English Literature and Language MPhil/PhD

We welcome applications to undertake research towards MPhil and PhD degrees in English Literature and Language.

Research at Worcester has grown significantly in recent years. We aim to produce research that is distinctive, socially and culturally relevant, and that influences national agendas. We continually strive to develop new areas of research excellence while, in certain areas, our work has already been acknowledged as world-leading.

Overview

Institute of Arts and Humanities

The Institute of Arts and Humanities has a strong mix of academics with a high degree of professional and personal experience, enabling you to get the most out of your programme. Our staff have expertise in a wide range of literary themes, including: early modern drama and poetry, including Shakespeare studies; Romantic and Victorian literature; modern and contemporary literature; American and Irish literature; literature and the environment; children’s literature; health and ability; textual scholarship; and creative writing projects with a critical component.

Entry requirements

Entry qualifications

For MPhil

First or Upper Second Class Honours Degree or an approved equivalent award

or

Research or professional experience which has resulted in appropriate evidence of achievement

For PhD

Postgraduate Masters Degree in a discipline which is appropriate to the proposed programme of study

or

First or Upper Second Class Honours Degree or equivalent award in an appropriate discipline

or

Research or professional experience at postgraduate level which has resulted in published work, written reports or other appropriate evidence of achievement

International applicants

International applicants will be required to demonstrate that they have the appropriate level of written and spoken English.

For MPhil/PhD this is an IELTS score of 6.5 with a minimum score of 6.0 in every component.

Programme structure

PhD year by year

After receiving your application, we try to establish if we have the necessary expertise to supervise your project and we begin to form a supervisory team for you. This will normally consist of a Director of Studies (DoS), who will be your lead supervisor, and at least one other supervisor, who will offer you additional support and guidance throughout your studies. If, following a successful interview, you are offered a place as a full-time student, your programme of study will look something like this:

First year

You will have submitted a draft research outline with your application. In your first year, you will be working towards submitting a more complete research proposal. You will be aided in your research by meeting with your supervisory team to discuss your progress. You will also be supported through your first year by engaging with a series of three modules as part of our Researcher Development Programme:

RSDP4001: Developing as a Researcher
RSDP4005: Approaches to Research
RSDP4004: Planning Your Research Project

At the end of each year, beginning with your first year, you will reflect on and formally review your progress with your supervisory team and MPhil/PhD Course Leader. We call this annual meeting an Annual Progress Review (APR).

Second year

In your second year, you will be collecting data and working on your research project under the supervision of your supervisors through regular meetings. You may at this point have research papers ready to publish and you may wish to attend conferences to present your research to other experts in your field. You will be able to apply to our Research Student Support Scheme for some funding for this purpose. Students normally undergo Transfer from MPhil to PhD towards the end of their second year. This will be part of your Annual Progress Review for this year.

Third and fourth year

In your third and fourth year, you will be writing up your thesis and preparing for your viva voce examination. This is an oral exam with two examiners and a chair. You can also request that your supervisor be present at the exam. The exam will take place after you have submitted your final thesis. After the exam, it is not unusual for the examiners to ask that some amendments be made to your thesis before the final award is confirmed and you will have additional time to do this. It is possible to complete the course in three years, but we have found that the majority of students do take four years to complete the course. At the end of each year of your registration, you will go through an Annual Progress Review.

Resources

With study space and IT provision in the Research Office, and access to the 成人B站’s virtual resources and state-of-the-art library facilities, the English Literature and Language team at Worcester have an excellent range of resources to support your learning and research project.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document for the or .

Part time students follow the same structure as full-time students but normally complete the PhD over a period of five to six years. Part-time students take two modules in each of their first two years, and will normally Transfer to PhD in their fourth year.

Research areas

Benefit from a professional and challenging relationship with your supervisory team, drawn from experienced academics working at the forefront of their disciplines.

Supervision areas

The School of Humanities has a strong mix of academics with a high degree of professional and personal experience, enabling you to get the most out of your programme. Our staff have expertise in a wide range of literary themes, including: early modern drama and poetry, including Shakespeare studies; Romantic and Victorian literature; modern and contemporary literature; American and Irish literature; literature and the environment; children’s literature; health and ability; textual scholarship; and creative writing projects with a critical component.

Recent successful projects have included: Australian eco-Gothic; nature and home in the poetry of Edward Thomas and Robert Frost, 1912-1917; commemoration, oblivion and cultural memories in print culture in Restoration England, 1658-1666; and the country house in English women’s poetry 1650-1750.

Some of our current research students are exploring: the representation of regicide in Shakespeare’s history plays; criticism and canon-formation among eighteenth-century Anglican clergy; survival and the formulation of child heroes in Terry Pratchett’s fiction; children’s Islamic literature in Britain, the USA, and Canada; vulnerability and resilience in Sonya Hartnett’s novels; the island imagination; the ‘abhuman’ in multi-volume vampire fiction; and the concept of ‘postqueer’ in relation to multi-platform online narratives.

