English literature PhD

The 麻豆传媒 offers an active, supportive and stimulating environment for English literature PhD study in a range of literary fields.

Successful applicants to the research programme will join a thriving postgraduate community in both literature and the wider School of Humanities and Social Science, with cohorts in specialisms that include modern and contemporary poetry, prose and drama; gender and sexuality; and drama of the Elizabethan age. Current and recent doctoral research includes projects on creative practice, queer performance, contemporary representations of technology, international Bohemia, the lesbian gaze in seventeenth-century Britain, independent black publishers and British travel writing on Montenegro.

As one of our English Literature PhD doctoral students, you will work with dedicated supervisors who will help you through the planning and delivery of your research thesis and will offer guidance on all areas of professional development, including conference delivery, publication and job application.

The 麻豆传媒 has opportunities for doctoral funding through the Doctoral College Award and the AHRC-funded techné studentships. The Techne scheme is a doctoral training programme that offers successful students a fee waiver or a fee waiver and stipend and typically has a January deadline.

Contact an expert in this field

Successful applicants have invariably had support with their application from one of our academics. We suggest you approach a suitable academic staff member with relevant research interests before progressing with your application.

Key information

As a Literature PhD student at Brighton, you will benefit from:

a supervisory team comprising two or three members of academic staff. A doctoral researcher may choose to work with members of staff in the Literature team (whose specialisms range from Early Modern literature to twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature) or else work on an interdisciplinary project with supervisors drawn from both literature and one of the cognate disciplines in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences or wider university (including creative writing, autoethnography, linguistics, history, philosophy, psychology, design, art and screen studies).
desk space and access to a computer in a space specifically designed for research students. There are a range of facilities on the Falmer site include various catering options.
access to a range of electronic resources via the university’s online library, as well as to the physical book and journal collections in the Falmer Library and other campus libraries in Moulsecoomb and in central Brighton.

Academic environment

Our literature research has a home in the School of Humanities and Social Science, where scholars engage across many disciplines and interests. Students may be aligned with or find colleagues in the university's Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence (COREs), including:

These centres offer postgraduate students a chance to hear talks by staff and guest lecturers, to network and to present their own work-in-progress.

The Brighton Doctoral College offers a training programme for postgraduate researchers, covering research methods and transferable (including employability) skills, including conference delivery, writing for publication and job application. Literature staff can also advise students on conference organisation, research trips and teaching work (with many of our current doctoral researchers being involved in teaching on our undergraduate courses).

We welcome approaches for English Literature PhD study at the 麻豆传媒. Current strengths for which our provision is particularly suited include:

Early Modern literature (Elizabethan/Jacobean)
twentieth-century literature
twenty-first-century / contemporary literature
women’s writing and feminist theory
postcolonial literature
British, American and European literatures
creative writing and autoethnography

Students are able to work on a range of interdisciplinary subjects, combining literary study with one or more of the university's wide range of disciplines, including: creative practice, graphics design and illustration, education, cultural studies, philosophy, sustainability, sociology, history, film, language, linguistics, media and screen studies.

Some of our supervisors

We strongly recommend that you apply with the support of one of our academics. By establishing your supervisor from the early stages of application, you will be supported through the application process and can make the best start to your programme of study.

You should consider the staff listed below and create a short draft research proposal identifying your suitability for supervision from that person's research specialism and your place in the wider context of the department's research ambitions. Their contact details are available on their full profile.

Our primary staff supervising in the discipline are listed. For further information on university supervisory staff, including cross-disciplinary options, please visit

I currently supervise PhDs on twentieth and twenty-first century literature. I would be happy to talk to students about PhD projects in literary and cultural studies on contemporary fiction or visual culture. I have specific interests in the economic humanities around work, especially precarious and reproductive labour, and on the concept of politics, specifically the political nature and potential of literature.

