The Master’s degree in Civilizations, Culture and Society from Université PSL is devoted to the study of historical, linguistic, religious, political, social, intellectual and other aspects of civilizations and cultures, primarily in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. It is both synchronic, examining these cultures in terms of their internal dynamics and relations with the outside world, and diachronic, proceeding from ancient times to the present day. The program combines approaches rooted in scholarship (primarily philology, epigraphy, archeology and archival studies, but also papyrology, numismatics, heraldry and iconography) with data processing methods specific to the humanities and social sciences.
This Master’s program is part of the following graduate programs: Historical Sciences and Religious Studies.
The Master’s degree in Civilizations, Culture and Society is administered by EPHE–PSL. Students enrolled in the program will be registered at EPHE–PSL. The wealth of lectures held at EPHE–PSL provides an assurance of quality education.
The purpose of this Master’s program is to provide students with both general and technical knowledge as well as the necessary disciplinary and transdisciplinary skills for conducting independent research as part of a doctoral project or other activity in which knowledge production plays a major role. In other words, it aims to produce research professors in secondary and higher education who have a thorough command of research methods and tools, as well as practitioners in fields such as heritage, the media and publishing, cultural communication and tourism.
6 academic tracks are available for the Master’s Year 1 (M1) program:
The ancient mediterranean and near east: languages, history, and religions
Medieval studies: texts, cultures, and religions of Europe
Modern and contemporary studies: religions, cultures, and politics
Geohistory and geopolitics: places, cultures, and powers
Historical linguistics and linguistic typology
7 academic tracks are available for the Master’s Year 2 program:
The ancient mediterranean and near east: languages, history, and religions
Medieval studies: texts, cultures, and religions of Europe
Modern and contemporary studies: religions, cultures, and politics
Geohistory and geopolitics: places, cultures, and powers
Historical linguistics and linguistic typology
Political and Cultural History of Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary Europe (European track)
Students who hold a Bachelor’s degree in Humanities (History; Art History and Archeology; Philosophy; Literature; Language Sciences; Theology; Human Sciences: anthropology, ethnology; Law; Political Science; Musicology; World and Regional Literature and Civilizations) or have acquired 180 ECTS credits from a Bachelor’s-level curriculum in the humanities and social sciences or arts, literature and languages, or the equivalent. Students who have earned their degree from a PSL member school are especially encouraged to apply.
Doctorate: The top-performing students will be able to apply for a doctoral contract (funded by an institution of higher education, a private organization or a government). The topic of research, the tutor’s area of concentration and the student’s academic background will determine the discipline in which the PhD is carried out.
Careers in the tertiary sector, particularly those connected with heritage, media, publishing, cultural communication and tourism.
The program is backed by several research centers and teams, with EPHE–PSL or ENS–PSL playing a primary or secondary supervisory role:
Eastern and Western Archeology and Philology (UMR 8546) (ENS–PSL, EPHE–PSL, CNRS)
Society, Religions, Secularism Group (UMR 8582) (EPHE–PSL, CNRS)
History of Art, Representations and Administration in Modern and Contemporary Europe (EA 7347) (EPHE–PSL)
Laboratory for the Study of Monotheistic Faiths (UMR 8584) (EPHE–PSL, Paris Sorbonne Université, Université Jean-Monnet de Saint-Étie