English

Why study BA English at Goldsmiths

Bold, flexible, and richly diverse – our BA English degree will take you on a thrilling intellectual and imaginative journey. Our students are passionate about literature and willing to read against the grain. With Goldsmiths English, you'll develop your critical and creative voice, enabling you to speak back to the world with rigour and insight.

• We ask big questions. We challenge you to read literature in all its cultural, artistic, and political contexts and you will engage in debates about what it means to be human across time.

• We are diverse. You will travel across histories, cultures and languages, and explore evolving genres such as epic, tragedy and the novel. You will learn about the history of British literature, explore theoretical approaches such as feminism and postcolonialism, and investigate literary engagements with the Transatlantic slave trade, climate change, and political activism. You will have the opportunity to study American literature, Caribbean writing and indigenous literatures.

• We are critical and creative. Our staff undertake cutting edge research in the fields of gender studies; environmental humanities; Caribbean literature; linguistics; Shakespeare studies; American studies, translation studies; contemporary literature; life writing; Decadence; trauma studies; critical theory; modernism; visual culture; Romantic and Victorian literature; and the novel. Home to the Goldsmiths Prize and the Goldsmiths Writers' Centre, the Centre for Comparative Literature, the Centre for Caribbean and Diaspora Studies, and the Decadence Research Centre, Goldsmiths English is at the forefront of critical and creative practice.

• We are relevant. Our research-led teaching is informed by current debates about canon formation, decolonisation, the role of the arts in cultural and political life and the politics of the archive.

• We help you succeed. We will help you to grow and develop as a critical thinker and writer. You will have the opportunity to submit drafts of your work for in-term feedback and attend 1-2-1 Effective Academic Writing sessions.

• Our alumni include the multi award winning poet, novelist, playwright and musician, Kae Tempest; the poet, Granta and Fitzcarraldo editor, and Eric Gregory Award winner, Rachael Allen; the novelist Aria Aber, author of Good Girl; the founder of Gal-dem Magazine and Guardian and New York Times writer, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff; and Felix Petty, Head of Content at Kaleidscope and Capsule magazines, and former Executive Editor at i-D Magazine.