About the Centre
The Centre for Modern Studies at York (CModS) is a vibrant research centre dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the period from 1830 to the present.
The work of CModS offers a panorama of Arts and Humanities Research in the culture and society of the last two centuries up to the contemporary - with key collaborators in the Social and Natural Sciences and Medical Humanities. Its conceptual reach covers many areas of cultural activity, related to four overarching themes: Sound, Vision, Word, Society.
Our innovative, world-class research thus stretches across the fields of literature, film, history, politics, philosophy, sociology, music, media studies, performance studies and the fine and applied arts. Along with Arts and Humanities in York its engagement with Contemporary Creative Arts continues to evolve.
Since its launch in 2009, the Centre has been located in the Humanities Research Centre within the Berrick Saul Building, where it has hosted numerous research events. From 2025 it will be located in a prime heritage space on the York campus, Heslington Hall, where it will join the other period research centres sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
The Director of CModS is Professor Matthew Campbell.
Postgraduate activities
A number of Arts and Humanities MA programmes are taught by members of the Centre. CModS is also home to a lively postgraduate forum, and to exciting reading groups that bring together postgraduate students and staff working in different disciplines.
English
MA in Film and Literature
MA in Global Literature and Culture
MA Literature in the Creative and Cultural Industries
MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture
MA in Victorian Literature and Culture
MA in Queer Studies
History
Modern History
Public History (MA)
Contemporary History and International Politics (MA)
Medical History and Humanities (MA)
Women's Studies (MA)
History of Art
MA Modern and Contemporary Art
MA British Art
Philosophy
MA Applied Ethics and Governance of Data Privacy
MA Political and Legal Philosophy
MA Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
School of Arts and Creative Technologies
Masters degrees in music
Masters degrees in creative technologies
Masters degrees in film and television production
Masters degrees in theatre
Modern MAs with crossover:
Management in the Creative and Cultural Industries (ACT – Theatre)
Music, Management and Marketing (ACT- Music)
Literature in the Creative and Cultural Industries (English)
MA in Queer Studies
MSc Artificial Intelligence for the Creative Industries (ACT)
MA Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence (Philosophy)
In addition, Modern Studies MAs are offered in the following Social Sciences
Centre for Women’s Studies
Sociology
Politics and International Relations
Research funding
Each year, CModS funds research strands directed by staff from participating departments, which provide a basis for developing interdisciplinary initiatives and the potential for large-scale external funding bids. The Centre also offers a number of small project grants each year to postgraduate students and to staff who wish to develop interdisciplinary research connections. There is also a small amount reserved for Rapid Response Funding.
Interdisciplinary collaboration
The Centre is funded directly by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and receives particular support from the departments of History, English and History of Art, but has a desire to foster collaborations across the humanities and with the social sciences and natural sciences.
The postgraduate activities and the research developed at CModS promote a wide variety of theoretical, methodological and historiographical perspectives, and connect Victorianists, Modernists, Post-Modernists and scholars of the contemporary.