PhD at the Institute of English Studies

The School of Advanced Study at the University of London brings together eight internationally renowned research institutes to form the UK's national centre for the support of researchers and the promotion of research in the humanities.

The Institute of English Studies (IES) occupies a position at the heart of the academic study of English in the United Kingdom. The Institute offered the world’s first degree in Book History and was founded to help establish it as a discipline.

Today, the Institute is recognised nationally and internationally as a centre of excellence for its research activities, and in the provision of resources to the academic community as a whole. A vibrant, interdisciplinary research culture is fostered within the IES, and more broadly within the School of Advanced Study.

The Institute’s core activities include providing supervision for postgraduate research students in specialist areas of English studies and related disciplines; delivering the long-established Masters’ degree in the History of the Book; hosting major collaborative research projects; providing essential research training in book history and palaeography; and facilitating scholarly communities in all areas of English studies. It specialises in the history of the book, manuscript and print studies, textual scholarship and digital editing.

Undertaking doctoral research allows you to develop in-depth knowledge, while making a meaningful contribution to your chosen field.

This degree presents the opportunity to gain expertise in your area of interest while also honing a range of transferable skills. On completing this course, you'll be well prepared for specialist career paths both within academia and beyond.

Full-time study for the PhD degree entails three or a maximum of four years' independent research, culminating in the writing of a thesis of not more than 100,000 words. Part-time students complete the same programme in five, or a maximum of six years.

After submission of the thesis, you'll attend an oral examination conducted by an internal examiner, from the University of London, and an external examiner, normally from another British university.

There is no formal coursework, but you'll be expected to participate in a weekly seminar on Work in Progress and to present a paper every year from your second year onwards. In your first year you are required to attend a weekly class on Techniques of Scholarship. You are also encouraged to participate in the regular seminars held at the Institute during the academic year.

Subject areas

The Institute of English Studies offers doctoral research supervision in the following broad areas:

• Bibliography
• Book illustration
• History of the book from the medieval period to the present
• History of collecting
• History of printing
• History of publishing from 1800 to the present
• History of readers and reading
• Textual scholarship, scholarly editing and digital humanities
• Author-focused studies (e.g. J.M. Barrie, Dickens, Scott Fitzgerald, Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, Melville, Shakespeare, R.L. Stevenson, Twain, W.B. Yeats)
• Medieval manuscript studies and palaeography
• Early modern print culture
• Victorian literature
• Twentieth-century literature
• American literature
• Anglo-American Modernism
• Scottish literature

Before submitting an application you are advised to contact a member of the academic staff who has interests in your proposed field of study to discuss your proposal.

Professor Sarah Churchwell
Chair in Public Understanding of the Humanities
Email | Research Profile

• I broadly supervise topics relating to the American novel of the long 20th century (Henry James to the present), and my methodologies focus on biographical criticism, reception history and literary history. I am particularly interested in the intersection of biography, authorship, celebrity and the marketplace.

Topics:  

• F. Scott Fitzgerald and his circle
• Henry James and his circle
• The American 1920s and 1930s
• American modernism and the marketplace
• American cinema in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s
• Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
• American bestsellers (from the 18th century to the present)
   

Dr Cynthia Johnston
Lecturer in Book History and Communications
Email | Research Profile

• My research interests include all aspects of medieval book culture with special interest on the development and transmission of decorative technique in Western Europe during the thirteenth century. I am also in interested in the history of collections and collecting.

Topics:  

• I am happy to receive inquiries regarding PhD supervisions on late medieval book historical topics.
   

Dr Andrew Nash
Reader in Book History and Communications
Email | Research Profile

• I supervise topics relating to three broad areas: the history of books and publishing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the material contexts of Victorian and twentieth-century literature; and Scottish literature since 1750. My methodologies focus on literary criticism and history, bibliography and book history, and manuscript and archive studies, especially publishers’ and book trade archives.

Topics:  

• The history of publishing from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century
• The history and economics of authorship from the 1850s to the present
• Victorian popular fiction
• Nineteenth- and twentieth-century Scottish fiction
• The firm of Chatto & Windus
• J.M. Barrie
• Robert Louis Stevenson
• Maritime fiction and the history of the sea story
• Modern literary archives and manuscripts
   

Dr Christopher Ohge
Lecturer in Digital Approaches to Literature, Institute of English Studies
Email | Research Profile 

Topics:

• Scholarly editing, digital publishing, textual criticism, and bibliography (particularly of nineteenth and twentieth century literary texts)
• Studies of Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Transcendentalism, and transatlantic romanticism
• Literary biography
• Text analysis and stylometry with the R programming language
• Using "distant reading" to enhance "close reading" (and vice versa)
• Network analysis and visualising social and literary networks
• The impact of digital research on English studies
   

Dr David Pearson
Email

• I would be happy to supervise on topics which fit with my research interests around the book as a material object in the early modern period: ways in which books have been owned, marked, read, sold or bound, and the deductions we can make from that evidence.  This could encompass book collecting, bookbinding, or any aspect of provenance studies.

Topics:  

• Private or institutional library history between the 16th and 19th centuries
• Marginalia, annotations, signs and marks of the reading and use of books
• Patterns of book ownership or collecting
• Bookbinding history and development, and its application to book history
   

Professor Clare Lees
Professor of Medieval Literature and IES Director
Email

• I am a medievalist who works mainly in early medieval literature from the perspective of contemporary Medieval Studies.

