Postgraduate students contribute vitally to the research culture of the Department, invigorating and refreshing thinking about several literatures in English and in other European languages.
In addition, a significant number of postgraduate students contribute directly to some of those literatures, as creative writers. More than 40 members of staff offer supervision in a broad array of research and writing specialties, from Old English literature to twenty-first century literatures in English, French, German, Spanish and Arabic, to linguistics, translation and creative writing.
Postgraduate students are engaged in specific MA programmes or on their own topics of research in the MRes or MPhil/PhD programmes, but they also constitute an intellectual community within the Department. This community is constellated around the Department’s Research Seminar, GLITS, which meets weekly during term time and is also a social occasion for students and staff.
There are more than 70 postgraduate research students currently pursuing MPhil/PhD programmes in the domains of literary or linguistic studies or in creative writing. The range of their topics and methodologies is very broad, as the titles of recent, successful PhD theses together indicate. Around 100 students are studying on the MA and MRes programmes. Some students are engaged in their studies on a part-time basis, and some are full-time.
Departmental facilities
Postgraduate students in Goldsmiths’ Department of English & Creative Writing benefit from numerous facilities. As well as the opportunity to work with leading scholars and creative writers, whose published work is recognised and cited internationally, these facilities include:
- research training in the Department, College, University of London and the CHASE partnership
- research libraries across the University of London and at the British Library
- bursaries and scholarships available on a competitive basis
- financial support to help you present your work at conferences, and for training and development
- internationally acclaimed scholars and theorists at The Richard Hoggart Lectures in Literature
- world-renowned writers at events organsied by the Writers' Centre, including the shortlist and winner of the Goldsmiths Prize for 'fiction at its most novel'
- GLITS Research Seminar and the Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary Seminar
- LINKS Research Seminars and conferences
- workshops and seminars at the School of Advanced Study, including the Institute of English Studies and the Institute of Modern Languages Research
- opportunities to publish your work in the GLITS-e or Goldfish online journals
- the Graduate School’s academic and social resources
- a range of conferences organised within the Department, the College and the University
- career development advice and opportunities
- computing facilities and advice at the Rutherford Information Services Building
- an informal culture of intellectual experimentation and rigorous critical debate.
MA students: see Goldsmiths' Excellence Fee Waiver and Alumni Fee Waivers
MA and MPhil/PhD students, see the Department's funding opportunities
Our postgraduate programmes
Degree listing
Launched in 2015 through the joint vision of Professor Deirdre Osborne and Professor Joan Anim-Addo, this ground-breaking MA is timely and necessary. We take Black British literature seriously as a discipline.
Expand your understanding of children’s and young adult literature by specialising as a researcher, creative writer, or children’s book illustrator with the MA Children’s Literature programme.
Have you ever wondered how personal assistants like Siri and Alexa work, or how humans interact with chatbots and apps using natural language? Are you interested in how language is structured, what its social functions are, or how to build formal models of it? If so, then this programme is for you.
Have you got a story to tell? Or poems that you want to shape into a collection? This Masters degree will help you develop your creative writing practice. You’ll experiment with a wide variety of forms to help you discover your preferred mode of writing.
You might be a teacher who writes; a writer interested in education; a poet, a novelist or a short story writer. Whatever your background, this course will help you develop your creative writing skills and learn how to teach them.
This unique and intellectually rigorous Masters programme gives you the opportunity to develop the study of literature from a variety of perspectives through a number of flexible pathways.
This pathway of the MA Literary Studies aims to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the literature that has sought to define or has emerged from 'America'.
This pathway of our MA Literary Studies degree gives you the chance to study critical literary and cultural theory.
This pathway of the MA Literary Studies focuses especially on twentieth and twenty-first century literature.
This pathway of the MA in Literary Studies aims to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the literature of 19th-century Britain and its relationship to a wide variety of cultural, intellectual, geographic and historical contexts.
This pathway of the MA Literary Studies will centre on the study of the theory and practice of comparative and world literature.
The MA Multilingualism, Linguistics and Education is an applied linguistics programme with an emphasis on both linguistic and cultural diversity. It provides a solid understanding of key theoretical and practical issues in multilingual and intercultural educational settings.
This Masters programme looks at language from a sociocultural perspective. It's designed for anyone with an interest in the relationship between language, culture and society but also provides a solid understanding of English language and linguistics.
This programme responds to the increasing need in a globalised, interconnected world, for highly qualified translators with a command of computer-assisted translation tools and common software applications, who can navigate different genres of text and negotiate the language needs of diverse audiences and industries.
The inter-relationship between theory, scholarship and the creative process is key to the Goldsmiths MPhil/PhD Creative Writing.
We offer MPhil and PhD research programmes in English (including American Studies), Comparative Literature or Linguistics for full or part-time study.
Explore critical theory in its historical and contemporary modalities on the Goldsmiths MPhil/PhD in Literary and Critical Theory.
We welcome proposals for research in any area connected with translation and/or interpreting theory and practice, or any research that addresses theoretical or practical issues relating to the interpretation or communication of meaning across borders of language and culture and embraces a wide range of disciplinary and methodological approaches.
The MPhil/PhD Translation by Practice offers a new approach to studying Translation or Interpreting, incorporating a creative practical/practice research project. This can include translating a book or play, subtitling a film, or translating song lyrics or poetry. The possibilities are nearly endless.
This MRes prepares you for more advanced research projects at MPhil/PhD level, but is also a degree in its own right. It's ideal if you're considering a 'taster' year of research, or if you're keen to complete shorter term research at graduate level.
This pathway will introduce you to a wide range of Caribbean texts, and gain an understanding of the social, political, and historical contexts that impact these literatures. This includes history, memory, the impacts of Colonialism, post-Colonialism, and Globalisation. You will study texts either in English or in English translation.
