English and Creative Writing
Research in this area embraces a diverse range of periods, topics and approaches. Our research extends from the early modern to the contemporary, includes all the main literary genres, and is characterised by a strongly interdisciplinary approach and ethos.
Current PhD students are working on a wide range of topics, which include: close analysis of specific books and authors in their contexts; literature in relation to themes like gender and sexuality, ethnicity, war and conflict and the way literary works are produced and received. Creative writing candidates are working on collections of poetry, or novels with wide ranging themes and concerns.
We welcome applications from prospective research students and offer full-time and part-time places. Please contact us, using the email address below, if you are interested in exploring PhD study with us.
Key facts
- 100 per cent of our English research was assessed as 4* or 3* for impact in the Research Assessment Framework (REF) 2021.
- PhD students are supported by two internal supervisors and a strong programme of training in research skills; they participate in a lively research culture, with regular seminar programmes, conferences and workshops in Milton Keynes, London and other Open University national/regional centres.
- Each year in November, we run an annual English & Creative Writing subject specific PhD student conference, which allows students to present and share their work in progress in a supportive environment.
- The discipline has an excellent track record in winning external research funding and has led large-scale collaborative projects like The Postcolonial History of the Book, the Reading Experience Database, 1450–1945, Making Britain: South Asian Visions of Home and Abroad, 1870–1950, Beyond the Frame: Indian-British Connections 1858–1950, Reading Communities: Connecting the Past and the Present, Reading Europe: Advanced Data Investigation Tool (READ-IT), Dreaming Europe, Romantic Europe: The Virtual Exhibition (RÊVE) as well as supporting many individual research projects.
- Colleagues are centrally involved in several international literary journals, including Wasafiri, The Katherine Mansfield Journal, The Spenser Review, and The Last Post (journal of the Ford Madox Ford Society). Staff members peer review and serve on the editorial boards of a wide range of other literary and interdisciplinary journals.
- The discipline contributes to interdisciplinary research at national and international levels both through the work of individual researchers, and through its links with The Open University's Ferguson Centre, and externally, with the University of London’s School of Advanced Study’s Institute of English Studies (IES).
Location
Most of our research students are based away from our Milton Keynes campus, but are resident in the UK, see
Full-time study and
Part-time study.
Facilities
The Open University houses publicly accessible digital archives based on the English discipline's research projects:
- The Reading Experience Database (RED)
- Making Britain: South Asian Visions of Home and Abroad, 1870–1950
- The Listening Experience Database (LED).
Links