Master of Arts in Cultural History of Modern Europe

Explore Cultural History

In this Master's program, we examine the role of culture in shaping past and present. We learn about the history of ideas and social practices, study how people use history today, apply cultural theories, and explore the formation of social identities and cultural heritage. We use transnational and comparative approaches to examine European cultural history in a global context.

Skilled Faculty

The lecturers are specialists in the fields of empire, public history, race, media history, history of the body, intellectual history, heritage studies, and digital humanities. We bring our academic expertise into classroom discussions.

Putting Theory into Practice

Students put theory into practice in their internships. Some choose internships at leading cultural history institutions while others select research-based internships working on cutting-edge projects with Utrecht researchers.

Whichever option you choose, you will experience the challenges of being a historian in a changing society. Your internship experience should be connected to the research you do for your thesis, which is the product of a rigorous and rewarding process.

After graduating from the Master’s program in Cultural History of Modern Europe, you will:

• Understand how Europe and European residents are involved in and produced by global processes.
• Have the skills and knowledge to analyze and understand the culture and cultural history
• Be equipped with the tools to analyze the relationship between history, memory, and heritage.
• Be prepared for careers that require an ability to process and synthesize knowledge fast, and that demand good analytic and communication skills.

Students emerge from the program with skills in history, analysis, and writing, and with professional work experience. Our attention to public history and heritage has helped many graduates find jobs in these fields. Other students put our training to good use in a variety of fields from foreign policy and diplomatic work to journalism.

Our graduates have socially relevant expertise at an academic level, applicable in areas such as cultural policy (municipal, regional, national, and European), journalism, media organizations, public history, the museum sector, the culture industry, the non-profit sector in general, and education. You may also combine this Master’s program with a program to become a grade-one history teacher.

Professional Careers

Graduates from our Cultural History program have mostly found jobs in museums and heritage organizations, as well as in the field of (secondary) education:

• Guide at the Rijksmuseum
• History Teacher in secondary education at SPCO Groene Hart
• Image Editor at Matrijs Editors
• Museum instructor at the National Maritime Museum
• A historian at the Florence Nightingale Institute
• Editor at the Atlas of Cultural Heritage, Noordhoff Editors

Other alumni found jobs at, for example, The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands | The Dutch National Museum of Antiquities | Leiden University | Stedelijk Gymnasium Breda | Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Academic Careers

Students who want to continue with a Ph.D. program after their Master’s degree might consider doing a Research Master's (in History) at Utrecht University. However, several graduates of the Master’s program in Cultural History have found Ph.D. positions.