules are assessed by alternative means, such as conference-style presentations.

Career Opportunities

The programme provides a broad foundation for postgraduate work, by laying particular emphasis on the methodologies and research tools needed for independent advanced study, thus acting as training for students who intend to undertake an MPhil or PhD.

The course also provides a professional qualification for teachers or others seeking Continuing Professional Development.

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Learning how to make new discoveries that will contribute to a better understanding of the historical and social significance of works of art, artefacts and other cultural products from classical antiquity to the present.

Art is an expression of the human spirit. The study of art deals with cultural, social, religious, political and aesthetic meaning in the time it was created, the present and the eras in between. Think of how the Greek mythology of Narcissus – who has been portrayed in countless sculptures and paintings over the ages – was used by Freud to name a psychological disorder and is today used by politicians to symbolise the flaws of modern society. And think of how the destruction of art, be it by Byzantine iconoclasts, sixteenth-century Dutch protestants, or present-day adherents of IS, teaches us that the emotional and political significance of art goes far beyond the loss of objects.

The research Master’s in Art and Visual Culture studies the relationship between art, the past and the present from various angles, including the interpretation of the cultural contexts of visual expressions and their transformations throughout the ages up to now. This programme is geared towards classical archaeologists, art historians and cultural scholars alike. You’ll gain insight into general humanities methods and theories as well as those specific for those three fields. You can then go to focus on your own topic in the field of Art-Historical, Cultural Studies and Archaeology.

See the website http://www.ru.nl/masters/arts-culture ;

Europe and ‘its worlds’

The programme welcomes students with interest in all forms of art and visual culture. Our own research primarily focuses on Europe and ‘its worlds’, including how European artefacts interact with and differ from the rest of the world. Our research studies artefacts in the broadest sense, ranging from the more traditional forms as sculptures, paintings and architecture to modern ones as film, digital art, the performing arts and even fashion. All our research is performed in collaboration with scientists from other fields within the Institute for Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies (HLCS). We are joined in thirteen themed research groups .

Why study Art and Visual Culture at Radboud University?

- We teach you to look at the physical, artistic and visual qualities of an artwork or artefact, seen from the perspectives of three different disciplines: Classical Archaeology, Cultural Studies and Art History.

- In your first year, you take several courses with students from the other HLCS research Master’s specialisations in Historical Studies, and in Literary Studies. This unique construction will allow you to view your own field from the perspective of the other humanities.

- A personal tutor will guide you throughout the entire programme. He/she will give you advice on how to tailor our programme to best suit your interests, act as a sounding board for your research ideas, and help you make the right connections in the academic arena.

- You’ll receive thorough preparation for PhD research, including the writing of a publishable scholarly article and a proposal for a PhD project.

- This programme strongly encourages you to go abroad for at least a semester. Students can use our connections to other universities (IRUN network ) and research institutes to find a place that meet their academic interests.

Our research in this field

Any research done by students of the Master’s in Art and Visual Culture will be supervised by a researcher at the Institute for Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies (HLCS) in Nijmegen. HLCS research focuses around the theme Europe and its Worlds and questions whether ‘Europe’ consists of different worlds, how it is addressed, how it differs from the rest of the world, and how it interacts with other worlds. Researchers from a variety of humanities disciplines collaborate in thirteen different thematic groups to explore the spaces, cultural practices, beliefs, texts and ideas related to Europe and its World.

Thematic research groups

There are art and cultural scientists in many of these thematic groups. Although all the groups could be of interest to an art and cultural researcher, our experience is that the following generate a lot of interest among the Art and Visual Culture students:

- Matter And Culture: Analysis, Discourse & Aesthetics of/in Material Culture

The common framework of this group is research into material culture as the bearer of meaning in the broadest sense.

- Creative Industries: Society, Culture and Aesthetics in the 21st century

This group aims to gain a socio-cultural understanding of the creative industries. The group views the creative industries as a dynamic sector of autonomous and applied arts that range from theatre, music, media, literature and museums; to gaming, film, fashion and television, as well as to design, arts education, heritage and festivals.

- Memory, Materiality and Meaning in the Age of Transnationalism

This group studies the material as well as immaterial media and forms of embodiment through which we create memory through meaning-making and performative practices.

Master’s thesis topics in Art and Visual Culture:

For their Master’s thesis research, students can work together with researchers from one of the HLCS research groups or choose a topic in a non-related area. A small sample of thesis topics that you could research in this programme:

- Understanding the Post-Pompeian Era: Wall painting in the Roman Empire (AD 79-395)

- Crime in a Nordic Space: The Production of Space in Forbrydelsen

- William Marlowe in his time: an eighteenth-century view painter rediscovered

- Unravelling the Fabrics of Time: A New Materialist Perspective on Slow Fashion Becomings

- A Pyramidal Structure along the Via Appia. Documentation and reconstruction

See the website http://www.ru.nl/masters/arts-culture

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This interdisciplinary Masters course draws on studies in mythology, psychology, anthropology, theology, esoteric philosophy, a range of wisdom traditions and the arts.

