Postcolonial Studies MLitt

www.english.stir.ac.uk

This programme allows students to explore colonial and postcolonial writing, film and theory. As the movement and migration of cultures challenge how we understand ‘culture’, this programme will encourage new ways of thinking about the location of culture within and beyond the confines of the nation-state. As one of the first institutions to teach colonial and postcolonial writing in the UK, the University of Stirling has a strong national and international reputation in this area.

Programme Objectives

The programme examines cultural production both within and between South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific, the Americas and the United Kingdom. Textual work will be read alongside the popular discourses of film, photography and music. Key works within postcolonial theory (e.g. by Fanon, Said, Spivak, Bhabha) will be available for study, and a wide range of intellectual issues -- from ‘race’, gender and religion to diasporas, borders and home -- will be analysed in literary and filmic work throughout the programme.

Coming to study at Stirling for the MLitt in Postcolonial Studies you will find yourself in a thriving postgraduate culture that brings together students and academic staff from many fields of expertise and where research students play a crucial role in helping Postcolonial Studies to remain at the cutting edge of its multiple disciplines.

Entrance Requirements

A good upper second class or better single or combined Honours degree in a relevant subject or subjects from a UK university or an equivalent qualification. Applicants with other qualifications or other appropriate experience may be admitted on the recommendation of the Programme Director.

English Language Requirements

If English is not your first language, you must provide evidence of your proficiency such as a minimum IELTS score of 6 (minimum 5 in each skill) or TOEFL 550/213/79 (Paper/Computer/Internet).

Funding

For information on possible sources of funding, visit: www.stir.ac.uk/postgrad/finance

Modes of Study

Full-time: 1 year
Part-time: 27 months

Programme Start Date

September

Programme Directors

Dr Gemma Robinson

Department of English

Structure and Content

Both full-time and part-time students will take a Postcolonial Studies core module over two semesters.

In semester one you will also study:

• Travelling Theories: Key works in postcolonial theory
  

In semester two you will study:

• Borderlands: Reading borders in writing, film and theory
  

Further optional modules allow you to develop a more specialised knowledge. You will take one of these modules each semester. If you are on the part-time programme you will take the two optional modules in year two.

These modules vary depending on teaching staff, but they have included the following:

• Migrant Metropolis
• Contemporary Black British Writing
• Routes: Fictions of Travel
• Slavery and Caribbean Poetry
• Transition: West African Writing
• South Asian Diasporas
• Film and Diaspora
• Aboriginal Writing and Painting
• Postcolonial Gothic

Research Methods

All MLitt postgraduates share a regular Research Methods core module. This seminar offers insights into the different approaches, problems and solutions to be met with in advanced literary study. It is designed to provide you with the research skills requisite for the dissertation and, beyond that, for advanced postgraduate study. Part-time students take this module in year two of the programme. It is also a forum for you to meet with other students, exchange views and share experiences.

Delivery and Assessment

Teaching will take the form of regular tutorials in small groups. Though all the modules will offer close and careful supervision, you are expected to take proper responsibility for your own studies. The aim in all cases is to foster student-led learning in expert, stimulating and congenial company. Assessment in each semester will be based on coursework and essays; there are no formal examinations. Methods of assessment for each of the non-core modules may vary, but will often consist of a single essay.

Dissertation

The most significant piece of work on the programme will be a dissertation of 15,000 words on a subject of your choosing in consultation with a member of the Department. You may choose to develop work initiated on one of the modules you have studied. Those who do not embark on the dissertation may be awarded a Diploma. The work of the best students completing the programme may be deemed worthy of MLitt with Distinction.

Timetable and Reading List

Contact the Department for information on your timetable and reading lists.

Career Opportunities

Completing a Master’s degree as a prelude to further academic research is an increasingly common pattern of study for young scholars and is a route encouraged by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Advanced education in the Arts, the practical experience of research and the production of a dissertation are significant transferable skills for many careers in business and the professions.

Research Opportunities

Departmental research interests include:

• Medieval and early modern writing
• 20th-century postcolonial literatures
• Victorian literature
• Scottish literature
• James Hogg
• The gothic
• Poetry
• The short story
• American literature
• Textual culture
• Discourse analysis

Current research projects include, under the aegis of Emeritus Professor Douglas Mack, the collaborative Stirling/South Carolina Research Edition of the Collected Works of James Hogg project. This has attracted two separate Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) grants: one of £299,435 for the publication of a three-volume edition of Hogg’s Collected Letters, and one (in collaboration with the University of Glasgow) of £157,734 for a three-year project researching Hogg’s songs. Other scholarly editing projects include the Arden Shakespeare, editions of Marvell and Defoe, and translations of Wyclif’s Latin writings.

Research Proposal

PhD students should submit a research proposal of 2,000 words.

English Language Requirements

If English is not your first language, you must provide evidence of your proficiency such as a minimum IELTS score of 6 (minimum 5 in each skill) or TOEFL 550/213/79-80.

RAE Rating

The UK-wide Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) confirmed the quality of the work being done by our researchers. 85% of the University of Stirling’s research has been judged to be internationally excellent and internationally recognised, with the top 10% of that judged to be world class.

View the full outcomes of Stirling’s RAE performance

Use the online enquiry service to find out more or to request a prospectus.

If you are ready to apply you can fill out an online application form now.