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MLitt in Irish and Scottish Studies

The MLitt in Irish-Scottish Studies allows students to construct a programme of study that will build on their previous educational experience and help them fulfil their intellectual ambitions.

Students with a general interest in Irish or Scottish culture can therefore take courses that allow them to range broadly across the histories of Ireland and Scotland and across historical periods and languages. They can also engage in both historical and literary study or focus their work within a single discipline.

Alternatively, as preparation for a PhD in either history or literature. students can construct a programme that allows them to specialise in particular historical periods: medieval, early modern, modern, or contemporary. They can also specialise in Gaelic literature and culture.

Additionally, the MLitt in Irish-Scottish Studies provides an exciting environment for those who want to develop their skills in creative writing and offers creative writing courses on poetry and on prose fiction which link with the study of contemporary Irish and Scottish culture.

Whichever of these routes a student chooses, the MLitt consists of three taught components (taken over two semesters) and a dissertation, which is researched and written between June and September. These amount to 180 course credits in a year. The taught components are:

(a) Core courses, taken by all students (minimum of 30 credits)

• Disciplinary and interdisciplinary training courses (minimum of 10 credits)
• Subject-based courses (maximum of 80 credits)

Students who satisfactorily pass the courses are allowed to proceed to

• Dissertation of approximately 15,000 words (in English) on a topic agreed between the student and course organiser or supervisor, and due for submission in early September (60 credits). For students focusing on creative writing, a substantial proportion of this can be their own creative work.

Not all courses are available in every year, but courses normally available in components (a) – (c) are:

• (a) Compulsory core courses:
  
  • Reading the Nation (20 credits)
  • Dissertation preparation (10 credits)
  • Students taking a history dissertation must take Introduction to Historical Research (20 credits)
    
    
• (b) Disciplinary, interdisciplinary and language training courses:
  
  • Introduction to Historical Research (15 credits)
  • Basic Latin for Postgraduates (20 credits)
  • Palaeography 1 (15 credits)
  • Modern Gaelic for Postgraduates A (15 credits)
  • Intermediate Latin for Postgraduates (20 credits)
  • Modern Gaelic for Postgraduates B (15 credits)
    
    
• (c) Subject-based courses:
  
  
• Literature:
  • Contemporary Northern Irish Literature and Culture (30 credits)
  • Walter Scott and his World (30 credits)
  • Dear Green Places: 20th Century Irish and Scottish Fiction (30 credits)
  • Irish and Scottish Romanticism (30 credits)
  • Irish and Scottish Modernism (30 credits)
    
    
• Creative Writing :
  • Creative Writing 1: Poetry (30 credits)(this course will only be available to students outwith the Creative Writing Programme if numbers permit).
  • Creative Writing 2: Prose (30 credits)
    
    
• History:
• Protestant Identities in the Early Modern British Isles (15 credits)
  
• War and Society in Medieval Scotland (20 credits)
  
• Studies in Early Modern Ireland, 1541-1800 (15 credit)
  
• Scotland and New Zealand: Emigration and Settlement (15 credits)
  
• Peacemaking and Bloodfeud in Scotland, 1390-1513 (20 credits)
• Trolls, Druids and the Walking Dead:Imagining the pagan past (15 credits)
• The Scottish and Irish Diaspora 1730-1930 (15 credits)
• Witchcraft, Traditional Practices and the Rise of Protestant Culture in Early Modern Scotland (15 credits)
• The Enlightenment in Comparison: Scotland, Ireland and Central Europe (15 credits)
• • Imaging Scotland: Art, Museums and Visual Culture (15 credits) ***
  • Visual Representations of Ireland and Scotland (15 credits) ***

Students who attend and satisfactorily complete components (a) - (c), but who do not write or who do not successfully complete a dissertation, will be awarded a Diploma in Irish and Scottish Studies.

Apply for the M.Litt

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Humanity Manse · 19 College Bounds · Aberdeen · AB24 3UG · Scotland · UK
Tel: +44(0)1224 272343 · Fax: +44(0)1224 273677 · Email: riiss@abdn.ac.uk