Program Overview
Students undertaking English and Politics at Queen’s explore literatures in English in the widest possible sense. From the earliest writings in Anglo-Saxon to contemporary Irish, British, and ‘global’ literatures, students study English in its historical, cultural and ideological circumstances and material manifestations. In Politics, our students assess the sources of conflict, co-operation, power and decision-making within and between societies, how differences are expressed through ideology and organisation, and how, if at all, disagreements and problems are resolved.
English and Politics Degree highlights
English Studies at Queen’s has an extraordinary heritage, as represented by its globally esteemed writers, such as Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney and T.S. Eliot Prize recipients Paul Muldoon and Ciaran Carson, among others.
Global Opportunities
English at Queen’s offers a range of Study Abroad opportunities, from the Erasmus programme with a range of European partners, to the chance to study at a number of partner institutions in the United States. Politics also has links with Queen’s University’s Global Research Centre, The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. Many of the staff in Politics are Fellows in the Mitchell Institute, where they work in collaboration with experts in peace and conflict studies from other disciplines such as law, sociology, and the creative arts.
http://www.qub.ac.uk/Research/GRI/mitchell-institute/
Professional Accreditations
The study of politics is not directed towards any one professional pathway, but rather provides the generic skills for success in a number of professional fields including the civil service, media, the charity sector, education, etc.
Industry Links
We regularly consult and develop links with a large number of employers including, for example, BBC Northern Ireland as part of our work-based learning initiatives.
World Class Facilities
Research-led Teaching: cutting-edge research drives our externally commended teaching, most recently evidenced in the latest student satisfaction survey.
Internationally Renowned Experts
Professor Mark Burnett is a leading scholar of the place of Shakespeare in the contemporary arts and is director of the Kenneth Branagh Archive.
Dr Marilina Cesario is an expert on Anglo-Saxon science and collaborates widely with astrophysicists in reassessing our understanding of pre-modern scientific thinking.
Professor Philip McGowan is President of the European Association for American Studies (2016-2020) and sits on the Executive Board of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society.
Dr Edel Lamb is an international expert on early modern child theatre companies and is currently developing a project on theatre rivalry and riots in Shakespeare’s London.
Dr Gail McConnell explores the interface of literature and voice in her role as co-director of the AHRC-funded ‘Listening to Voices: Creative Disruptions with the Hearing Voices Network’ project.
Dr Alex Murray’s monograph on the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben (2010) has been translated into Turkish, Japanese and Chinese and his latest book Landscapes of Decadence: Literature and Place at the Fin de Siècle appeared in 2016 from Cambridge University Press.
Professor Glenn Patterson is the Rooney Prize and Betty Trask Prize-winning author of ten novels. He writes regularly for BBC Radio Three and Four, The Guardian and has made a number of documentaries for Irish and British television. His co-authored screenplay for Good Vibrations was nominated for a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.
Prof. Beverley Milton Edwards has advised various governments in her role as an expert on the Middle East, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Brooking Institution.
Prof. David Phinnemore is an expert on EU Treaty reform and EU enlargement, which led to his secondment as an advisor to the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Nick Laird, the Seamus Heaney Professor of Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre, is a recipient of the Betty Trask and Eric Gregory Awards, whose most recent collection is Feel Free (Faber, 2018). He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books.
Student Experience
From Personal Tutors to peer mentoring, we work closely with students to ensure they are supported at every stage of their degree.
With Degree-Plus, students have the opportunity to burnish their academic achievements with employment-facing placements and projects.
https://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/degreeplus/
A thriving cultural scene organised by our undergraduate and postgraduate communities, from the English Society and Poetry and Pints to the Lifeboat and the Yellow Nib, makes studying English at Queen’s a unique proposition.
https://www.facebook.com/QubEnglishSociety
Students can work with our visiting Fulbright Scholars, leading US academics who spend a semester at Queen’s each year.
“I chose Queen’s because the wide choice of modules essentially allows me to build my own degree. I enjoy the way we are taught through lectures and tutorials where we are given an overview of a topic, able to research more for ourselves, and then debate with our peers in tutorial sessions. The School is very open to the input
of students and I enjoy the level of student engagement through societies and student-staff consultative committees.”
Jessica Simonds, Colwyn Bay, Wales, BA Politics (2015), MA Violence, Terrorism and Security Graduate (2016)
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Course content
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