English and Environment
Postgraduate
In Leeds
Description
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Type
Postgraduate
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Location
Leeds
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Start date
Different dates available
Our BA English and Environment is a course unique in the UK that pairs the study of English literature and cultural studies with issues facing the environment, such as sustainability and climate change, and is taught jointly by the School of English and the School of Earth and Environment. The course is part of the University’s commitment to problem-solving cross-disciplinary research that combines methods drawn from the sciences with those more usually associated with the arts.
This course allows you to explore the often surprisingly deep relationship between English literature on the one hand, and historical and contemporary environmental issues and debates on the other.
You will combine skills derived from the study of both literature and environmental studies, developing a unique and valuable skill set.
In Year 1 you will gain insights into key issues and debates while working on the critical and analytical skills needed to address them.
In Year 2 you will sharpen these skills by applying them to issues such as wildness/wilderness, climate change, or biodiversity) in which both qualitative (interpretative) and quantitative forms of analysis are required.
In Year 3, you will undertake an autonomous research project while also honing pre-professional skills in such environmentally oriented areas as environmental journalism and consultancy, biodiversity management and work with non-profit organisations (NGOs).
The world class Brotherton Library holds a wide variety of manuscript, archive and early printed material in its Special Collections– valuable assets for your independent research. Our additional library resources are also excellent, and the University Library offers a comprehensive training programme to help you make the most of them.
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About this course
Entry requirements
A-level: AAB including A in English Language and/or Literature, or equivalent qualifications.
Select alternative qualification
Access to HE Diploma
BTEC
Cambridge Pre-U
International Baccalaureate
Irish Highers (Leaving Certificate)
Scottish Highers / Advanced Highers
Welsh Baccalaureate
Other Qualifications
Read more about UK and Republic of Ireland accepted qualifications or contact the School’s Undergraduate Admissions Team.
Alternative entry
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Subjects
- English
- Biodiversity
- Climate Change
- University
- School
- Project
- Climate
Course programme
This course combines specialist environmental humanities modules in the School of English with modules in environmental social science in the School of Earth & Environment.
You will get to choose from a wide range of modules from across the two schools. Modules in English include ecocriticism, animal studies and posthumanist thought, while Earth & Environment offer modules on, for example, sustainable development and environmental policy. Linking these, a range of cross-cutting themes, including principles of sustainability, perceptions of the wild, and concepts of biodiversity, ensures that the history of environmental ideas and theories is mapped against contemporary environmental actions and practices.
This course is distinctive in bringing two sets of knowledge and techniques to bear on contemporary environmental issues and problems, using arts- as well as science-based methods and approaches to explore the cultural, historical and ethical dimensions of the environmental crisis.
You will graduate with a refined critical understanding of contemporary environmental issues and debates, but also of the ethical, cultural and historical forces that inform them, and a range of techniques for responding to them. These distinctive critical and analytical skills are relevant to a variety of both culturally and environmentally oriented professional careers.
Course structureThese are typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our Terms and conditions.
Modules Year 1Compulsory modules
- Studying and Researching English 5 credits
- Environment, Crisis and Creativity: Contemporary Nature Writing 20 credits
- Foundations of English Studies 20 credits
- Sustainable Development: Concepts and Case Studies 20 credits
- Skills for Environmental Social Science 10 credits
- Environmental Politics and Policy 10 credits
Optional modules
- Literature of the Romantic Period 20 credits
- The Wild: Literature and the Environment 20 credits
- Climate Change: Society and Human Dimensions 10 credits
- People, Sustainability, and the Environment 20 credits
- Research in the Environmental Social Sciences 30 credits
- Environmental Impact Assessment 10 credits
- Managing Biodiversity 10 credits
Compulsory modules
- Final Year Project
- America, Inundated: Floods and other Scourges in US Fiction, 1935-1998 20 credits
- Where the Wild Things Are: Animals in Children's Literature 20 credits
- Imagining Posthuman Futures 20 credits
- Environmental Research Project 40 credits
- Environmental Risk: Science, Policy and Management 10 credits
- Sustainable Consumption 10 credits
- Earth and Environmental Sciences into Schools 10 credits
- Sustainable Futures 20 credits
- Sustainable Development in Practice 10 credits
English and Environment