Guest Contributor MA Student Lucy Greenwood gives us her take on the English Literature MA at Worcester.
It has been extremely exciting to be a part of the first cohort of the taught MA English degree at University of Worcester. I was drawn to this course because of the varied and interesting modules, that gave me transferable skills. The ‘Digital Editing Project’ gave me the opportunity to create an online critical edition of an Eighteenth-century text that had not up until that point had a critical edition. I chose A description of Bath by Mary Chandler. The project was fun as it gave me a chance to develop my research skills (like trying to write about someone who does not have a lot written about them!) but also practical skills like designing a website. You can see this work here.
If you want to continue your studies and are unsure of what you would like to focus on, or alternatively if you have a very focused idea on what you want to research then my advice is be open to everything. This course is designed to give each student broad inspiration over a wide variety of topics, most notably the module ‘Evolving Genres’ where you will get to look at historical and contemporary examples of different genres which include satire, gothic, epic, tragedy and pastoral.
Personally, I found the pastoral interesting as a genre to explore ecological discourse and all the work I have produced this year has had an ecocritical focus. ‘The New Humanities’ module demonstrates how literary is important to scientific, medical and environmental research, we got to explore this further by organising a post graduate academic conference, Natural Bodies: An Exploration of the New Humanities which was a requirement for our ‘Professional Development’ module. I thought it was wonderful that all our modules integrated with each other and supported by our ‘Research Approaches in the Humanities and Arts’ module which was as essential underpinning to my understanding of being a researcher at post graduate level.
The university has also given me great opportunities such as the Students as Academic Partners scheme, where you can apply to be on a research project with current staff at the university. Despite having a very different MA experience due to coronavirus I can say very happily that I have thoroughly enjoyed this course. I have felt supported, the quality of teaching has been amazing, and the expertise of staff is inspiring. If you are considering the MA, good luck. Opportunity awaits.
Literature & Language 