It offers a discerning investigation into seemingly non­rational modes of knowing, exploring the cosmological sense of the sacred, the widespread practices of symbol interpretation and the cultural role of the creative imagination.

Visit the website: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/courses/postgraduate/myth-cosmology-and-the-sacred.aspx

Course detail

The overall aim of the course is to encourage critical, imaginative and creative ways of engaging reflexively with some of the most important questions of our time, such as the debate between science and religion, the nature of sacred reality, and the foundations of spiritual, religious and ritual experience. To do this we explore theories of knowledge and consciousness, oracular and divinatory practices (ancient and contemporary), and the cultural expression of myth in landscape, poetry, art and music.

The course has been highly praised as an outstanding example of transformative learning, as it brings personal reflection and creativity to bear on the study of spirituality in the broadest sense. It brings to the fore issues of connectivity, sustainability, ecological awareness, and the engagement of the imagination in the aid of individual, community and global understanding, wellbeing and harmony.

Canterbury is a perfect venue to study this course, with its ecclesiastical heritage, rich literary history, beauty of landscape and architecture, and easy access to both London and the continent.

Suitability

The course will appeal to all those seeking to develop and enrich their lives through the study of the history, philosophy and practices of Western sacred and esoteric traditions, and will be of particular interest to teachers, practitioners and therapists in the fields of contemporary spirituality and wellbeing who would like to engage more deeply with both the foundations of their work and their own self-knowledge.

There are many areas for potential further study, and we now have a thriving graduate environment with MPhil/PhD researchers pursing topics as diverse as the music of the spheres, Freemasonry, conflict resolution, alchemical symbolism, transformative learning and intuitive reading methods.

Content

The four taught modules, comprising seminars, learning journal groups and workshops take place at alternate weekends, in term time, from October to March, with optional workshops in the summer term.

The Creative Project assignment and dissertation module take place from April to September (for full-time students) and April to the following September (for part-time students). Each teaching weekend includes an open lecture by a visiting speaker. There are also optional sessions on Friday afternoons (compulsory for Tier 4 students).

The four taught modules will address the following topics:

• Theories and Methods

• Symbol and Imagination

• Oracular and Divinatory Traditions

• Spirit and Psyche

• Creative Project

• Learning Journal

• Dissertation

Format

Teaching methods include seminars, lectures and workshops. Students can expect eight hours of teaching each study weekend, plus two hours of learning journal groups. They also receive individual supervision for each taught and research assignment, and eight hours of research preparation seminars.

They will attend two days a year for creative project presentations and a variety of optional workshops will be offered. There will also be an open public lecture at each study weekend, on the Saturday evening, which they are encouraged to attend, and optional Friday afternoon seminars on a variety of themes.

Assessment

Four essays of 4,000 words (20 credits each), one creative project review of 4,000 words, one learning journal write-up of 4,000 words (20 credits each) and one dissertation of 12-15,000 words (60 credits).

What can I do next?

Most of the students on this course are mature adults with established careers. However, possible career opportunities might include teaching, counselling and mentoring, spiritual and wellbeing guidance, alternative healing and therapies, writing and media, the arts, and further research.

How to apply

For information on how to apply, please follow this link: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/how-to-apply/how-to-apply.aspx

Fees and Funding

See our postgraduate fees and funding page to discover the loans, scholarships and bursaries available.

View https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/fees-and-funding/postgraduate-fees-funding/postgraduate-funding.aspx

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The MRes Ancient History offers students whose interests centre on the study of ancient history the opportunity to take a specialist research-intensive degree tailored to those interests and to pursue their own independent research to a further extent than in an MA.

Course Overview

The MRes is a degree best suited to students with a proven penchant for independent research. The MRes includes 60 credits (3 modules) of taught modules, but the main focus of the degree is on a longer piece of individual research (30,000 words). Applicants are required to discuss their proposed research with the School before application, and the proposed research must be in one of the areas of supervision offered by the School of Classics.

The MRes in Ancient History begins with a specialist Research Methodology module introducing students to the multiple sources, materials, theories and methodologies for the study of ancient Greek and Roman civilisations. Students then have the opportunity to choose two modules according to their own interests in the ancient world, with the option to specialise in a particular aspect of ancient history, whether in chronological terms, such as Greek or Roman history, or in terms of themes, such as the ancient economy. The choice of taught modules gives students not only the opportunity to explore areas that they might not have had the opportunity to study before, but also to specialise in a specific aspect of the ancient world in preparation for the MRes dissertation.

The dissertation is the greater part of the MRes in Ancient History, as students have the opportunity to conceive and research a topic of their own design of greater length and depth than the MA dissertation.

This will enable those students with a greater preference for independent research, and perhaps with a clearer sense at the start of the programme of what they would like to base their research upon, to undertake in-depth research within a structured programme of study. It will also provide students with an excellent introductory pathway into further study at MPhil or PhD level.

