Program Overview

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Our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies offers supervision for PhD Creative Writing in all fields of staff research interest within this area. Creative writing is an area of particular growth for us and all genres are catered for, with published novelists, poets, and playwrights on our teaching staff and great programme of visiting writers through the Essex Book Festival to stimulate your imagination. A number of our graduates have gone on to undertake successful careers as writers. Other past students are now established as scholars, university lecturers, teachers, publishers, publishers’ editors, journalists, arts administrators, theatre artistic directors, drama advisers, and translators We also offer an MPhil and a Masters by dissertation in this subject. Please note, part-time research study is also available. Why we're great.

• Our department offers talented students the support and confidence to respond both critically and artistically to their academic study.
• Join a community of award-winning writers, film-makers and theatre-makers, as well as leading academic specialists.
• We encourage both artistic expression and critical discernment in our unique literary conservatoire.

Our expert staff

Within our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, you will be allocated a supervisor whose role it is to guide you through the different stages of your research degree. In some cases, you may have joint supervision by two members of our staff. The support provided by your supervisor is a key feature of your research student experience and you will have regular one-to-one meetings to discuss progress on your research. Initially, your supervisor will help you develop your research topic and plan. Twice a year, you will have a supervisory board meeting, which provides a more formal opportunity to discuss your progress and agree your plans for the next six months.

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Specialist facilities

If you are studying within our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, then you will have access to a range of exceptional facilities to enhance your learning and research, including our Lakeside Theatre. Over the past three decades, our Lakeside Theatre at our Colchester Campus has been established as a major venue, known for a commitment to new writing for the stage. Not only do many professional touring companies bring their productions of new plays here but there has been a wealth of new work produced by our own staff and students. An essential element of our Lakeside Theatre’s programme has been the opportunity it has given students to write or direct new plays, as well as re-define classics and re-discover neglected masterpieces.

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Your future

A number of our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies graduates have gone on to undertake successful careers as writers. Other past research students are now established as scholars, university lecturers, teachers, publishers, publishers’ editors, journalists, arts administrators, theatre artistic directors, drama advisers, and translators.