Celtic Studies/Psychology

Celtic studies and psychology is an unusual and intellectually stimulating combination. Celtic studies opens access to some of the oldest literary and cultural traditions in Europe, examining the medieval and modern Celtic cultures of the British Isles through their languages, including Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Welsh and others, alongside their literatures, histories, material cultures and religious traditions. Psychology brings the scientific study of mind and behaviour to the combination, examining how people think, feel, perceive and act, how language shapes thought and identity, and how culture and society influence individual experience.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year full-time degree allows you to develop expertise in both areas. You will engage with Celtic language study, building proficiency alongside your critical engagement with Celtic history, literature and culture, and you will work through the core areas of psychological science including social, cognitive, developmental and biological psychology. The breadth of the combination is genuinely distinctive: you will move between the deep historical scholarship of Celtic studies and the experimental and empirical rigour of psychology, developing an unusual range of analytical approaches.

A year abroad is available, which is particularly valuable for Celtic studies students who may have the opportunity to spend time in a Celtic-speaking community.

You will develop strong reading, analytical and writing skills across both disciplines, and you will engage with very different kinds of evidence and argument, from medieval manuscripts to psychological experiments.

Graduates move into a range of careers in education, research, the cultural sector, psychology practice (with further training), clinical, counselling or educational psychology (with postgraduate study), public service, journalism, and heritage. The unusual combination of humanistic depth and scientific training opens doors in a variety of directions.