English

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Undertaking doctoral research allows you to develop in-depth knowledge, while making a meaningful contribution to your chosen field.

With guidance from our expert supervisors, you'll carry out extensive independent research culminating in a thesis of up to 100,000 words. We offer research supervision in a number of literature-related subject areas, ranging from book history to early twentieth century literature. 

This degree presents the opportunity to gain expertise in your area of interest while also honing a range of transferable skills. On completing this course, you'll be well prepared for specialist career paths both within academia and beyond.

Subject Areas and Supervision

The Institute of English Studies offers doctoral research supervision in the following broad areas:

• Bibliography
• Book illustration
• History of the book from the medieval period to the present
• History of authorship
• History of communication
• History of printing
• History of publishing from 1800 to the present
• History of readers and reading
• Reception history
• Modern literary manuscripts and genetic criticism
• Textual scholarship, scholarly editing and digital humanities
• Author-focused studies (e.g. J.M. Barrie, Chaucer, Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Scott Fitzgerald, Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, Melville, Shakespeare, R.L. Stevenson, Twain, W.B. Yeats)
• Medieval manuscript studies and palaeography
• Early modern print culture
• Victorian literature
• Twentieth-century literature
• American literature
• Anglo-American Modernism
• Anglo-Irish literature
• Scottish literature

Before submitting an application you are advised to contact a member of the academic staff who has interests in your proposed field of study to discuss your proposal. A list of academic staff and their interests can be found here.