Medieval Studies (Structured PhD)

Structured PhD (Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences) (Medieval Studies)

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Course Overview
Course Outline
Research Areas
Course Fees
Contact Us

Course Overview

The PhD in Medieval Studies, delivered by a team of internationally-trained academics, is an interdisciplinary research programme normally completed in four years. Its cross-disciplinary approach encourages students to view the period from Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages (c. 500-1500), in Europe as well as in Ireland, in a multidimensional way, even as it allows students to focus on a particular research field.

The programme’s emphasis on languages and source studies equips students with the linguistic skills and interdisciplinary research methods required to undertake innovative research using manuscripts, primary texts, images and other material objects from the period. Students also gain some practical experience in a project-based module.

Depending on their previous qualifications, students attend core modules devoted to Palaeography and Manuscript Studies, alongside Sources & Resources for Medieval Studies during their first two years. These modules equip them with bibliographical and other research skills to find, read and interpret primary materials in multiple disciplines, as well as introducing them to the research questions and methodologies used by experts in such auxiliary sciences as diplomatic, philology, heraldry, text editing, digital humanities; a team-work project focused on digitised manuscript collections is included.

At some point students also study Latin and one or two other medieval vernacular languages (no prior knowledge of these languages is required) and might select topical modules in Archaeology, History, Late Antquity, or Literature in Old/Middle English, Old/Middle Irish, Old/Middle High German, or Medieval French (according to availability and particular interests). Students also complete a project-based module in an area like university tutoring; assisting in a research project, conference organisation or management of research resources; or reaching out to schools or local community groups.

A PhD thesis of 80,000 words is completed by the end of Year 4.

In addition to Supervisor(s), who oversee students’ thesis research and writing, their progress is monitored by a Graduate Research Committee consisting of three members of academic staff best suited to support their particular projects and selected from the full range of participating disciplines.

Programmes Available

Structured PhD (Medieval Studies)—full-time and part-time

Applications are made online via the Unievrsity of Galway Postgraduate Applications System.

Associated Research Centre

The Centre for Antique, Medieval, and Pre-modern Studies at NUI Galway was created by colleagues in Archaeology, Classics, English, French, German, History, Irish and Old and Middle Irish as an initiative operating under the aegis of the Moore Institute.

Its primary goals are to help promote, support, and disseminate the research of its members in both individual and collaborative projects to the wider national and international academic community; to create an academic community committed to the highest standards of collegiality and research; and to encourage and serve as a forum for outreach to the non-academic community.

The Centre’s research is focused on the following areas: Editing theory and practice; transmission and reception of texts; languages and cultures in contact; philology; texts and manuscript culture; gender and identity; kingship, lordship, & society; material culture; historiography; place-making.

CAMPS Research Labs provide a forum for staff and graduate students from all disciplines involved to come together in order to present work-in-progress and debate research issues. CAMPS Labs to date have taken a two-hour format, typically initiated with a presentation of specific research themes, questions and challenges, leading into informal and often very wide-ranging discussions.

Learning Outcomes

Entry Requirements

Applicants should normally have obtained an honours BA degree (NFQ level 8) in a participating discipline (Archaeology, Classics, History, or English, French, German or Irish Language & Literature), at the minimum class of Second Class Honours, Grade 1 (or equivalent international qualification; e.g., BA with GPA of 3.3); some applicants might have been awarded an MA in one of those disciplines as well.

By the time of application, candidates will have identified a research topic and key primary sources for it in discussion with the member(s) of staff whose academic interests are most appropriate and who have agreed to serve as the applicants’ Supervisor(s). No previous knowledge of Latin or any medieval language is required.

Who’s Suited to This Course

Current research projects

CAMPS

Moore Institute

Medieval Studies

Current funded research opportunity

PhD students are eligible for the Sieg & Dunlap Travel Bursary to present a paper at International Congress of Medieval Studies held annually at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo; see link here.

Work Placement

Related Student Organisations

Career Opportunities

Find a Supervisor / PhD Project

If you are still looking for a potential supervisor or PhD project or would like to identify the key research interests of our academic staff and researchers, you can use our online portal to help in that search

Course Outline

Curriculum Information

Curriculum information relates to the current academic year (in most cases).
Course and module offerings and details may be subject to change.

Glossary of Terms

Credits: You must earn a defined number of credits (aka ECTS) to complete each year of your course. You do this by taking all of its required modules as well as the correct number of optional modules to obtain that year's total number of credits.
Module: An examinable portion of a subject or course, for which you attend lectures and/or tutorials and carry out assignments. E.g. Algebra and Calculus could be modules within the subject Mathematics. Each module has a unique module code eg. MA140.
Subject: Some courses allow you to choose subjects, where related modules are grouped together. Subjects have their own required number of credits, so you must take all that subject's required modules and may also need to obtain the remainder of the subject's total credits by choosing from its available optional modules.
Optional: A module you may choose to study.
Required: A module that you must study if you choose this course (or subject).
Required Core Subject: A subject you must study because it's integral to that course.
Semester: Most courses have 2 semesters (aka terms) per year, so a three-year course will have six semesters in total. For clarity, this page will refer to the first semester of year 2 as 'Semester 3'.

Year 1 (90 Credits)

Year 2 (90 Credits)

Year 3 (90 Credits)

Year 4 (90 Credits)

Year 5 (90 Credits)

Year 6 (0 Credits)

Year 7 (0 Credits)

Year 8 (0 Credits)

Year 9 (0 Credits)

Research Areas

Archaeology, Classics, English, French, German, History, Irish and Old and Middle Irish.