Topics:

• Early Medieval literatures
• Languages and cultures of Britain and Ireland
• Gender and sexuality studies
• Histories of place and belief

Dr Laura Cleaver
Senior Lecturer in Manuscript Studies
Email | Research Profile

• I supervise research into the trade in manuscripts and rare books in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and into illuminated manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Topics:  

• Medieval illuminated manuscripts
• The rare book trade in the 19th and 20th centuries
• Medieval historiography
• 20th-century medievalism
• Manuscripts as didactic tools.

Dr Michael Durrant
Lecturer in Book History
Email

• Michael’s research has focused on the lives of early modern book-trade professionals, the creative functions of ornamental initials and the printer's device, and user-generated modifications of pre-modern book objects.

Dr Pragya Dhital
Lecturer in Collections, Archives, and the Study of the Book
Email

• Pragya joins the IES from the National Archives, where she is a Records Specialist for Empire and Commonwealth history, and UCL, where she teaches in the Sarah Parker Remond Centre.

The Institute of English Studies' holds a number of collections, which are mainly integrated within Senate House Library. Central to our collections are the History of the Book teaching collection, the Museum of Writing and the T. Sturge Moore Collection.

The Institute also aims to make available a number of its publications in SAS-Space, an online library for humanities and social sciences research outputs. Items including the documentary outcomes of research projects, University Trust Lectures (e.g. the John Coffin and the Hilda Hulme Memorial lectures), papers from presentations given at or in association with the Institute, including selected research seminar papers, and outstanding dissertations at Masters and Doctoral level are available and regularly updated.

The Institute also has a number of helpful key networks. For example, the Institute administers the day-to-day business of the Bibliographical Society (BibSoc), a world-renowned leader in the study of the book and its history. We also have connections with London's Palaeography Teachers’ Group, a group of experts in palaeography from across the federal University of London and beyond. Many of the teachers run courses as part of the London Palaeography Summer School and are also involved in some of the courses on the London Rare Books School.

More broadly, the School of Advanced Study itself offers excellent resources for inter-disciplinary research by bringing together eight internationally renowned research institutes that support the promotion of research in the humanities.

The School of Advanced Study is also home to the previously mentioned Senate House Library, the central library for the University of London. The art deco building, which the School and Senate House Library are part of, is a literary landmark in the heart of Bloomsbury, located next to the British Museum. The Library occupies the fourth to the nineteenth floors of the building, with a range of historic library reading rooms and collections.

Much like the Institute itself, the School offers a broad range of events, seminars and conferences that we encourage you to engage with.

You can also take advantage of a varied and challenging research training programme, with general research skills training and research methodologies courses provided through the School and subject-specific training provided within the institutes

Distance learning offers you a more flexible way to study for a postgraduate degree in the humanities – combining innovative learning and teaching techniques with the ability to study from anywhere in the world.

We offer three master’s courses and a range of PhD supervision via distance learning. Our research degrees via distance learning allow you to study for a University of London MPhil or PhD degree from anywhere in the world. The programme is run on the same basis as campus-based programmes.

The School of Advanced Study will offer students with an appropriate topic and level of local resource the opportunity to undertake a PhD by distance learning. These students are required to attend our London campus at set intervals to complete an intensive research training module, for upgrade, and for the viva but will otherwise study at their own location. This option is available to UK, EU and international students on the same basis as our on-campus PhD programmes (three years full time, six years part time). Fees are the same as for our on-campus PhD programmes. 

Important note: It may not always be possible for all institutes and supervisors to offer the option of distance learning, as some topics are not appropriate to be studied this way. As such, we strongly recommend that you check first - before applying.

If you would like to be considered for our Research Degree programme via Distance Learning, please download and fill out the Research Degrees by Distance Learning form, to attach to your online application.

Before submitting an application you are advised to contact a member of the academic staff who has interests in your proposed field of study to discuss your proposal. You can find contact details and areas of expertise from our academic staff - See Supervisors.

Before agreeing to accept you, the School will require you to submit a research proposal, so it is worthwhile having this drafted ahead of a formal application. Guidelines on drafting your research proposal.

Candidates will normally receive an initial response to their application within 28 working days. Those who have been formally interviewed will normally be informed within one week as to whether they are to be offered a place.

Note: in accordance with regulations research you'll be registered for the MPhil degree in the first instance. Upgrading to PhD will be considered in the second year for full-time students and in the third or fourth year for part-time students

Fees are set annually and cover registration, tuition, and (in the case of research students) supervision.

Fees are quoted per annum -- that is, you will need to pay at least the fee quoted below for each year of your studies. Please note that tuition fees are subject to annual uplift. The University of London reserves the right to alter or withdraw courses and amend other details without prior notice.

See the Tuition Fees for 2024-25 - listed by Institute.

Our students fund their studies in a variety of ways including scholarships, bursaries and fellowships, as well as government loans and postgraduate loans. 

We offer a range of scholarships and bursaries that you don't need to pay back and are awarded based on personal circumstances or academic achievement. Funding at postgraduate level is competitive so it’s a good idea to plan financially before starting your course. 

For information about fees and funding from the School of Advanced Study, please visit the SAS Fees and Funding page.

The SAS Careers Service works with students and graduates of all ages and at all stages of career development across all the institutes. Our mission is to provide high-quality information about careers and skills, and professional advice and guidance. We help students with their career development, either within their current field of work or in something completely new. 

SAS students can access 1-2-1 guidance appointments throughout their studies and for up to 2 years after graduating, to help them plan their next steps, whatever they might be. We also offer CV, cover letter, and application advice as well as mock interviews with the SAS Careers Consultant who will empower you to feel more confident in your interview performance.