Our MA English programme introduces new ways of researching and applying English in social contexts.
Why do people read, and how can we talk about changing reading habits? In what ways can we approach teaching literature, and how can we diversify teaching resources? Why is it important to explore language in professional contexts, such as healthcare?
Aston University’s MA in English is an exciting, applied programme that invites you to explore and advance your knowledge of English language and literature in social contexts.
The programme is taught by leading researchers in English literature, English language and literary linguistics in the Department of English, Languages and Applied Linguistics. The team are involved with a number of innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects in areas such as teaching English in secondary education, stylistics and reader response studies, healthcare communication, professional writing, corpus linguistics and discourse of wellbeing, among many others.
In 2020, The Lockdown Library Project research team carried out a UK-wide survey to find out how the first Covid-19 lockdown impacted on the public’s reading habits. They asked whether people increased or reduced their reading time, sought or avoided particular books or genres, revisited books from the past, or changed the ways they discussed books with other people since the start of the lockdown.
The results indicated that readers’ habits, and genre preferences, significantly changed for a number of reasons relating to social circumstances and personal wellbeing. The analysis was written up as part of a co-authored book, Reading Habits in the Covid-19 Pandemic (Boucher et al., 2024).
Dr Sarah Olive researches at the intersections of Shakespeare, children's literature and education, in and beyond the UK.
Dr Olive has been working with GwE, the local school improvement service for North Wales, since 2021. Their collaboration seeks to diversify the teaching of literary texts in Wales, in English and Welsh, with a focus on gender, race and ethnicity. They support teachers in Wales with freely available resources to help them identify diverse texts in both languages and to encourage their pupils' reading for pleasure. You can find one of their booklets here.
Dr Sarah Atkins looks at how professionals use language and communication, particularly in contexts like healthcare, the emergency services and the police.
Between 2019-2020, Dr Atkins worked on a project with the Point of Care Foundation and a number of hospital trusts to explore a supportive intervention for healthcare staff called Schwartz Rounds. These are forums for people to talk about the emotionally, socially and ethically complex aspects of their jobs and are now run at many UK hospitals and medical schools, including Aston Medical School. Schwartz Rounds have been found to be effective in fostering wellbeing for people working in healthcare. Using linguistic methods to analyse the talk that takes place, especially how people tell their stories and communicate connections to others, helps us to understand how Rounds actually achieve their aims - knowledge which can be applied in training facilitators and designing Rounds in the future.
The core and optional modules available on the MA English programme are led by these areas of research expertise. At the end of the degree programme, you will be supported in the development of your own extended research project in English.
Outside of the taught programme, the Aston Centre for Applied Linguistics (ACAL) and the Research Centre for the Humanities (REACH) groups will provide you with invaluable opportunities to be part of English at Aston University’s wider research culture, giving you access to our networks and partnerships, as well as a number of exciting series of research seminars and events throughout the year.
For more details about the programme, please see the course pages or contact the Programme Director, Dr Chloe Harrison.
Written by Dr Chloe Harrison