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The Department offers a range of internationally competitive master's programs, designed to cater to students with diverse research interests and study backgrounds. Students may design their curriculum from a broad range of topics ranging from late antiquity to the present or specialize in Late Antique and Medieval Studies. We offer a vibrant intellectual environment that encourages an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the past. Students take our MAs to put themselves on the path to doctoral studies or to prepare themselves for careers in museums, cultural heritage, or jobs in the public and private sectors.
Master’s Degrees that focus on an individual research project:
This program is best suited to students who have a clear idea for a research-based thesis. The one-year MA allows you to anchor your project in a specific research field, while offering a broad range of courses across historical periods and approaches to the past. Students may apply to the “History” or the “Late Antique and Medieval Studies” track. Many students take this one-year degree to prepare themselves for a PhD program.
This program is for students who prefer a more flexible timeline for identifying and carrying out a research project. Students choose from a wide variety of courses. They also have the flexibility to study source languages, and acquire a deeper understanding of the methods and theories that have shaped the study of the past. Students may apply to the “History” or the “Late Antique and Medieval Studies” track.
Offered jointly with the Department of Gender Studies, this program provides expertise in women’s and gender history. It is operated by a consortium of universities in Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, and Italy.
Students may also pursue MA degrees that offer public-facing historical education across different professional fields:
The MA in Museum Studies is offered jointly by Central European University and the Wien Museum, Vienna. It teaches the essentials of the profession in the museum field. This degree is for students who seek a career in the museum world and want to combine hands-on, practical education with a rigorous study program in the critical humanities dedicated to the study of the past. With local training opportunities in Vienna’s rich museum scene, as well as international internships, the program provides students with the skills, experience, and professional knowledge to engage diverse museum audiences.
Combining theoretical and practical education, this program merges a variety of approaches with hands-on experiences such as fieldwork and internships. The curriculum encompasses theoretical, methodological, and practical facets of cultural heritage research, protection, and management. Graduates emerge as well-rounded heritage experts capable of critically assessing and addressing complex issues.
Erasmus Mundus MA program
“History in the Public Sphere” is a two-year master program that focuses on the ways the past is represented, contested, and negotiated in the public sphere, exploring various contexts from the early modern period to the present in a comparative and transnational way. The degree is taught in collaboration with partner universities in Tokyo, Japan; Lisbon, Portugal; Florence, Italy; and Paris, France.
Character of the Programs
The Master's programs provide students with the chance to explore a broad range of topics across different world regions and historical periods, from late antiquity to the present. While our strengths cover Central and Eastern Europe, the Russian empire, the Soviet Union and its successor states, as well as the Eastern Mediterranean and Ottoman world, we welcome students to explore a broad range of themes in European, Asian, African, American, and global history. Historical studies at CEU encompass the past as well as contemporary expressions of it, with acute attention to historical resonances in the present. The MA degrees allow students to immerse themselves in a variety of study fields.
In order to foster a critical spirit of inquiry, students receive solid training in methodology and theory and are invited to take courses beyond their specialization, including training in practical skills for the job market.
Our MA programs are graduate programs. Students are expected to develop familiarity with, and experience in, the basic skills of independent research. Faculty members offer guidance, assistance, and supervision in students' own creative work. Students regularly participate in discussions of scholarship beyond their own specialization, primarily by selecting courses that broaden their thematic, geographic and chronological perspectives.
Advanced Certificate Programs and Specializations
Master's students may also pursue a number of specializations and advanced certificate programs within the department. These programs mark academic fields of particular relevance in which there is a coalescence of faculty strength between the Department and other CEU units. The specializations and advanced certificate programs do not imply separate degrees: students receive a certificate of attendance, together with their MA degree upon successfully completing the requirements.
Advanced Certificates: