Course Structure
Course Programme:
Students are required to attend seminars, to participate in class activities, to complete assigned tasks, and to make class presentations. They will also submit research-based essays. For the dissertation element of the degree, each student will be assigned a supervisor who will provide academic guidance on their research project. Candidates are assessed on the completion of the modules detailed below.
1. Compulsory Core Course:
From Reform to Revolution: Cultural Change and Political Conflict in Early Modern Europe
This team-taught module is taught by means of a weekly two-hour seminar throughout Michaelmas and Hilary terms and assessed on the basis of students essays and assignments. 20 ECTS credits are allocated to this module.
2. Two Major Subjects of Study
Students must complete one major subject of study in both the Michaelmas and the Hilary Terms. Each subject will be taught by means of a weekly two-hour seminar and is worth 10 ECTS credits.
Availability of courses will vary from year to year and is also subject to student demand. These major subjects of study may include:
- War and Society in Early Modern Ireland & Europe
- Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Early Modern Europe
- The war of ideas in the English Revolution
- Elizabethan Ireland: Contending conquests - the struggle for Mastery in Sixteenth Century Ireland
- Gender, Identity & Authority in 18th Century France
- Inventing the Modern Scots: Society, Culture and Nation, 1688-1832
3. Sources and Methods in Early Modern History
This module guides students through the process of formulating and refining an independent research project. Through regular meetings, library visits and/or seminars, it introduce students to some of the principal research repositories, resources and skills they may use in their own research and considers some of the historiographical and methodological problems the research process gives rise to.
4. The Early Modern History Research Seminar
Students attend the Centre for Early Modern History’s weekly research seminars in order to obtain as broad a perspective as possible on current research, debates and methods in early modern history. These weekly seminars allow students to engage with research currently being conducted by historians both in Trinity College and internationally and to reflect on the diversity of approaches to historical research.
5. Dissertation
Students seeking the M. Phil will be required to submit a dissertation of between 15,000 and 20,000 words based on their own primary research. Those who opt not to submit a dissertation may be considered for the award of a postgraduate diploma. Students are advised to give some thought to possible dissertation topics in advance of registration for the M.Phil programme.