MA Early Modern History

This Early Modern History MA examines the history of Britain, Europe, and the wider world between 1500 and 1800, highlighting themes of political, cultural, religious, and social history. You’ll learn about the various approaches to writing the history of early modern Europe whilst developing the specific skills you’ll need to research early modern topics. This includes mastering archives and gaining the linguistic and palaeographic skills to work with early modern documents from Britain, Ireland, France, the German lands, Portugal, the Iberian world, and beyond. During your Early Modern History master’s, you will learn how to critically evaluate a range of theories, methods, and approaches in the field. You’ll learn from academics about their areas of expertise and you’ll enjoy visits to libraries, archives, and museums as part of your degree. Thanks to a wide range of optional modules, you can tailor your Early Modern History MA to specialise in the areas that interest you most. At the end of your postgraduate study, you will get to work on your own piece of research and produce a dissertation.Key benefitsThe only Early Modern History MA taught in London . Enhance your education with unrivalled access to museums, collections, archives, and libraries on your doorstep–and across Europe.Discover how to navigate archives and become empowered to conduct your own research using original documents from the early modern era.Join one of the best history departments in the world. King’s is ranked 3rd in the UK for Research Power (REF 2021) and top 10 in Europe for history (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024).Learn from experts whose current research informs their teaching and engages you with the most cutting-edge insights and debates.Enjoy an open and vibrant research culture of seminars, workshops, and conferences in the department and at the Institute of Historical Research.Get a head start on your career by graduating from a university with high graduate employment rates and starting salaries. King’s is ranked 7th in the UK for graduate employability (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023-24.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.