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BA in History to a Masters in English Literature

I am doing an undergraduate in History right now, in my second year, want to do a Masters and wondering if doing it in English Literature is possible/viable?

Reply 1

Keele University

Original post by BaHlstory

I am doing an undergraduate in History right now, in my second year, want to do a Masters and wondering if doing it in English Literature is possible/viable?

Hi @BaHIstory!

Most MA courses will ask for a "BA undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in [subject], or a related discipline". What is considered a "related discipline" can vary from course to course and from uni to uni but, for the most part,it is acknowledged that there is a great deal of cross-over between the humanities disciplines and, in particular between English and History.

For example, I'm an English PhD student but I study medievalism in literature across the long eighteenth-century so I spend almost as much time considering the history as I do the literature. As such I often seek advice from colleagues in History and one of my supervisors is a specialist in Medievalism so considers both history and literature as part of his work. I also applied for (and was offered) a PhD that was marketed as being a History project but I put forwards a proposal that examined the topic from a literature perspective. So there's a lot of areas where history and literature intertwine.

You'll need to check with the specific universities and courses when you apply but I think you'll find a lot of universities will consider History to be a "related discipline" to English.

Hope that helps but do feel free to ask if you have any other questions!

Amy :smile:

Reply 2

emmathereader

Hi! I am about to graduate with an undergraduate degree in American Literature and have an acceptance from Edinburgh to study American History as a taught masters in September. Both being focused on America might have helped me out in terms of 'related degree', and I am making the jump the opposite way to you, but I hope it shows that the possibility to move around within the Humanities is there - you might just have to double check with some universities what they consider 'related disciplines' before sending off your application.

Reply 3

QHF

Original post by BaHlstory

I am doing an undergraduate in History right now, in my second year, want to do a Masters and wondering if doing it in English Literature is possible/viable?

A couple of points to add to the responses you’ve had:

•

Without unduly distorting your BA, you could think about trying to do some work right now which is particularly textual-cultural-literary. This will be useful practice, and will also mean you are more likely to have suitable writing samples (something which master’s applications in the humanities often require)

•

If you find you can’t so easily hop from a pure history BA to a pure English master’s course, or simply as an alternative, you can look into interdisciplinary master’s courses of various kinds. These take students from multiple disciplines and let them work across disciplinary boundaries, and they’re often used as a stepping stone to doctoral study in a different discipline (though you should not feel obliged to think about doctoral study at this or any stage).

Reply 4

Liverpool Hope University

Official Rep

Original post by BaHlstory

I am doing an undergraduate in History right now, in my second year, want to do a Masters and wondering if doing it in English Literature is possible/viable?

Hi @BaHlstory

It is great to hear that you are interested in doing a masters degree.

As long as you get the necessary degree classification to meet the entry requirements you should be good.

Hope this helps.

Dom :h: