Details
This is the degree for you if you enjoyed studying the ancient world as an undergraduate, and would now like to study Byzantine Studies in greater depth and at a higher level; or if you want to explore this aspect of antiquity and it wasn’t included in your first degree. It allows you to specialise, but also encourages you to branch out into related disciplines and to consider interdisciplinary approaches.
You will study three core modules and three optional modules (from across all of the programme’s pathways), offering the opportunity for interdisciplinary study. You will also complete a 15,000-word dissertation on a subject of your choice, with one-to-one expert supervision.
Why study this course
Classical antiquity has been studied at the University of Birmingham for more than a hundred years. Particular current research strengths include: the ancient city, especially Rome and Pompeii; cultural memory; trends in the study and writing of study; religion; the life course; Greek colonisation; ancient slavery; reception of antiquity; performance and civic identity; Hellenistic Greece; Herodotus; and cultural contact between Greece, the Ancient Near East and Egypt.
With such a range of expertise available, you will be supported to explore your specific interests, particularly through the dissertation.
Modules
You will study three core modules:
The Methodologies of Byzantine Studies
This module gives you an overview of the essential sources for the study of Byzantium – images, documents, narrative accounts, coins, seals inscriptions, archaeological remains – and explores the possibilities and limits of each. The study of subjects such as archaeology, art history and gender offers you the opportunity to apply multidisciplinary approaches to your dissertation topic.
Research Skills
This module will help you to develop the skills necessary for graduate level research, introduce you to the latest methods and techniques for interpreting primary sources, and demonstrate how to make critical use of scholarly works. You will learn how to define and approach interesting research questions, and develop an overview of the fields of scholarship most relevant to your pathway.
Approaches to Images, Material Culture and Texts
This module invites you to experiment with interdisciplinary approaches. Linked to a series of research seminars by academic staff, the module is a forum in which staff and students work together to identify significant current directions in research, and to explore links, and differences, between academic disciplines .
You will also choose three optional modules, from a range which typically includes:
-
Aspects of Byzantine History
-
Byzantine Art and Architecture
-
Coins and the Economy in the Byzantine World
-
Late Roman and Byzantine Archaeology and Material Culture
-
Women, men and eunuchs: Gender in Byzantium
If you have no previous knowledge of Greek you are advised to study Graduate Linguistic Skills (Beginners Greek) as one of your options.
Fees and funding
We charge an annual tuition fee. Fees for 2013/14 are as follows:
-
Home / EU: full-time - £5,130
-
Overseas: full-time - £13,200
Part-time programme fees are one half of the full-time programme fees.
Learn more about fees and funding
Scholarships and studentships
Scholarships to cover fees and/or maintenance costs may be available.
For further information, visit the College of Arts and Law scholarships page or email financialsupport@bham.ac.uk
International students can often gain funding through overseas research scholarships, Commonwealth scholarships or their home government.
Entry requirements
Learn more about entry requirements
International students
Academic requirements
We accept a range of qualifications, our country pages show you what qualifications we accept from your country.
English language requirements
You can satisfy our English language requirements in two ways:
How to apply