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Taught MA Courses

By undertaking one of our MA courses, you'll be studying with acknowledged experts in the subject, and will write a dissertation or carry out a research or Creative Writing project on the subject of your choice. Durham is one of the best English Departments in the country, offering the opportunity to study at the highest level in a supportive environment.

University student
The diversity of perspectives uniquely offered by the English department at Durham makes it special, and dare I say, world-class.

Audrie Goh
MA English Literary Studies, 2018

MA English Literary Studies

Our English Literary Studies (MA) gives you choice, flexibility and the opportunity to specialise. You will learn from the rich variety of research expertise among our Department's academic staff. You might range from medieval manuscripts to critical theory, or from the legacies of Romantic poetry to contemporary Anglophone literatures.

With the support of a programme of research skills training and expert supervision, your studies will be capped off by a dissertation, devised on a subject of your choice.

Find out more about what it's like to study on our MA programme in a blog from our former MA (and subsequently PhD) student, Lydia Shaw.

Other MA Programmes

Other opportunities beyond our literary studies MA programmes include:

Creative Writing MA

Taught by award-winning creative writers on an academically rigorous programme.
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Interdisciplinary MAs

We contribute to interdisciplinary MA programmes in Medical Humanities, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, the Digital Humanities, and Environmental Humanities.
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