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King's College London

Study Experience

Key information

Award:
MPhil
PhD
Study mode:
Full time
Part time
Campus:
Strand Campus
Duration:
Expected to be PhD (initial registration for MPhil), three years FT, four-six years PT. October to October, February to February or June to June.

Joint PhDs available: Exciting opportunities to gain a joint PhD with Hong Kong University (HKU), the National University of Singapore (NUS)

The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures offers research strengths and opportunities for PhD supervision in Comparative Literature across all periods of modern, medieval and classical literature in major western European languages and in the modern languages of India, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. Special research focuses include: African literature, the literature of the Middle East, Romanticism and revolution, gender studies and classical reception studies. 

The Department has a vibrant and energetic research culture, in which postgraduate research students are fully involved. In the recent Research Excellence Framework assessment of our research (REF 2021) our research environment was rated 100% ‘world-leading’ (4*), and research impact was rated 87.5% ‘world leading’ and ‘internationally excellent’ (3*).

Current number of academic staff (permanent): 11 (all research active).

Current Number of students: 14

Recent staff publications

  • Not my time to die (translation of the novel by Yolanda Mukagusana)
  • Epic Performances from the Middle Ages into the Twenty-First Century
  • Rethinking Metonymy: Literary Theory and Poetic Practice from Pindar to Jakobson
  • Complex Inferiorities: The Poetics of the Weaker Voice in Latin Literature
  • Colonialism and Knowledge in Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India
  • Nation and Region in Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India
  • Realism and space in the novel, 1795-1869: Imagined Geographies
  • The Friulian Language: Identity, Migration, Culture
  • What Postcolonial Theory Doesn't Say
  • Debating Orientalism
  • Melancholia: The Western Malady
  • Rhetorics of Belonging: Nation, Narration and Israel/Palestine

Current research projects

  • Cultural responses to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
  • Radical texts in translation
  • Classical reception in Caribbean and African diaspora literature
  • Interactions between ancient and modern literature and thought
  • National multilingualism in South Asia and the Horn of Africa
  • Oral traditions in world literature
  • Conceptualisations of the ‘global’
  • Linguistic ideas, language and translation in colonial and postcolonial South Asia
  • Domesticity in surrealism and the European avant-garde
  • French writing on Iran in the long nineteenth century
  • Literatures of the Middle East and North Africa (Arabic, English, French)
  • Cultural activism and advocacy
  • Goethe’s thought

Partner organisations: ongoing co-operation in research and student exchange takes place between the programme and the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina  at Chapel Hill.

Joint PhDs available: Exciting opportunities to gain a joint PhD with the University of Hong Kong or National University of Singapore.

UK Tuition Fees 2024/25

Full time tuition fees: £6,168 per year (MPhil/PhD, Comparative Literature)

Full time tuition fees: £6,168 per year (MPhill/PhD Comparative Literature Joint PhD Option with University of Hong Kong or National University of Singapore)

Part time tuition fees: £3,084 per year

International Tuition Fees 2024/25

Full time tuition fees: £24,786 per year (MPhil/PhD, Comparative Literature)

Full time tuition fees: £24,786 per year (MPhill/PhD Comparative Literature Joint PhD Option with University of Hong Kong or National University of Singapore)

Part time tuition fees: £12,393 per year

UK Tuition Fees 2025/26

Full time tuition fees: £6,600 per year (MPhil/PhD, Comparative Literature)

Full time tuition fees: £6,600 per year (MPhill/PhD Comparative Literature Joint PhD Option with University of Hong Kong or National University of Singapore)

Part time tuition fees: £3,300 per year

International Tuition Fees 2025/26

Full time tuition fees: £27,100 per year (MPhil/PhD, Comparative Literature)

Full time tuition fees: £27,100 per year (MPhill/PhD Comparative Literature Joint PhD Option with University of Hong Kong or National University of Singapore)

Part time tuition fees: £13,550 per year

These tuition fees may be subject to additional increases in subsequent years of study, in line with King’s terms and conditions.

Base campus

The Quad - Strand campus
Strand Campus

Located on the north bank of the River Thames, the Strand Campus houses King's College London's arts and sciences faculties.

Postgraduate research environment

As a postgraduate research student in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures you will join a vibrant research culture which features sustained reflection and dialogue on our subject areas. You will work closely with designated primary and secondary supervisors, and benefit from regular feedback from other staff members. You will see your primary supervisor regularly and are strongly encouraged to attend research seminars and research-related events in the department and beyond. There are multiple opportunities to gain experience in the presentation and dissemination of your research and to exchange ideas with fellow students and members of staff.

