Description

Contents

The School offers a number of distinct MA programmes, and plays a central role in the interdisciplinary MA in Medieval and Early Modern Studies.
The English MA literature programmes aim to increase your knowledge of the key elements that make up the complex nature of English and American literature and culture. The programmes give a wider and deeper understanding of the writers and areas studied, encourage you to probe the theoretical and scholarly issues which you could explore in further research, and offer opportunities to develop your creative writing.

Each MA programme consists of four taught modules and a 12-15,000 word dissertation or equivalent. You must get satisfactory results in your taught modules before going on to spend the final third of your MA course writing a dissertation on a topic of your choice. On the Creative Writing MA the dissertation is replaced with a creative writing project in which a collection of poems or a substantial work of fiction will be produced.

As a basis for work on your dissertation and advanced research, you are also required to take the School and Faculty research methods programmes.

• Core Module: Colonial and Postcolonial Discourses
• Three from: Body and Place in the Postcolonial Text; Centres and Edges; Contemporary Postcolonial Writing; Extremes of Feeling; Imagining India and Writing of Empire and Settlement.
• Dissertation

Assessment

Assessment is by a 5-6,000-word essay for each module, and a 12-15,000-word dissertation.

Requirements

A first or second class honours degree in a relevant subject (or equivalent).

English Language Requirements

Funding

Every school at Kent offers one or two University postgraduate research scholarships, each available for three years, providing fees at the home/EU rate and a stipend up to £13,590 per annum (2011/12 rate).

Many schools offer scholarships in the form of Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs) whereby postgraduate research students receive financial support in return for teaching. The value of awards may vary, but often cover tuition fees at the home/EU rate and a substantial maintenance grant.

All postgraduate research students are eligible to apply for GTAs.

As a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Block Grant Partnership, the School of European Culture and Languages offers AHRC postgraduate studentships in the field of European Culture and Languages (either for a taught MA or for a PhD). The School also offers a limited number of postgraduate scholarships for research students each year; students holding these awards are expected to contribute to their subject area by doing up to six hours of teaching per week. Studentships and scholarships are advertised in January for a September start.

Students applying for a place on any one of the University of Kent at Paris MA programmes may also apply for an award from the Paris Scholarship fund, currently valued at over £5,000. For further information see www.kent.ac.uk/scholarships/postgraduate/departmental/Paris.html Vacancies exist for language assistants in French, Spanish, Italian and German. These generally involve around ten hours of teaching per week, for which there is an hourly payment, and assistants receive a 50% contribution towards the fees for one of our taught MA programmes. Assistantships are advertised in January for a September start.

The School also provides funds to research students for attendance at conferences, as well as inter-library loans and minor expenses related to research.