Information for current students

Entry into Honours

You may be admitted into the Honours programmes in Celtic if you have attained the required grades for admission to Honours in the School of Humanities (a D or higher in 11 out of your 12 level 1 & 2 courses and at least G in one other).

AND

normally a B grade in Gaelic 2A or 2B, and a satisfactory performance in Gaelic 1A or 1B or 1C. This will admit you into the Honours degree programme in Gaelic or Celtic Studies

OR

normally a C average in Celtic Civilisation 2A and 2B, of which the grade for at least one of the courses should be a B. Performance in level 1 courses will be taken into account, and you should have satisfactorily completed at least three of the four level 1 & 2 Celtic Civilisation courses. This will admit you into the Honours degree in Celtic Civilisation (Joint only) or Celtic Studies. Please note that Celtic Studies requires you to take at least one language course during your Honours years.

NOTE

• For students who have done a combination of Gaelic and Celtic Civilisation subjects, admission requirements will focus on those courses most relevant to the degree you wish to pursue, though grades from your other courses will be taken into account where relevant. 
• Gaelic and Celtic Studies are available as Single or Joint Honours degrees. 
• Celtic Civilisation is available only as a Joint Honours degree.

Degree Programmes

Within the Honours years, you may follow three different paths in choosing courses to construct a degree. Each programme results in a named degree: Gaelic, Celtic Studies or Celtic Civilisation.

• Gaelic concentrates on Scottish Gaelic language and literature, and also includes study of Modern Irish. 
• Celtic Studies allows the student to take Celtic Civilisation-type courses alongside studying Celtic languages. This may be either modern Gaelic at an appropriate level, or one or two medieval Celtic languages, either early Gaelic or medieval Welsh. 
• Celtic Civilisation is a non-language based programme, which studies the history, literature and society of the Celtic peoples. It may only be taken as a Joint Honours degree.

Welcome to the Postgraduate pages of Celtic and Gaelic. Whether you are interested in literature, language, history and culture, we provide a supportive environment for postgraduate research. We offer courses and supervision in a range of subject areas related to the research activities and interests of academic staff.

We are especially qualified to supervise research in the following areas:

• medieval Irish narrative
• early Gaelic and medieval
• Welsh literature and law
• linguistic, literary and religious aspects of early medieval Scotland
• 19th, 20th and 21st century Scottish Gaelic literature
• Scottish Gaelic oral tradition and oral transmission
• the early church in the Celtic countries
• Celtic inscriptions
• the Gaelic world in the 19th century
• early and modern Gaelic languages
• Gaelic dialects, dialectology, and historical linguistics
• Gaelic onomastics Gaelic sociolinguistics
• Scottish Gaelic education

Further details

Externally Funded Research Projects

Celtic and Gaelic are involved with a number of externally funded research projects. Ongoing projects include ‘The Expansion and Contraction of Gaelic in Medieval Scotland: The Onomastic Evidence’; ‘Digital Archive of Scottish Gaelic’; ‘Whithorn’s Early Medieval Sculptured Stones’; ‘The Paradox of Medieval Scotland’ (with Scottish History).

Interdisciplinary Context

We are well placed to provide an appropriate environment for cross- and interdisciplinary research. Staff and students benefit from collaboration and interaction in research and teaching with members of other subject areas such as History, Scottish Literature, and Archaeology. We are committed to creating and sustaining an open and involved research environment, and are one of the core subject areas of the Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies. We also participate in the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Current and Recent Student Research

The number of postgraduate research students supervised within Celtic and Gaelic is currently around seventeen. Recent and on-going postgraduate work includes theses on the relationship between medieval literary theory and early Irish narrative, studies of Bàrdachd Baile, Gaelic poetry of the 19th century, early Modern Gaelic literary texts, Gaelic-medium schools, early church history in Scotland, early Irish kingship, the early Irish church, saints and saints’ lives, Gaelic linguistics, and Gaelic place-names.

Research Resources

The University and ourselves hold good collections of Gaelic manuscript materials and rare books dating from the 17th to 20th centuries. Postgraduate students have access to our research archive, the MacLean Room, which is named after Magnus MacLean, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Glasgow Technical College and the first official lecturer in Celtic (1901-1903).

eSharp

eSharp is an international online journal for postgraduate research in the arts, humanities, social sciences and education. Based at the University of Glasgow and organised by graduate students, it provides postgraduates and recent postdoctoral students with the opportunity of experiencing and developing skills in the field of academic publishing. A number of postgraduates in this subject have contributed to this award-winning electronic journal by serving on the editorial board, by peer reviewing articles and by contributing articles based on their research. For further information, see the eSharp website.

Contact

If you are interested in applying for PG study in Celtic / Gaelic Studies, our Postgraduate convener, Dr Sheila Kidd, who is also the Head of Subject Area.