English Language and Literature

DPhil in English (all subjects)

Course Code | 000592 

DPhil in English (to 1550)

Course Code | 000591

Successful applicants are allocated a supervisor who will be a specialist in the student’s area of research. Research areas include, but are not limited to:

• Early Modern Studies
• Medieval Literature
• Eighteenth-century Literature
• Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
• American Literature
• English Language and Linguistics
• Romanticism
• Nineteenth Century and the Fin de Siècle
• Critical Theory
• Gender Studies
• Film Studies

All research programme applicants are admitted first to Probationer Research Student (PRS) status and may reapply for admission to full DPhil status during their first year. Under the guidance of their supervisor, DPhil students complete a thesis of 80,000 to 100,000 words. They have the opportunity to attend a wide range of classes, seminars and lectures in order to learn bibliographic and research skills, interact with other researchers or gain new perspectives on their work.

There is an active and lively graduate organisation, English Graduates at Oxford (EGO), that organises study skills and career development seminars, social events and conferences.

The Graduate Consultative Committee (GCC) represents the interests of graduate students in a more formal way. Research students also have the opportunity to attend the Preparation for Learning and Teaching in Oxford Workshop in order to join the teaching register, and there are courses available to develop further teaching skills.

The MSt can serve both as an autonomous degree programme for students wishing to pursue more advanced studies in English literature for one year or as an excellent preparation for doctoral research. In the first two terms, students can choose from a wide range of options both within and beyond their chosen strand, as well as developing their research skills through courses in bibliography, palaeography and theories of text.

Students also research and write a dissertation under the guidance of a specialist supervisor.

• Length of programme: Nine months
• Core and optional courses:
  • Core course: Literature, Contexts and Approaches
  • Core course: Dissertation
  • Optional courses: Bibliography, Palaeography and Theories of Text
  • Optional courses: Special Options

MSt in English (English and American Studies)

Course Code | 003460 

This MSt can serve both as an autonomous degree programme for students wishing to pursue more advanced studies in English and American Studies for one year or as an excellent preparation for doctoral research.

Students follow a similar structure to that of the other MSts, but in place of one special option students will take a compulsory core course in American Studies, designed to introduce them to the methods and practices of interdisciplinary study in this field.

Students will be required to write their dissertation on an approved topic in the field of English and American Studies (broadly conceived, and allowing scope for comparative studies).

• Length of programme: Nine months
• Core and optional courses:
  • Core course: Literature, Contexts and Approaches
  • Core course: American Studies
  • Core course: Dissertation
  • Optional courses: Bibliography, Palaeography and Theories of Text
  • Optional courses: Special Options

MSt in English Language

Course Code | 000595

The programme is designed to serve as an autonomous degree programme for students wishing to pursue more advanced studies in English language or as preparation for doctoral research.

The course aims to enable students to gain advanced knowledge of the history, structure and uses of the English language, of the social and cultural influences on its development and use, and of the theoretical and analytic approaches which have been used to study it.

Students will also acquire and apply relevant analytic and research skills, including various forms of transcription, the use of corpora, and the application of appropriate descriptive linguistic frameworks to different kinds of material.

Students undertake two courses from a list of options in areas such as language and gender; lexicography; language and media; English as a world language; the language of Middle English literature. Students also research and write a dissertation under the guidance of a specialist supervisor.

• Length of programme: Nine months
• Core and optional courses:
  • Core course: Topics in English language (History, Structure and Use)
  • Core course: Research Methods
    
  • Core course: Dissertation
  • Optional courses: Special Options

MPhil in English Studies (Medieval Period)

Course Code | 000620 

The programme is designed for students wishing to attain a thorough grounding in medieval English language and literature and related subjects at an advanced level, either as a preparation for doctoral research or as an autonomous qualification.

In the first year, students follow the MSt in English (650–1550).In the second year students have the opportunity to study three or four aspects of medieval culture in depth, including medieval languages, literatures, authors, philosophy, history and palaeography.

Students also submit a dissertation, which often forms the basis of doctoral research.

• Length of programme: Twenty-one months
• Core and optional courses:
  
  YEAR 1
  • Core course: Literature, Contexts and Approaches
  • Core course: Dissertation
  • Optional courses: Bibliography, Palaeography and Theories of Text
  • Optional courses: Special Options
  
  YEAR 2
  • Optional courses
  • Core course: Dissertation

For more information about the core and optional courses offered on our taught-course degrees and the programme specifications, see the English website.

The English Faculty Library contains over 100,000 books and 150 journals, almost all of which are on open access. The library also contains several collections of rare books and manuscripts, including the Wilfred Owen Collection, the Napier Collection (Old and Middle English), and approximately 9,000 pre-1850 volumes; you can browse the Oxford University Library Services catalogue for full details.

The Faculty has an IT teaching room and a graduate workspace, each of which contain 25 terminals. Students also have the use of a graduate common room and kitchen.

In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (2010) the Faculty had the highest number of 3* and 4* research outputs, more than double that of almost every other department in the country. It was voted the top university department nationally for English in 2009 and 2010 by the Guardian University Guide. It is the largest English Department in the country with around 75 professors, readers and lecturers.

Information on academic staff profiles

Many of our taught-course students go onto doctoral research, both at Oxford and at other universities worldwide. Many of our doctoral students take up academic positions in the UK and overseas. Other graduates pursue careers in occupations including teaching, journalism, law, publishing and the civil service.

• MSt in Modern Languages
• MSt in Medieval Studies
• MSt in Women’s Studies
• MSt in Film Aesthetics