English Literature

MPhil: a stand-alone, one-year (full-time) research degree. Students will undertake their own research project, concluding with the submission of a 25,000-word dissertation. Students will benefit from a programme of skills and training workshops and may have the option to audit units from our taught master's programmes if they are relevant to their research.

PhD: a research project undertaken across four years (full-time, minimum period of study three years), culminating in an 80,000-word thesis. Students will benefit from a programme of skills and training workshops within the School of Humanities and within the wider university. As well as having the option to audit taught units where appropriate, there may be an opportunity for PhD students to teach units themselves from their second year of study onwards.

The MPhil and PhD can be studied via distance learning.

MPhil: An upper second-class degree or international equivalent. Please note, acceptance will also depend on evidence of your readiness to pursue a research degree.

PhD: A master's qualification, or be working towards a master's qualification, or international equivalent. Applicants without a master's qualification may be considered on an exceptional basis, provided they hold a first-class undergraduate degree (or international equivalent). Applicants with a non-traditional background may be considered provided they can demonstrate substantial equivalent and relevant experience that has prepared them to undertake their proposed course of study.

See international equivalent qualifications on the International Office website.

We see postgraduate study as a vital component of our research culture, with students bringing their own ideas and initiatives to fruition and engaging in research conversations with their fellow students and academic staff.

Postgraduates take part in organising conferences and study days, regularly present papers at departmental research seminars, and are active in research groups and reading groups at departmental level and within the wider university.

Staff and research students within the Department of English are gathered within a number of research areas, with individuals frequently contributing to two or more of the following research groups:

• Medieval
• Early Modern to 1780
• The Long Nineteenth Century
• Modern and Contemporary Literature
• Literatures of the Global South
• Creative Writing and Creative Practice
• Material and Digital Texts
• Poetry and Poetics
• Literature, Science and Medical Humanities
• Literature and the Environment
• Spatial Humanities
• Gender and Sexuality
• Race and Ethnicity.

Read more about the research groups.

The department co-leads the Bristol Poetry Institute, which draws on the department's established strength in this field, and its members play a leading role within the Bristol Common Press, a working print shop dedicated to exploring global print cultures through teaching and research. Members of the department are also active in the faculty's interdisciplinary research centres, which bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines to share their research, devise innovative research projects, and give interdisciplinarity a real basis in academic practice.

The departmental research seminar, which meets throughout the academic session, is the principal forum for academic staff and graduate students to present and discuss their recent research. In a typical term, the series will also feature two talks given by speakers from outside Bristol. Two annual lectures - the Churchill Lecture and the Tucker-Cruse Lecture - also bring distinguished scholars from outside the University.