PhD and MPhil introduction

Research degrees across a full range of medieval disciplines are offered in the Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Performance, Visual Arts and Communications. All research students in medieval disciplines throughout the Faculty are welcome to use the facilities of the IMS and to take a full part in the academic and social life of the IMS.

We especially welcome research proposals in fields where Leeds has special strengths. These include Anglo-Saxon architecture, sculpture and their cultural context; Anglo-Saxon religious culture; arms and armour; Arabo-Islamic Mediterranean studies; battlefield archaeology; chivalry and tournaments; church archaeology; the Cistercians; Dante; early-medieval Britain; French architecture and sculpture in the later middle ages; Islamic philosophy and theology; medieval Italian language, lyric poetry, prose and dialect; Jewish-Christian cultural relations; history of the Papacy; Icelandic language and literature; medieval and early modern maps and geographical texts; parish church and community; Yorkshire landscape and settlement; Merovingian Gaul; Middle English historical writing; Muslim travel literature; interactions between music, liturgy and theology; Old English homiletic prose; missionaries and mission; post-medieval reception of medieval texts; social and ecclesiastical history of southern Italy (10th-13th centuries); socio-religious history of northern Britain in the later Middle Ages; warfare and crusades.

MPhil degrees are completed in three years (full-time; six years part-time) and PhD degrees in four years (full-time; seven years part-time). The former is normally examined by a thesis of a maximum of 60 000 words, the latter by a thesis of a maximum of 100 000 words.

Students who have successfully completed the MA in Medieval Studies (particularly those who have achieved Distinction) are very well prepared for undertaking a higher degree by research. Indeed this pattern of taking a skills-centred MA programme prior to a three-year PhD by research is becoming the predominant model for graduate studies in the UK. The pattern at Leeds is excellently suited to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the major national funder in the UK’s plans, and it is akin to the pattern in North American graduate schools, where the successful completion of a number of modules and a general examination are prerequisites for the commencement of the doctoral thesis.

Students considering undertaking a PhD or MPhil should consider:

• the rigour and range of module options, particularly in skills and methods;
• the range and suitability of staff to support your prospective thesis topic;
• the library facilities;
• a good support network of other graduate students;
• possibilities for financial support;
• support with job-searches, opportunities for teaching and administrative experience; and
• opportunities to present conference papers and for publication of research.

This page is owned by Institute for Medieval Studies and was last updated on 16 May, 2011