Course summary

This unique interdisciplinary MA offers you the opportunity to study English Literature and Black Humanities, deepening your passion for literature through an engagement with the global histories, philosophies, languages and arts of people of African descent. On this programme you will not only engage with the work and creative contexts of Black authors, vital though that is, you will be trained as a literary specialist to approach research, writing and thinking through Black Humanities as an interdisciplinary and undisciplined field of study. Based on cutting-edge research from across the arts and humanities, you will study the histories, methodologies and intellectual frameworks that underpin contemporary debates about race, the parameters of knowledge and knowledge production, the legacies of systemic racism and campaigns for social justice. These will be discussed through consideration of historical and contemporary contexts in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas, and Europe. You are invited to participate fully in the life of both the English Department and the Centre for Black Humanities, an international hub for research on Black life that directly informs our teaching. Our members are engaged in pioneering research on topics including UK hip-hop, Black British art, the histories and memories of Enslavement, African literary activism and film, Caribbean literature, and the Lusophone Atlantic. We place critical importance on being part of an international and multilingual community. This is reflected in the Centre's annual programme of external speakers and seminars, offering you the opportunity to engage with world-renowned scholars as well as Bristol's cutting-edge cultural scene.