Supervisors

Dr Lucy Arnold
Expertise: modern and contemporary fiction; the novels of Hilary Mantel; ghosts and haunting; psychoanalysis and criticism

Prof. Nicoleta Cinpoes
Expertise: Shakespeare performed, edited, filmed, recycled, translated; European Shakespeare; Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama; adaptation theory and practice; Shakespeare and visual culture

Dr Jack McGowan
Expertise: Creative Writing, especially spoken word poetry; voice, affect, and textuality

Dr Whitney Standlee
Expertise: nineteenth- and early twentieth-century (to 1930) literature, with particular interests in Irish women’s writing, American and Irish migrant literature, New Woman fiction, proto-modernist short stories and periodical fiction of the period

Dr Sharon Young
Expertise: Renaissance, Restoration and eighteenth-century literature, especially women's poetry; topographical poetry; critical theory

Professor Nicoleta Cinpoes

Nicoleta Cinpoes joined the 成人B站 in 2007. She teaches Renaissance Literature, is International Exchanges Liaison for the Institute of Arts and Humanities and co-director of Worcester's Early Modern Research Group.

She has edited Doing Kyd: A Collection of Critical Essays on the Spanish Tragedy for Manchester University Press (2016) and is currently collaborating on a new Romanian translation of Shakespeare's complete works, writing introductions to Hamlet (2010), Titus Andronicus, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice and The Comedy of Errors.

Professor Jean Webb

Jean Webb is Director of the International Forum for Research in Childrens Literature which provides a focus for literary, cultural and socio-historical scholarly enquiry into writing for children, internationally. She teaches a broad range of undergraduate modules on nineteenth and twentieth century literature, and is responsible for specialist modules in children's literature. She is also an experienced PhD supervisor and examiner.

Dr Lucy Arnold

Dr Lucy Arnold is a specialist in Contemporary literature, with particular research interests in contemporary gothic, narratives of haunting, contemporary women’s writing and psychoanalytic criticism. Her teaching experience spans a wide range of periods and genres but focusses on twentieth and twenty-first century literature. Her published work to date has concerned the writing of Booker Prize winning novelist Hilary Mantel, with her monograph, Reading Hilary Mantel: Haunted Decades, published with Bloomsbury in 2019.

Dr Sharon Young

Dr Sharon Young is a Fellow of the HEA and her teaching interests include, Renaissance, Restoration and eighteenth-century literature, women's poetry, and literary theory.

Sharon's research focuses mainly on women's poetry of the early modern period, Renaissance revenge tragedy and women's manuscript culture. Sharon has published on female poets and the critical debates of the early eighteenth century and Mary Leapor.

Dr Jack McGowan

Jack’s research focuses on contemporary poetry and poetics, and he specializes in the development of performance poetry in the UK since the mid-20th century, and the oral roots of poetry.

Jack is a performance poet with 10 years of experience on the UK spoken word scene and he writes for both performance and page publication.

Dr Whitney Standlee

Dr Whitney Standlee is a specialist in literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with particular research interests in Irish women’s writing and migrant literature. Her publications include two recent books on the subject of Irish women’s writing.

Whitney teaches on a range of core and elective modules at all levels, all of which deal at least in part with nineteenth- and early twentieth century literature.

Careers

All students engage with our Researcher Development Programme (RDP). The RDP aims to develop and enhance the skills, both generic and specific, that you will need to complete your research degree but also to become an effective researcher. The RDP is organised around thematic clusters, consisting of modules, and workshops, delivered face-to-face by subject specialists from across the University and the dedicated Researcher Development Team, or online through our virtual learning environment.

As part of the RDP, you will complete a Postgraduate Certificate in Research Methods (PG Cert). All students must complete the PG Cert in order to progress on their MPhil/PhD Programme. The PG Cert is strongly focused on developing your programme of research, starting from establishing your development needs, and preparing you for the planning and subsequent delivery of your programme of research.

Full-time students will complete the PG Cert in 12 months and part-time students in 24 months.

Fees and funding

Fees	The current fees can be found within the tuition fees document on our figure out finances page.
Accommodation	Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study. We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Traditional Halls' at £131 per week to 'Ensuite Premium Halls' at £228 per week (2025/26 prices). For full details visit our accommodation page.

Fees

The current fees can be found within the tuition fees document on our figure out finances page.

Accommodation

Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study.

We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Traditional Halls' at £131 per week to 'Ensuite Premium Halls' at £228 per week (2025/26 prices).

For full details visit our accommodation page.

How to apply

Additional information

As part of the application process, you will be asked to submit a research outline. We recommend preparing your research outline before beginning your online application. Some guidance on preparing your research outline is available

If your research involves working with vulnerable adults and/or children then you may be required to obtain an Enhanced DBS check. There will be a small charge for this. For more information please contact research@worc.ac.uk.

We are committed to making reasonable adjustment. If you require an alternative format for making your application due to a disability, please contact us to discuss your needs on 01905 542182 or research@worc.ac.uk.

Information about application and interview deadlines

MPhil
PhD

How to apply

Please make your application via our online application form. If you have any questions, please contact the Doctoral School on 01905 542182 or research@worc.ac.uk

Before you submit a full application, please contact the Research School on 01905 542182 or research@worc.ac.uk to discuss your research project and the availability of appropriate supervision.

Application links

MPhil

PhD

Get in touch

Research School

research@worc.ac.uk

01905 542182

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