Programme overview

PhD: a research project undertaken across four years (full-time, minimum period of study three years), culminating in an 80,000 word thesis. As well as having the option to audit taught units, there may be the potential for PhD students to teach units themselves from their second year of study onwards.

Research in Comparative Literatures and Cultures at the University of Bristol sits within the School of Modern Languages and builds on two emerging areas which the School has actively developed in recent years: transnational studies and intermediality. By introducing new objects of study and innovative methodologies, we have forged interdisciplinary connections in and beyond the arts and social sciences via themes of global concern, from mental health to climate change.

Transnational studies emphasise cultural difference and diversity yet also interconnectedness and mutual influence. We explore cultural contact, migration and transfer within and beyond Europe in uneven colonial, pre-colonial, and postcolonial contexts, both vertically and transversally, while questioning persistent narratives of ‘West’ and ‘East’ or ‘North’ and ‘South’.

Intermedial studies build on our excellence in word and image studies, film, and theatre, auditory culture, and the study of such cultural artefacts as video games, graphic novels, manga, the media, landscape design, and artwork from video installation to graffiti.

We also explore how the materiality of discursive genres (poetic form, the novel, ego documents and political rhetoric) shapes the message, and how literary and discursive practices interact with social, political and professional contexts. Comparative Literatures and Cultures draws on the extensive research specialisms of our staff. Each research student is assigned to an academic who works in their proposed area of research or related field, and benefits from the input of a second supervisor who will likely come from another department, depending on the transnational or interdisciplinary nature of the project.

Careers

Graduates from our department go on to work in diverse professional contexts, including higher education and research,government, public and private sector organisations, international development, NGOs, and policy-making organisations.