Researcher Profiles

Archaeology

Dr Elizabeth FitzPatrick
Gaelic and Colonial Ireland 1300–1650, royal assembly culture in medieval Europe, urban settlement in traditional societies, and churches and their landscapes.

Mr Conor Newman
Ireland and the Roman world, Irish 'royal' landscapes from prehistory to the early middle ages, Irish art and iconography c. AD 300–700 and the Life and Legacy of Columbanus.

Dr Kieran O'Conor
Gaelic and Anglo-Norman Ireland 1100–1350, castles in their landscape and rural settlement across medieval Europe.

Classics

Dr Jacopo Bisagni
Indo-European, Celtic and Latin linguistics; early medieval Irish monastic literature.

Prof. Michael Clarke
Historical linguistics; epic poetry; medieval Irish heroic literature.

Dr Pádraic Moran
Didactic literature (in Latin and Irish), classroom texts and scholia; the study of Greek and Hebrew in the early medieval West; historical linguistics, manuscript studies.

Dr Mark Stansbury
Manuscript studies; Medieval Latin; Insular Christian culture; transmission of Classical texts.

English

Dr Dermot Burns

Middle English, Arthurian Literature, Medieval Epic and Romance Literature, Religious Writing, Robert Henryson, Medieval Aesthetics, Chivalric Literature.

Dr Clíodhna Carney
Old and Middle English; Chaucer; medieval poetics; medieval literary theory; Spenser; rhetoric, poetics.

Dr Frances McCormack
Old and Middle English Literature; in particular the works of Chaucer, religious and devotinal literature, and heresy.

French

Dr Catherine Emerson
Teaching: French language and literature, medieval literature (Romance, historiography), Historiographical literature, Islam in medieval French literature, Enlightment thought. Research: Fifteenth-century Burgundian literature, particularly historical literature; Memoires; Olivier de La March; Manneken Pis as regional symbol.

German

Michael Shields
Comparative medieval studies (Germanic and Romanic literatures); medieval German language and literature (Middle High German, Old High German); literature/music and performance of identity; late medieval musical performance (song, tuning of stringed instruments).

History

Dr Kimberly LoPrete
Continental Medieval Europe, most notably, society and culture in the 11th - 13th centuries, with special interests in lordship and society; aristocratic women, gender and power; the first crusade; the writing of historical narratives; cross-cultural exchanges with the mid-east & Asia; the transmission of texts; diplomatic, palaeography & manuscript studies.

Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
Ireland, Britain and Europe during the Early Middle Ages; computistics; medieval latin palaeography; Irish traditional music and song.

Irish/Old and Middle Irish and Celtic Studies

Dr Clodagh Downey
Celtic Studies, Old and Middle Irish language and literature, culture and society of early medieval Ireland.

Dr Graham Isaac
The contemporary linguistics of the Celtic and Indo-European languages, the ancient Celtic languages of Europe, literature of the Old- and Middle-Welsh.

An tOllamh Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha
Medieval and Early Modern Irish language and literature early Irish law; aspects of early Irish history.

Course Fees

Fees: EU

€5,750 p.a. (€5,890 including levy) 2024/25

Fees: Non EU

€14,500 p.a. (€14,640 including levy) 2024/25

Extra Information

EU Part time: Year 1 €4,250 p.a. (€4,390 including levy) 2024/25

All students, irrespective of funding, must pay the student levy of €140.

Contact Us

Dr. Kimberly LoPrete
T +353 91 493 547
E kim.loprete@universityofgalway.ie

Related links:
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Research
Graduate Studies Office

Postgraduate Prospectus 2024 PDF (3.3MB)

Gateway Pages

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Medieval Studies (Structured PhD)

Expand all

Course Overview

Programmes Available

Associated Research Centre

Learning Outcomes

Entry Requirements

Who’s Suited to This Course

Current research projects

Current funded research opportunity

Work Placement

Related Student Organisations

Career Opportunities

Find a Supervisor / PhD Project

Course Outline

Curriculum Information

Glossary of Terms

Year 1 (90 Credits)

Year 2 (90 Credits)

Year 3 (90 Credits)

Year 4 (90 Credits)

Year 5 (90 Credits)

Year 6 (0 Credits)

Year 7 (0 Credits)

Year 8 (0 Credits)

Year 9 (0 Credits)

Research Areas

Researcher Profiles

Course Fees

Fees: EU

Fees: Non EU

Extra Information

All students, irrespective of funding, must pay the student levy of €140.

Contact Us

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Medieval Studies (Structured PhD)

Expand all

Course Overview

Programmes Available

Associated Research Centre

Learning Outcomes

Entry Requirements

Who’s Suited to This Course

Current research projects

Current funded research opportunity

Work Placement

Related Student Organisations

Career Opportunities

Find a Supervisor / PhD Project

Course Outline

Curriculum Information

Glossary of Terms

Year 1 (90 Credits)

Year 2 (90 Credits)

Year 3 (90 Credits)

Year 4 (90 Credits)

Year 5 (90 Credits)

Year 6 (0 Credits)

Year 7 (0 Credits)

Year 8 (0 Credits)

Year 9 (0 Credits)

Research Areas

Researcher Profiles

Course Fees

Fees: EU

Fees: Non EU

Extra Information

All students, irrespective of funding, must pay the student levy of €140.

Contact Us

Downloads

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