Modules

-Julius Caesar and his Times:
-Pagans, Jews, and Christians in Late Antiquity
-History and Historians in the Ancient World
-Power and Culture in the Hellenistic East
-Ancient Medicine: Myth and Practice
-Women in ancient Myth and Society

Key Features

The MRes in Ancient History is designed to provide students with a penchant for independent research the opportunity to pursue research into a subject of their own choice. The subject of the dissertation is discussed and agreed in advance, and it is expected that the choice of taught modules will relate to the research subject chosen.

The main general areas of research supervision in the School are:
-Greek and Roman epic
-Latin poetry of the late Republican and Imperial periods
-Literary uses of mythology
-Greek and Roman Africa
-Hellenistic Asia Minor and the Near East
-Identity, ethnicity and ethnogenesis in the Roman empire
-Roman religion
-Ancient Economy, particularly of the Greek Classical period and of the Roman empire
-Greek and Roman historiography
-Sex and Gender in the ancient world
-Health and healing in the ancient world
-Graeco-Roman relations with India

The above are general subject areas. Please contact us to discuss your specific ideas and interests.

Providing our students with a range of learning opportunities and excellent teaching is the primary aim of the School of Classics. We employ innovative methods and approaches that enhance our students’ learning throughout their studies.

All our modules are taught by specialists and active researchers. The influence of our research on our teaching offers our students the opportunity to learn from the best in the subject and follow the latest scholarly trends and discoveries, whilst our independent study modules allow you to explore your passion in its entirety.

Our programme is designed to help learners both on campus and at a distance. Our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a live forum through which students and staff can interact, through which students are able better to revise and explore difficult topics and through which students are better able to access the electronic resources available in the virtual world.

Studying Ancient History with us here at Trinity Saint David means research-led teaching and research-active learning in an environment that allows for both full use of the virtual world and the personal approach of expert tuition.

Assessment

An MRes degree in Ancient History involves a wide range of assessment methods. In addition to traditional essays, you will be assessed through bibliographic exercises, presentations – oral and powerpoint based, creation of abstracts, in-house conference papers, article reviews, creation of project plans and, of course, the dissertation. This variety of assessment helps develop skills in presenting material in clear, professional and a lucid manner, whether orally or in writing.

This breadth of assessment type creates variety in the student experience, allowing you to explore the subject in different ways, and also embeds within the Ancient History programme the specific employability skills desired, indeed required, by employers today.

Career Opportunities

The programme provides a broad foundation for postgraduate work, by laying particular stress on the methodologies and research tools needed for independent advanced study, thus acting as training for students who intend to undertake an MPhil or PhD.

The course also provides a professional qualification for teachers or others seeking Continuing Professional Development.

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The MA Ecology and Spirituality brings together the expertise in theology, philosophy and anthropology of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David with the pioneering spiritual and ecological thinking developed by Schumacher College (Devon) over the last 25 years.

Course Overview

At this point in human history, many academics, activists, leaders and thinkers are calling for an urgent reconsideration of the cultural narratives and spiritual values that support our very existence on the planet. In an attempt to divert the current trajectory of ‘progress’ and ‘development’ towards a more sustainable and equitable future, this requires objective and critical thinking about our relationship and connection to the natural world, to the people and communities around us and to the very beliefs and values that drive our individual and collective actions.

This programme in Ecology and Spirituality brings together the theological legacy of academic work at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David with the spiritual and ecological thinking developed to postgraduate level by Schumacher College over 25 years. It explores the role of spirituality, religion, philosophy, science and narrative as the underlying causes, but also the potential solutions, to the systemic ecological crises in which we find ourselves. From different perspectives it will track the roots, thought-lines and stories that have caused our modern-day disconnection from the natural world and from each other – and look at ways in which we might make re-connection, in theory and in practice, for ourselves and for others.

More than simply postgraduate study, this programme is a personal and experiential journey – an opportunity for you to deeply explore your own inner landscape and how it relates to your actions in the outer world. Safely held within the transformational space that Schumacher College has become known for worldwide, you will combine critical thinking and academic rigour with an exploration of your own values, beliefs and personal narratives and how these fit, and find resonance and authenticity with your life and work. This is a chance to look at your own disconnection – its origins, influences and consequences – and in doing so find personal and collective solutions to living in a more sustainable, resilient, connected and beautiful world.

Modules

Programme Modules:
-Science and Spirit (Delivered at Schumacher College)
-The Ecological Self (Delivered at Schumacher College)
-Indigeny Today (Delivered at Schumacher College)
-Sacred Activism (Delivered at Schumacher College)
-Mythology (Delivered at Schumacher College)
-Religion and the Environment (Delivered via distance learning)
-Environmental Philosophy (Delivered via distance learning)
-Heavenly Discourse (Delivered via distance learning)
-Sacred Geography (Delivered via distance learning)

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