The MA in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies enables students to specialise in an exciting and multi-faceted field of study that covers the history and culture of the Mediterranean world during the long millennium from the foundation of Constantinople in 324 to the fall of the Byzantine empire in 1453. Taking this MA at Royal Holloway is ideal if you are interested in progressing to doctoral research in Byzantine studies, particularly in reading and editing Byzantine texts from manuscripts. It can also lead to careers in education, journalism, international relations, politics, diplomacy, finance, and museum, libraries and cultural sectors.

You will be taught by experts from the College’s Hellenic Institute, a research centre for the diachronic and interdisciplinary study of Hellenism. The Hellenic Institute brings together areas of teaching and research in which Royal Holloway has long excelled: the study of the language, literature and history of Ancient Greece and Byzantine Studies. The Institute promotes the study of Greek language, literature and history, from the archaic and classical age, through the Hellenistic and Roman times, Byzantium and the Post-Byzantine period, to the establishment of the Modern Greek State and the modern world. 

There is an extraordinarily wide choice of courses available, drawing on the resources of the whole of the University of London including a range of modules in research skills (ancient languages, palaeography, epigraphy, papyrology) and those that will develop your critical and conceptual understanding of the field through a variety of disciplines (history, literature, philosophy, material culture).

The MA in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at Royal Holloway enables students to develop strong presentation skills, along with analytical and research skills, which makes them highly employable and can lead to careers in education, journalism, international relations, politics, diplomacy, finance, and museum, libraries and cultural sectors. The majority of graduates, however continue research on a doctoral level in the field of Byzantine Literature and History, and Greek Palaeography at Royal Holloway and at other universities in Britain and abroad.