School of Critical Studies

Welcome to the School of Critical Studies postgraduate webpages

The School supports a thriving community of over 300 postgraduate scholars across Creative Writing, English Language, English Literature, Scottish Literature, Theology and Religious Studies.
As a postgraduate student in the School of Critical Studies, you will:

  • have access to world leading expertise across a number of research areas
  • undertake a comprehensive course on Postgraduate Research Training Skills
  • be given the opportunity to train to become a Graduate Teaching Assistant
  • be part of the wider research culture through our research seminars, guest lecture series and reading groups.
  • have the opportunity to compete for a number of scholarships and internships.

World leading expertise
The School of Critical Studies has a long history of excellence in postgraduate research, promoted by a distinguished body of internationally known researchers and ambitious research students. This is confirmed by the 2008 RAE, in which 70% of our research was rated as either “world-leading” (35%) or “Internationally excellent” (35%). 
Postgraduate research takes place across the School’s diverse but interrelated subject areas: English Language, English Literature, Scottish Literature, Theology and Religious Studies, with a number of research centres, research networks and funded research projects. An interdisciplinary culture is fostered across the School, and College of Arts, and through ArtsLab.


Postgraduate Research Training Skills
You will complete a College level suite of courses during your study. In addition, you will also complete the School of Critical Studies Postgraduate Training Course. This course provides an invaluable range of postgraduate-level skills training, based around a number of key themes in early career development. The course is rated very highly by the student cohort, providing an excellent platform for self- and peer-review through structured activities.
 

The wider research culture
As a postgraduate student in the School of Critical Studies, you will  have the opportunity to be part of the wider research culture through our research seminars, guest lecture series and reading groups.  These provide an excellent forum for discussion across a range of research interests, as well as the opportunity to network with world-leading scholars in the field.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships
Students are also given the opportunity to train to become Graduate Teaching Assistants  in order to fully engage with both teaching and research in academic life. A series of school-wide GTA workshops takes place at the beginning of each session which include assessment and feedback and using technology.

Scholarships, internships and research support funding
We offer a number of scholarships and internships for postgraduate research, in addition to competitive research and travel grants which allows students to take their work beyond Glasgow, presenting papers at national and international conferences.


Please contact Meg MacDonald if you have any questions related to your future postgraduate research plans. We’d be happy to discuss these further with you.

You can find out more information on a range of our postgraduate taught programmes here as well as opportunities at postgraduate research level here.