Poetry: Text, Practice as Research - PhD

Overview

This programme enables promising poets to develop the potential of poetry as a tool of inquiry within the humanities.

You will produce a volume of poetry as well as a piece of scholarly research of 30-40,000 words. Given its emphasis on poetic practice as research into the possibilities and potential for contemporary poetry, the programme integrates with the aims and objectives of the Centre for Modern Poetry allowing for joint supervision between the two centres. Cross-faculty work on modern poetry with colleagues in the School of European Culture and Languages is also encouraged. The programme acknowledges the fact that poetry has historically understood itself as an art, consciously informed by research.

About the School of English

The School of English has a strong international reputation and global perspective, apparent both in the background of its staff and in the diversity of our teaching and research interests.

Our expertise ranges from the medieval to the postmodern, including British, American and Irish literature, postcolonial writing, 18th-century studies, Shakespeare, early modern literature and culture, Victorian studies, modern poetry, critical theory and cultural history. The international standing of the School ensures that we have a lively, confident research culture, sustained by a vibrant, ambitious intellectual community. We also count a number of distinguished creative writers among our staff, and we actively explore crossovers between critical and creative writing in all our areas of teaching and research.

The Research Excellence Framework 2014 has produced very strong results for the School of English at Kent. With 74% of our work graded as world-leading or internationally excellent, the School is ranked 10th out of 89 English departments in terms of Research Intensity (Times Higher Education). The School also received an outstanding assessment of the quality of its research environment and public impact work.