MA English Studies

Welcome

The MA English Studies has a strong research orientation that brings together the three fields of English linguistics, literary studies and cultural studies. The programme

  • is a consecutive two-year full-time degree programme (or four-year part-time) with a total of 120 ECTS points (60 ECTS or 30 ECTS points per academic year)
  • offers empirical linguistic study of the English language and the literatures and cultures of Great Britain and Ireland (as well as other English speaking countries)
  • can be studied entirely in English and is fully modularised

The MA English Studies – Options for Specialisation

The MA English Studies strongly encourages a specialisation in either Culture and Literature or Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. Applicants/Students can choose between three options:

Specialisation Culture and Literature

This specialisation offers a focus on

  • two of the most prominent approaches in the humanities: the history of ideas and discourse analysis
  • Cultural Studies: cultural history, popular culture, and processes of cultural and medial translation; a specific emphasis is placed on the intersection of culture with economics and politics
  • Literary Studies: a wide range of English literatures from the Renaissance to the present, closely examining literary texts as well as their relations to other discourses such as philosophy and religion
  • interdisciplinary options and work experience: a Wild Card module provides the opportunity to do an internship in order to get work experience in a related area (optional) or take courses from related fields of study

A total of or equivalent to  > 60 ECTS in English literary and cultural studies are required for admission.

Specialisation Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

This specialisation focuses on the description and empirical analysis of the English language in the light of current linguistic theories. The following topics are covered:

  • usage-based construction grammar
  • psycholinguistics
  • first and second language acquisition
  • corpus linguistics
  • multimodality
  • language change & variation

A total of or equivalent to  > 60 ECTS in English linguistics and general linguistics are required for admission.

No Specialisation

Students may choose to study a combination of the two major fields, dedicating an equal amount of their studies to both fields (no specialisation).

A total of or equivalent to  > 30 ECTS in English linguistics and general linguistics and > 30 ECTS in English literary and cultural studies are required for admission.

All Three Options

  • comprise special academic skills courses to further develop students’ reading, research, and academic writing competences
  • encourage students to choose modules from a range of related subjects (including Book Studies, Computational Linguistics, North American Studies, Romance languages)
  • offer a number of places for studying abroad at other European universities
  • are taught entirely in English

More Information

  • Literary Studies: relations between literature and other discourses, e.g. philosophy, politics, religion etc. (Prof. Dr. Gerold Sedlmayr,  appl. Prof. Dr. Gerd Bayer),
  • Cultural Studies: cultural history, processes of cultural and medial translation (Prof. Dr. Claudia Lillge),
  • Linguistics:
    • theoretical linguistics and its application to the description of English, cognitive linguistics (Chair Prof. Dr. Ewa Dabrowska)
    • foreign and second language learning and teaching (Chair Prof. Dr. Thorsten Piske)
    • Big Data linguistics and multimodality (Chair Prof. Dr. Peter Uhrig)
    • historical, functional-cognitive linguistics in Modern, Middle & Old English (Chair Prof. Dr. Lotte Sommerer)
  • The areas of research are also embedded into a number of well-established research centres, among them:

Depending on students’ specialisation they obtain

  • an MA English Studies: Culture and Literature
  • an MA English Studies: Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
  • an MA English Studies (no specialisation)

The MA English Studies prepares for jobs that require analytical skills, writing as well as organisational competences. Graduates of the MA English Studies will have a wide range of career options in fields such as

  • academia and research
  • journalism and media
  • public relations and communication
  • publishing and editing
  • cultural management (e.g. museums, foundations, events)
  • diversity management
  • marketing and advertising
  • higher education and private schools

Students from the Culture and Literature specialisation, who already know that they would like to pursue a career in a non-academic context, can use the optional wildcard module to take an internship as an opportunity to make contacts with potential future employers and to obtain practical experience beyond the university.

Depending on the chosen specialisation and individual choices, the course structure will differ. The examinations regulation (Fachprüfungsordnung, short: FPO) comprises available course structures for each of the three paths. The current FPO can be downloaded as a PDF file (English and German). Open the PDF and scroll down to find the appendices:

  • Appendix 1 for Culture and Literature
  • Appendix 2 for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
  • Appendix 3 for No Specialisation

For courses offered in a particular semester, please consult Campo.

The module handbook of the MA English Studies can be found here.

Read more about requirements and how to apply.