Ancient History and Film Studies

Ancient history and film studies is an unusual but intellectually rich combination that connects two quite different ways of engaging with the past and its representation. Ancient history explores the civilisations of Greece and Rome and their neighbours, from the emergence of Greek writing and urban society in the eighth century BCE through to the fall of the western Roman Empire in the fifth century CE, drawing on literary texts, inscriptions, archaeological evidence and coins to reconstruct worlds that were simultaneously fascinating and deeply different from our own. Film studies examines how cinema creates representations of history, culture and human experience, asking how narrative, visual language and production choices shape what audiences understand and feel.

At the University of St Andrews, this four-year full-time MA programme develops your skills in ancient historical analysis alongside your understanding of film as a medium. The connection between the two fields is perhaps most obvious in the long history of cinematic engagement with the classical world, but the combination goes deeper than that, developing two sets of interpretive skills that enrich each other. Historical inquiry trains you to work carefully with fragmentary evidence and to hold multiple interpretations in mind.

Film analysis develops your understanding of visual storytelling and cultural representation. A year abroad is built into the programme, extending your academic and personal experience.

Graduates of this kind of interdisciplinary programme move into careers that draw on both historical analysis and cultural awareness. Journalism, broadcasting, the film and television industry in historical content, academia, heritage, museum work, teaching, publishing and arts administration are all natural directions. The combination of rigorous historical scholarship and understanding of visual culture is particularly valuable in heritage communications, documentary production and educational media.

Postgraduate study in ancient history, classical studies, film studies or cultural heritage is a natural next step.