The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LLC) at Royal Holloway offers a range of exciting possibilities to students interested in postgraduate study.

Our Masters by Research is a flexible programme that allows you to undertake in-depth study (full- or part-time) on key areas of literature, visual or cultural studies or comparative topics.

We offer a tailor-made research-focused taught module, which will equip you with an array of theoretical and historical approaches to the study of literature, art and culture. This will enable you to articulate, refine and persistently test your own approach to your chosen topic within this broader theoretical and methodological framework.

What it involves

The core of the MA by Research is a dissertation, giving you the scope to explore your area of interest in real depth and to develop sophisticated research skills. It gives you the chance to test out an area of study in preparation for doctoral study, whilst serving as an impressive qualification on its own.

Support

As well as specialist one-to-one tuition for the duration of the MA by Research you’ll have access to skills training and enjoy the additional support of a dedicated Research Advisor. You’ll also have access to all of our facilities, including our new cutting-edge library, and outstanding postgraduate support.

Research expertise in the School

Current research expertise in the School includes:

• Critical Theory including: animal studies, ethics, consumer culture, disability studies, ecocriticism and the Anthropocene, gender, globalisation, post-colonialism, queer theory, memory and trauma, and transnationalism.
• French and Francophone literature, film, culture and visual arts.
• German literature, film, culture and visual arts.
• History of art and visual culture.
• Italian literature, film, culture and visual arts.
• Spanish and Latin American literature, film, culture and visual arts.

We strongly encourage interdisciplinary projects.

Find out more about our research

Current and recent MA by Research projects

Current and recent MA by Research students are working on projects as diverse as:

• A Question of Identity: Understanding the Indigenous Contributions towards a Recovering Caribbean Future
• Modern Parisian Uprisings in the news: How the Guardian reported the Paris Commune and May 1968
• The Selfish Mother and Wife and her Fertile Desires: Reading the Unnatural Woman in Works by Emile Zola and Rachilde
• Getting Away With Murder: Disposability and the Female Body in Carlos Carrera’s Traspatio and Enrique Arroyo’s El otro sueño Americano
• Serving Justice: Italian Contemporary Representations of Crime
• Divine Discourse: A Comparative Study of Dante and Vyas’ Approaches to Spiritual Knowledge in The Divine Comedy and Srimad Bhagavad Gita

For more information, including funding opportunities, contact the Director of Graduate Studies, Dr Danielle Sands

Or the school office

Our postgraduate colloquium

This is an annual event, run by and for our community of postgraduate students. It features a keynote address by a distinguished visiting speaker.