Scottish Literature PhD

The University of Glasgow hosts the only academic unit in the UK exclusively dedicated to the teaching and research of Scottish Literature.

OVERVIEW

Scottish literature fulfils a unique role at the University of Glasgow where it has been a fully-fledged independent subject since the early 1970s. As a relatively ‘new’ subject in the academic context there is a great deal of research work still to be undertaken in Scottish literary studies. Glasgow is supremely well placed to support exciting postgraduate and postdoctoral research.

Scottish literature at Glasgow is well connected to a number of key archives of Scottish material held by our own Special Collections and the Mitchell Library in the city. Moreover we have strong connections with Edinburgh’s National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Poetry Library, both of which house a wealth of materials relating to Scottish writers and literature of all periods.

Our students have had much success in the last ten years with funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. And we offer smaller student bursaries for specifically Scottish projects.

Topics in which we would welcome postgraduate research include:

Scottish literature of the Renaissance
18th-century literary tradition
Robert Burns studies
Scottish Romanticism
20th-century Scottish modernism
contemporary Scottish literature.

Thesis length: 70,000-100,000 words, including references, bibliography and appendices (other than documentary appendices).

A Doctor of Philosophy may be awarded to a student whose thesis is an original work making a significant contribution to knowledge in, or understanding of, a field of study and normally containing material worthy of publication.