Welcome

English Studies at Durham University is one of the top English Departments in the country, offering teaching and research of the highest quality in beautiful surroundings. The Department is consistently rated as a top-five or higher English Department by the Good University Guide and the Complete University Guide; the National Student Survey ranked Durham third for English Studies, with a satisfaction level of 97%. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, 90% of the research activity in the Department was judged to be of international standing.

English is one of the Departments that make up the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. We offer a range of teaching across the whole of the discipline of English Studies, from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day, offering both a solid base for the study of English Literature and the opportunity to specialise. Our teaching draws on a variety of different theoretical and methodological perspectives: we encourage students to discover new approaches and to develop their own responses. Students are taught in lectures, seminars, tutorial groups and also one-to-one supervisions, by some of the world's leading literary critics.

The Department's ethos is that teaching and research should complement one another at all levels of academic enquiry, from first-year tutorials to the specialised supervision available to MA and doctoral postgraduates.  Our work combines a strong sense of tradition with a commitment to innovation and new approaches, and we have a particular strength in interdisciplinary research.

Events & Conferences