PhD in English Studies (Institute of English Studies) University of London, School of Advanced Study

Undertaking doctoral research allows you to develop in-depth knowledge while making a meaningful contribution to your chosen field.

With guidance from our expert supervisors, you'll carry out extensive independent research culminating in a thesis of up to 100,000 words. We offer research supervision in a number of literature-related subject areas, ranging from book history to early twentieth-century literature.

The Institute of English Studies offers doctoral research supervision in the following broad areas:

• Bibliography
• Book illustration
• History of the book from the medieval period to the present
• History of collecting
• History of printing
• History of publishing from 1800 to the present
• History of readers and reading
• Textual scholarship, scholarly editing and digital humanities
• Author-focused studies (e.g. J.M. Barrie, Dickens, Scott Fitzgerald, Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, Melville, Shakespeare, R.L. Stevenson, Twain, W.B. Yeats)
• Medieval manuscript studies and palaeography
• Early modern print culture
• Victorian literature
• Twentieth-century literature
• American literature
• Anglo-American Modernism
• Scottish literature

This degree presents the opportunity to gain expertise in your area of interest while also honing a range of transferable skills. By completing this course, you'll be well prepared for specialist career paths both within academia and beyond.