Specific areas within literary and cultural studies might include:

the cultures of work
social reproduction
globalization and culture
border studies
representations of migration
contemporary fiction
postcolonialism
contemporary visual culture

My current supervision includes the following PhD projects:

Gavin Salvesen-Sawh, 'Harold Pinter (1930-2008): Cracks in the fa莽ade. An examination of mental disintegration in selected plays and poetry by Pinter, to explore the relationship between the themes of power and agency and his later political activism.'https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/gavin-salvesen-sawh聽Edward Wells, Unreadability in Narrative Fiction: A Critical Perspective and Fictional Practice

She is particularly interested in supervising research projects in the following areas:

Women's writing
Feminist philosophy
Reproductive politics
Gothic and supernatural fiction
Science fiction, utopianism/dystopianism and Afrofuturism
Victorian and Edwardian fiction
The short story

One of my key passions is working with PhD students on creative practice, autoethnography and creative writing pedagogy. I have supported doctoral students working on transdisciplinary projects and work that seeks to challenge conventional academic discourse. At the moment, I am honoured to be working with students who are looking at queering the colonial, creativity and Bronte, Santiago de Cuba as moving archive, diverse narratives from Brexit, feminist romance, autoethnographic arts-based work, stories from care, autoethno-drag, identity and hybridity in fiction, and queer bodies in performance.

My supervisory interests include the study of popular media genres (science fiction, horror); the relations between media, memory and trauma; and media and politics (specifically imperialism, (post)colonialism and globalisation. Interdisciplinary projects on media, literature and culture are most welcome.

A more detailed indicative list of supervisory interests includes the following areas:

the study of popular media genres (science fiction, horror/Gothic, utopia/dystopia, (post-)apocalyptic fiction).
the relations between screen media, trauma theory and memory studies - with a more recent interest in nostalgia studies.
the historical and discursive relations between screen media and imperialism, globalisation and (post)colonialism.

Students with an interest in an interdisciplinary approach that extends across English studies and Film and Television studies are most welcome. I have also researched, taught and published on the late Victorian period ('fin de siecle') and postmodern theory, literature and culture.

I would be happy to talk to students about PhD projects in聽contemporary literature, cultural and queer studies.

Specific areas might include:

Black British Literature and Culture
BrexLit
'European' Literature
Postcolonialism
Postcommunism
Literary and media representations of migration and specifically 'Eastern European' migration
LGBTQIA+ Literature/Queer Writing

My current supervision includes the following PhD projects:

(COMPLETED) Kadija George, Raising the voice and visibility of independent Black publishers (TECHNE-funded) http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/techne/for-students/techne-students/techne-students/techne-students-2016/george

Najma Yusufi, "Leave To Remain鈥� (novel) and Hybridity in British Asian writing post-Brexit, https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/najma-yusufi

Amanda Holiday, 'Poetry, Race and Art' (TECHNE-funded), https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/amanda-holiday

Veneta Neale, 'This is our History: Diasporic Feminist Black British History'

Hanna Komar (TECHNE-funded), 'Supporting Belarusian women to share experiences of gender-based violence and patriarchy using poetry: an autoethnographic approach'聽

Thomas Hull (TECHNE-funded), 'Nineteenth-Century Ambivalence and the Gendered Body: A Practice-Based Study of Dr James Barry'

Remi Aska, 'Unveiling Queer Narratives: Reshaping and Rediscovering Identity through Pre-Colonial Mythologies, Folklore and Nature'

Aakanksha is happy to supervise postgraduate work on late Victorian and modern literature. She has specific interests in literary modernism and would particularly welcome projects exploring literature and the arts (music and visual culture).

Specific areas within literary studies (1850-1950) might include

Victorian/modern transitions
philosophy, aesthetics and politics in modern literature
poetry and poetics
literature, music and visual culture
aestheticism, decadence and desire

Making an application

Once you have prepared a first-rate application you can apply to the 麻豆传媒 through our . When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the 麻豆传媒 staff. We strongly recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

Fees and funding

Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistence during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2025–26

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
Student	Full-time fees	Part-time fees
UK	£5,006	£2,503
International (including EU)	£16,390	N/A
International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law	£14,950	N/A

PhD by Publication
Study method	Fees
Full-time	N/A
Part-time	£2,503

Contact Brighton Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the 麻豆传媒 we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the Brighton Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.