New cohort gets startedCSMC Welcomes New MA Students

2 November 2023

Photo: Karsten Helmholz

With the beginning of the winter semester, a new cohort of students has started studying the MA programme ‘Manuscript Cultures’ at the Graduate School of CSMC. The programme is composed equally of modules in the humanities and the natural sciences, which makes it unique in Germany.

The new cohort is made up of 19 students from all around the world, joining us from China, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Germany, India, Iran, Mexico, and the US. Their academic backgrounds are equally diverse and include subjects such as Art History, Chemistry, History & Journalism, Restoration of Movable Property, and Philosophy, among many others. In total, 105 students had applied to get into the programme.

The course has come a long way since it was implemented only six years ago: the first cohort consisted of exactly one student. The programme consists of modules in the humanities and the natural sciences in equal proportions, making it unique in Germany. The modules in the humanities include, among others, introductions to codicology, paleography, textual criticism, and cataloging. The modules in the natural sciences cover the relevant basics in physics, chemistry, and biology, and provide an instruction to the theory and methods of scientific materials analysis of manuscripts.

The MA ‘Manuscript Cultures’ is overseen by Shervin Farridnejad, Head of the MA programme, and Merryl Rebello, the coordinator of the Graduate School at CSMC. More information on the contents, relevant application deadlines, and qualifying scholarships is available on the website of the programme.