A number of faculties have combined to offer a two-year M.Phil. (‘Master of Philosophy’) and a one-year M.St. (‘Master of Studies’) specifically in ‘Late Antique and Byzantine Studies’. These provide an opportunity to learn an ancient language (whether Latin, Greek, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic or Arabic) and to acquire specialist skills in disciplines like Palaeography and Archaeology, as well as teaching a wide knowledge of Late Antiquity, and offering students an opportunity to explore in depth topics that particularly interest them. These courses, which combine taught elements with supervised personal research, are very flexible geographically and chronologically (reflecting the unique breadth and depth of Oxford’s teaching capacity), and can be tailored by students to suit their own needs and fancy.
There are also a number of more specialised graduate taught courses available within the field of Late Antiquity, the details of which can be found by following the links to ‘Graduate Degree Courses’ within each section of our site (‘The Late Roman Empire’, ‘Judaism and the Jewish World’, etc.). An M.St. or M.Phil. can either be used as a stand-alone qualification, or as an entry into doctoral research, at Oxford or elsewhere.
Doctoral research into Late Antiquity can be carried out in a number of different faculties (History, Oriental Studies, Classics, Theology, Archaeology, and Medieval and Modern Languages) depending on the precise topic of study. The large number of established scholars working in Oxford within the field of Late Antiquity means that expert supervision can be provided for most topics within the field. The web-site of each faculty will provide more details, and faculties are also pleased to answer queries.
