The fields covered by the programme comprise the core interests of literature and culture, linguistics and book studies in the English-speaking world from a historical and contemporary perspective. These fields can in turn be studied with an individually placed emphasis on British, American and postcolonial cultures. We offer our students an advanced understanding of and familiarity with specialist approaches and methods from all three major fields, and we aid them in developing individual research interests and specialisations.
Main foci of teaching at the Münster English Department include:
- in the field of linguistics: empirical and applied linguistics, varieties of English, sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, language contact, variation and change in English
- in literary and cultural studies: British literature and culture from the Middle Ages to the present day, American studies, African American studies/Black Diaspora, postcolonial studies, empire writing, literary historiography, literary and cultural theory
- in book studies: the past and present of the book as a medium, historical and empirical reader research, textual studies
In addition, various research projects offer opportunities for genuinely interdisciplinary class work.
The broad range of this Master's programme comprises all facets of English Studies and facilitates a choice of topics for MA theses that connect the various sub-disciplines encompassed by the programme.