MA students can choose whether they want to focus on Anglophone literatures or linguistics, or on both. Their knowledge is extended and deepened by a training in academic research practice in more specialized fields of English linguistics and/or literature; students do not only tackle specific research questions and approaches in a given field but also learn to apply and critique them in a sophisticated manner. Students develop their own research projects in conversation with their fellow students and instructors.
MA courses in linguistics focus on cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics, examining the cognitive and social bases of language and communication as well as language acquisition theory and methods. Our second field of linguistic expertise focuses on variation of language usage in given contexts (sociolinguistics, pragmatics and discourse analysis).
Literary studies are interdisciplinary, approaching literary texts from a theoretical angle and in their historical, social, and cultural contexts. We consider literary texts as manifestations of broader cultural processes that shape how we make sense of the world. Our thematic foci range from aesthetics and the materiality of communication to middlebrow fiction and the spatial imagination of literature.
Excellent MA graduates can extend their research competence by conducting a PhD research project and writing a doctoral dissertation.