Overview
Our PhD research programmes will allow you to explore your own interests in English literature, supported by the expertise of our staff.
Find out more about studying during COVID-19 in the Entry requirements section, below.
Full description
You’ll be allocated two supervisors, with additional staff members available if necessary. Our supervisors are experienced in most areas of English literature, with a strong focus on Renaissance literature, Shakespeare, Romantic and Victorian studies; modernism; women's writing; science and the creative imagination; classical reception; film and theatre; and popular culture.
You’ll conduct your research in a collaborative environment with strong links to research networks in our University and the wider community. We host and take part in many research oriented events for staff and postgraduate students, including our regular Faculty and departmental research seminars, international conferences and the bi-annual Skinner Young lecture on Shakespeare and Renaissance literature. Our seminars will give you the chance to present papers in a supportive setting, and you’ll have the chance to attend graduate research seminars at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of English.
These events, along with our online environment, will help you connect with other research students from a range of disciplines.
You could also benefit from financial support – we allocate a substantial sum every year towards postgraduate travel and conference expenses, as well as some bursaries.
All your subject-specific studies will be enhanced and supported by our University-wide training sessions, where you’ll gain important research expertise in areas like ethics, presentations, intellectual property and digital scholarship.
Supervision and Support
Our permanent supervisory staff are recognised experts in their field, and have produced a number of influential books, journal articles and edited collections. Our research expertise includes:
Dr Jeannette Baxter, BA, MA, PhD: twentieth-century literature; contemporary fiction; post-1945 novel; Surrealism and the avant-garde; Holocaust writing.
Professor Sarah Brown, BA, MA, PhD: adaptations of classical texts and myths; Renaissance literature, especially Shakespeare; science fiction.
Dr John Gardner, BA, MA, PhD: poetry and politics in the eighteenth century or nineteenth century; the novel in the eighteenth/nineteenth century; the relationship between text and illustration; engineering and culture.
Professor Eugene Giddens, BA, PhD: Shakespeare and Renaissance drama; early print culture; children's literature.
Dr Elizabeth Ludlow, BA, MA, PhD: nineteenth-century literature and culture; literature and theology; Victorian print cultures and periodical publication; Victorian illustration.
Dr Tory Young, BA, MA, PhD: modernism; contemporary fiction, especially the influence of modernism on contemporary fiction since 2000; narratology; queer and feminist theories of narrative.
Staff from our Creative Writing programme may also be available for supervision, where appropriate.
Your department and faculty
At the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, we believe in thinking critically about the past, present and future to challenge perceptions and better understand communities and people.
With expertise from gender issues to literary analysis to exploring how the past has shaped our modern world, all our staff members are active researchers. This is reflected in our teaching, allowing us to support our students with the latest theories and practices, as well as essential employability advice.
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