English MA

The dissertation marks the culmination of your master’s degree. This module enables students to gain an extensive and detailed knowledge and understanding of an independently selected topic and to present it in a 15,000-word dissertation.

Developing on the research project you started in Research Skills and Methods, you have the opportunity to present your research as a paper at a graduate conference organised and promoted by students. You develop transferrable professional skills suited to a career in academia (or elsewhere) by taking a role in a conference committee and collectively managing a group project.

This module examines 21st-century critical perspectives on modern and contemporary literature and culture. You study key critical and theoretical texts published since 2000 alongside literary and cultural texts from the 19th century to the present.

You develop a sophisticated understanding of contemporary criticism and theory, and its application to modern and contemporary literature and culture.

As well as engaging directly with new critical writing you develop a critical and evaluative stance on contemporary theory. You apply your insights to analysing literary and cultural texts from the Victorian period to the present.

How has criticism and theory shifted since the turn of the 21st century? And how can these fresh perspectives offer us new ways of understanding modern and contemporary literary and cultural texts?

As an MA English student at Teesside, you will have the opportunity to undertake a major research project. This module is the first stage in that process. You will work on a portfolio of research that adopts and evaluates discipline-specific research methods in relation to a research project that you will present on in the ‘Graduate Conference’ module and see through to completion in the ‘Dissertation’ module. An ability to articulate the decisions made in research projects is increasingly sought in research and funding proposals. This module develops this ability by examining a range of methods employed in research alongside the methodological considerations underpinning the methods in question. As part of the module, you will also be offered training in skills related to different research methods. The module will equip you with a range of skills, approaches and competences to draw on as early career researchers in the field of English studies. This module is designed in accordance with UK research councils’ training guidance.

In this module you select from a number of specialist topic areas to complete your own minor project.

Members of the programme team set readings and lead a series of seminars related to their research specialism. You select a topic area and define and develop your own assessment project in negotiation with your seminar tutor.