MA English Studies
Manchester, United Kingdom
DURATION
1 up to 2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 20,000 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* full-time fee for EU and Non-EU international students | part-time fee: £3084 per 30 credits studied per year
Introduction
Explore literature, film, television, and theory in a range of international contexts in this dynamic, taught postgraduate course.
This is a flexible and challenging master's course, delivered by a team of tutors with internationally recognized academic expertise in an array of specialist areas.
MA English Studies allows you to build your own bespoke master experience, selecting from a range of modules to reflect your interests in the further study of English.
Choose to study the course on campus full-time in one year or part-time over two.
You can choose to follow one of our bracketed specialisms: MA English Studies (The Gothic), MA English Studies (Postcolonial Studies), MA English Studies (Nineteenth-Century Studies) or MA English Studies (Trauma Studies).
Features and Benefits
- Accessible - An accessible master's degree that is taught in the evening.
- Based in Manchester - A diverse and creative city, that is a designated UNESCO City of Literature (2017).
- Exciting opportunities - Take advantage of the department's involvement with heritage projects, festivals, conferences, libraries, the creative industries and a varied programme of literary/research events.
- Personal learning experience - Taught in small groups, you will benefit from the expertise of research-active staff from whom you will learn specialist subject knowledge, professional research skills and conference presentation skills.
- Research quality - We are ranked 8th out of 92 UK universities for our Research Power in English Language and Literature (REF 2021).
- Industry connections - You will benefit from regular seminars by visiting speakers as well as a thriving conference schedule.
- Support for you - A personal tutoring system is in place, ensuring that all students have a tutor with whom they can discuss any aspect of their academic development.
- Academic Expertise - Take advantage of the expertise of a number of research centers within the English department, which directly inform our teaching across the different pathways.
- Centre for Migration and Postcolonial Studies - Led by Minoli Salgado, this new centre was founded in 2021.
- The Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies - Launched in 2013, capitalises on the expertise of a large number of internationally renowned Gothic scholars housed in the Department of English; Xavier Aldana Reyes and Sorcha Ni Fhlainn form the Centre’s core members.
- Manchester Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies - This newly formed centre fosters interdisciplinary research on the literature, culture, art and architecture of the long nineteenth century and explores the rich and diverse heritage of Manchester as one of the UK’s first industrial cities. Building on the work of the well-established North West Long Nineteenth-Century Seminar, core members Emma Liggins, Sonja Lawrenson and Rachel Dickinson are committed to exploring the evolution of Northern identities, including Manchester’s links to a wide range of regional and diasporic communities.
- Home to Manchester Poetry Library - Manchester Poetry Library is the North West's first public poetry library and holds over 12,000 books and recordings that can be explored through the online catalogue, in person and through the annual programme of events.
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Admissions
Curriculum
Course Information
You can choose to follow a bracketed specialism - MA English Studies (The Gothic), MA English Studies (Postcolonial Studies), MA English Studies (Nineteenth-Century Studies), or MA English Studies (Trauma Studies) - or you may select freely from the full range of options to construct an MA English Studies experience reflecting your specific interests in the further study of English.
MA English Studies allows you to freely select from the full range of Gothic, Postcolonial, Nineteenth-Century Trauma, and other options. The core units you'll take are 'Practices' and 'Dissertation', but the rest of your credits can be made up from any of the option units listed below.
MA English Studies (The Gothic) begins with the pre-history of the Gothic mode in the seventeenth century, explores its eighteenth and nineteenth-century incarnations, and concludes with contemporary manifestations of the mode. You will study plays and novels, films and television, framed by socio-cultural perspectives, and critical and theoretical analyses. Find out more about The Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies here.
MA English Studies (Postcolonial Studies) explores Anglophone literature from across the postcolonial world in relation to its many social, cultural, and historical contexts as well as contemporary critical and cultural theories. The specialism foregrounds the links between postcolonial literary practice and decolonial cultural politics, focusing on both the impact and representation of nationalism, migration, globalization, and trauma. Find out more about The Centre for Migration and Postcolonial Studies here.
MA English Studies (Nineteenth-Century Studies) explores the reciprocal relationship between literature and culture with a focus on texts of the long nineteenth century in an interdisciplinary context.
MA English Studies (Trauma Studies) explores the impact of major human catastrophes of the modern and contemporary periods in Western literature and film, as well as postcolonial literature and film that bears witness to traumatic events and experiences from the cultural margins.
Year 1
Core Units
- Dissertation
- Practices
Option Units
- Cultures of Disability
- Narrating the Nation
- Post-Millennial Gothic
- Postcolonial Trauma
- The Rise of the Gothic
- American Spaces
- The Migrant Writer
- Trauma, Literature, and Film
- Twentieth Century Gothic
- Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
- Games, Play, and Culture
Bracketed Specialisms
The bracketed specialisms in The Gothic, Postcolonial Studies, Nineteenth-Century Studies and Trauma Studies require students to follow units in the relevant specialist area, plus the research unit Practices and a Dissertation in any area of English Studies.
Optional units for the bracketed specialisms:
- Post-Millennial Gothic
- The Rise of the Gothic
- Twentieth Century Gothic
- Narrating the Nation
- Postcolonial Trauma
- The Migrant Writer
- Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
- Trauma, Literature and Film
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
This program will be a considerable asset to those who wish to pursue careers in teaching, arts administration, advertising, film and television, publishing, the media, journalism, business, public relations, politics, and other careers that require a critical awareness of aspects of contemporary culture and an ability to assimilate and present a coherent argument. This program will also prepare you for further study at PhD level.
Recent graduates have progressed to PhD study at Manchester Metropolitan University and several have gone on to complete PGCEs. Our 'Practices' core unit equips you with the skills needed to conduct academic research at the postgraduate level, as well as transferable skills appropriate for the professional workplace; you will present research papers, use social media platforms in the translation and dissemination of their ideas, and collaboratively organize a one-day conference.
MA English Studies provides an opportunity to gain the expertise and skills required to support predicted growth in the creative, digital, new media, and communications industries.
Student Testimonials
Program delivery
Study and assessment breakdown
Ten credits equate to 100 hours of study, which is a combination of lectures, seminars practical sessions, and independent study. A master's qualification typically comprises 180 credits, a PGDip 120 credits, a PGCert 60 credits, and an MFA 300 credits. The exact composition of your study time and assessments for the course will vary according to your option choices and style of learning, but it could be:
Study
- Full-time 34% lectures, seminars, or similar; 0% placement; 66% independent study
- Part-time 34% lectures, seminars, or similar; 0% placement; 66% independent study
Assessment
- Full-time 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination
- Part-time 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination