MA English – Texts and Contexts: Medieval to Renaissance

The MA: Texts and Contexts offers a unique graduate programme covering the full range of the three linguistic and cultural phases of earlier English writing: Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) to c.1100; Middle English (or later Medieval writing) to c.1500; and Early Modern (or Renaissance) writing (c.1500-1700). Through each of its modules, the MA provides an exciting and challenging course of study in a supportive research-led teaching environment. Students engage in independent research, small group discussion, and collaborative projects to develop and acquire knowledge and transferable skills essential to further study and a range of careers. The programme will appeal to students interested in Old, Medieval, and Renaissance literature, and the afterlives of these traditions, and to those who wish to develop their knowledge and skills in critical and creative thinking, communication, organisation, and problem-solving.

MA students benefit from the School’s thriving research community and have the opportunity to attend scholarly conferences, research seminar series, masterclasses, reading groups, and public outreach events. Past MA students also have a long history of actively contributing to Cork’s literary and cultural life and to UCC’s vibrant research community (e.g. through events such as Inkwell, the UCC English Society Medieval and Renaissance symposium, and Bookends, the annual UCC English postgraduate conference).

Study in UCC also affords graduate students the opportunity (subject to approval) to enrol in modules in other languages and literatures of the European Middle Ages and Renaissance such as Latin, Irish, Italian, and the languages of the Iberian peninsula.