The Department of English, Theatre and Creative Writing has begun a fresh phase in its distinguished history. Formerly the Department of English and Humanities, it is developing existing critical and creative strengths from the early middle ages to today.
We are proud of our bold research culture. Our work ranges from studies of foundational texts and subjects to new and emerging cultural forms, combining traditional approaches with explorative and speculative analyses from our research centres and networks including postgraduate-led initiatives.
Our historical and contemporary, creative and practice-led research engages with some of the most pressing questions of today including in relation to the environment, migration, race, gender and sexuality, medical, material and visual cultures, and new digital worlds.
We are excited to introduce a number of new courses and initiatives that complement and expand our established programmes in Medieval, Renaissance, Victorian, Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture, Critical and Cultural Studies, Theatre Studies and Creative Writing.
At undergraduate level we have updated the BA English, developing challenging core modules on Decolonising the Canon and Storytelling alongside options that reflect the full range of our research interests. We have opened up the joint BA English and BA Creative Writing programme to part-time students and radically reimagined our humanities provision, with a new BA Liberal Arts that provides access to modules from the arts, social sciences and law launching in 2020/21.
At postgraduate level we offer a new MA Critical and Creative Writing, which bridges the divide between these two popular yet often separately taught fields, and an MFA Creative Writing, which provides an exceptional opportunity for advanced writers to complete, a fully supported, major independent project.
We have furthermore remodelled our medical humanities provision, launching the MA Applied Medical Humanities aimed at practitioners, and an MA Medical Humanities: Bodies, Cultures and Ideas, which is co-delivered in an exciting cross-School collaboration with the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology. In 2020-21 we will be offering for the first time a new MA Dramaturgy, an important theory and practice-based addition to our suite of programmes dedicated to the world of theatre-making.
We support an active doctoral community whose work spans and expands our research interests and expertise. The Department is part of CHASE, the AHRC-funded Consortium of the Humanities and the Arts in south-east England, and students regularly organise and participate in conferences, seminars, talks, reading groups, performances and exhibitions.
Students in the Department can take advantage of an extraordinary location right in the heart of Bloomsbury, in 43-46 Gordon Square, the childhood home of Virginia Woolf and later the residence of the famous economist Maynard Keynes. The Department is part of the School of Arts, and benefits from a state-of-the art cinema, a theatre and performance space, the Peltz Gallery and links with world-class cultural institutions such as the Globe Theatre, RADA, the ICA, the V&A and the British Museum. Our students have gone on to a wide range of careers in fields such as teaching, journalism and the creative industries.
If you want to find out more about the Department of English, Theatre and Creative Writing contact programme directors directly or get in touch with the Head of Department, Professor Heike Bauer h.bauer@bbk.ac.uk.
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