Humanities and Social Sciences

English Program

Postgraduate Studies

The English Program has fifteen tenured staff members all engaged in research and in the supervision of postgraduate students. Members of the school are committed to providing a collegial, supportive and intellectually stimulating environment for emerging scholars.

Postgraduate students are an integral part of English and their involvement in Program life is welcomed. They are represented, with voting rights, on the English Board, and are offered tutoring and lecturing opportunities whenever possible.

English prides itself on having an active research culture which involves staff, postgraduates and fourth year students working together to achieve a supportive community of scholarship. We have made a series of commitments to research students in order to achieve this result. For more detailed information see information for Postgraduate Students or contact the Postgraduate Coordinator Dr Alison Ravenscroft email a.ravenscroft@latrobe.edu.au or phone 9479 2813.

Supervision

Postgraduates are given a principal supervisor with expertise/interest in the thesis topic.

• The Program takes seriously the university's promise of reasonable access to supervision: we expect that a full-time postgraduate student will see her/his supervisor once a fortnight
• We will endeavour to provide continuity of supervision throughout the time of candidature
• English has an extremely successful completion rate for both MA and PhD students
• We will make every attempt to provide students with adequate office space, photocopying and computer facilities

Research culture

• Postgraduates hold their own weekly seminar, which is attended by the Postgraduate Coordinator and sometimes by other staff members. The Program also holds regular research seminars which welcome postgraduates
• Postgraduates have recently held highly successful conferences

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Research activity

The Program includes the Unit for Studies in Biography and Autobiography, and has areas of specialisation in Psychoanalytic Studies and Decolonisation Studies. Staff work in a very wide variety of other areas. Some of our special strengths lie in the following fields:

• Psychoanalytic studies (Kay Souter, David Tacey, Iain Topliss)
• Decolonisation studies/ Postcolonial theory (Susan Bradley Smith, Terry Collits, Sue Martin, Alison Ravenscroft, Sue Thomas)
• Feminist theory ( Sue Martin, Carol Merli, Alison Ravenscroft, Paul Salzman, Sue Thomas, Kay Souter)
• Postmodernism/Modernism/Science Fiction (Chris Palmer, Alison Ravenscroft, Sue Thomas, Iain Topliss)
• Autobiography and biography (Susan Bradley Smith, Alexis Harley, Carol Merli, Alison Ravenscroft, Kay Souter)
• Australian literature and culture ( Susan Bradley Smith, Sue Martin, Carol Merli, Alison Ravenscroft, Paul Salzman, David Tacey, Sue Thomas, Kay Souter)
• Nineteenth- and twentieth-century poetry (Sue Martin, Carol Merli, David Tacey)
• Medieval and early modern cultural history ( Paul Salzman)
• Studies in literature and modern spirituality (David Tacey)
• Humour studies (Iain Topliss)
• Literature and film adaptation (Chris Palmer, Sue Thomas,)
• Contemporary poetry (Susan Bradley Smith)
• Writing and health (Susan Bradley Smith)
• Critical theory and cultural studies (Terry Collits, Sue Martin, Chris Palmer, Alison Ravenscroft, David Tacey, Sue Thomas, Kay Souter)

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