This M.A. programme is targeted at students with a background in English Studies, North American Studies, Linguistics (with English Linguistics as the main component), Comparative Studies (with a focus on English Linguistics or Literatures and Cultures in English), or related subjects. Courses are offered in English only. Students have the possibility of extending their previous studies within a highly flexible, research-based, and structured curriculum. Students may select their own specialization by concentrating on one of three profile areas:
- British, North American and Postcolonial Literatures;
- Linguistics: Varieties, Cultures and Applications (ranging over language variation and innovation, contact linguistics, cultural-cognitive linguistics, as well as dynamic assessment and language testing); and
- British, North American and Postcolonial Cultural History.
In addition, students are given specific training in advanced communication focusing on the use of English in the professional world, ranging over investigation, presentation and negotiation skills.
The M.A. programme as a whole is intended to enable students to conduct their own critical research with respect to literary, cultural and linguistic positions and developments. Students learn to pursue innovative developments in research into the English language, into accounts of language teaching and learning, into English-language texts and media of any kind, and to subject these to scientific analysis within appropriate theoretical frameworks. Knowledge and text production in both Eurocentric and postcolonial contexts may also be critically explored.
The M.A. programme is multidisciplinary in its general orientation, involving literary, cultural, and linguistic approaches. Both within and beyond this focus, the research profile of the teaching faculty includes aspects of cultural history, gender studies, rewritings of Shakespeare, science novels, travel narratives, Hollywood and transnational cinema, native-speaker and learner varieties of English, contact linguistics, multimodality, as well as language testing and assessment.
Please also see the profiles of our teaching faculty.
Occupational fields and career opportunities
Upon completion of the M.A., students may choose to continue on PhD research or seek a career in non-academic occupational fields, such as higher education, political institutions, public administration, the publishing industry, the media, non-governmental organisations, or the corporate sector.