Postgraduate research students in Comparative Literature have the opportunity to present their work at regular Departmental research seminars and to participate in the Comparative Literature Graduate Reading Group and the annual Comparative Literature Graduate Conference. You also attend other research seminars as appropriate including at the Global Institutes and the research centres of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.  The various Institutes of the University of London School of Advanced Study run a wealth of seminars. In addition, King's Comparative Literature plays a pivotal role in the London Intercollegiate Comparative Studies network, which hosts its own seminars.

We offer a dedicated study space for our postgraduate research students in the Virginia Woolf building.

Postgraduate training

Training for postgraduate research students is offered at various levels throughout PhD registration, including, at King’s, the courses and sessions offered by the Department, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Centre for Doctoral Studies and the King’s Language Centre. Further afield training is offered by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership and the Institute of Modern Languages Research of the University of London. Research training will include a range of different kinds, including research ethics and integrity, bibliographic and referencing skills, the opportunity to learn or improve language skills, career support, job applications, networking, working with community partners, and much more.

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UK Tuition Fees 2024/25

Full time tuition fees: £6,168 per year (MPhil/PhD, Comparative Literature)

Full time tuition fees: £6,168 per year (MPhill/PhD Comparative Literature Joint PhD Option with University of Hong Kong or National University of Singapore)

Part time tuition fees: £3,084 per year

International Tuition Fees 2024/25

Full time tuition fees: £24,786 per year (MPhil/PhD, Comparative Literature)

Full time tuition fees: £24,786 per year (MPhill/PhD Comparative Literature Joint PhD Option with University of Hong Kong or National University of Singapore)

Part time tuition fees: £12,393 per year

UK Tuition Fees 2025/26

Full time tuition fees: £6,600 per year (MPhil/PhD, Comparative Literature)

Full time tuition fees: £6,600 per year (MPhill/PhD Comparative Literature Joint PhD Option with University of Hong Kong or National University of Singapore)

Part time tuition fees: £3,300 per year

International Tuition Fees 2025/26

Full time tuition fees: £27,100 per year (MPhil/PhD, Comparative Literature)

Full time tuition fees: £27,100 per year (MPhill/PhD Comparative Literature Joint PhD Option with University of Hong Kong or National University of Singapore)

Part time tuition fees: £13,550 per year

These tuition fees may be subject to additional increases in subsequent years of study, in line with King’s terms and conditions.

Base campus

The Quad - Strand campus
Strand Campus

Located on the north bank of the River Thames, the Strand Campus houses King's College London's arts and sciences faculties.

Postgraduate research environment

As a postgraduate research student in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures you will join a vibrant research culture which features sustained reflection and dialogue on our subject areas. You will work closely with designated primary and secondary supervisors, and benefit from regular feedback from other staff members. You will see your primary supervisor regularly and are strongly encouraged to attend research seminars and research-related events in the department and beyond. There are multiple opportunities to gain experience in the presentation and dissemination of your research and to exchange ideas with fellow students and members of staff.

Postgraduate research students in Comparative Literature have the opportunity to present their work at regular Departmental research seminars and to participate in the Comparative Literature Graduate Reading Group and the annual Comparative Literature Graduate Conference. You also attend other research seminars as appropriate including at the Global Institutes and the research centres of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.  The various Institutes of the University of London School of Advanced Study run a wealth of seminars. In addition, King's Comparative Literature plays a pivotal role in the London Intercollegiate Comparative Studies network, which hosts its own seminars.

We offer a dedicated study space for our postgraduate research students in the Virginia Woolf building.

Postgraduate training

Training for postgraduate research students is offered at various levels throughout PhD registration, including, at King’s, the courses and sessions offered by the Department, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Centre for Doctoral Studies and the King’s Language Centre. Further afield training is offered by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership and the Institute of Modern Languages Research of the University of London. Research training will include a range of different kinds, including research ethics and integrity, bibliographic and referencing skills, the opportunity to learn or improve language skills, career support, job applications, networking, working with community partners, and much more.

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Key information

Award:
MPhil
PhD
Study mode:
Full time
Part time
Campus:
Strand Campus
Duration:
Expected to be PhD (initial registration for MPhil), three years FT, four-six years PT. October to October, February to February or June to June.