PhD in English in Vancouver Canada | The University of British Columbia

The English Language program offers concentrations in linguistic history and structure, discourse and genre studies, as well as rhetoric's historical development and theoretical foundations. Language faculty instruct and guide research in areas like descriptive and historical linguistics, cognitive approaches to language, functional grammar, meaning studies, language use analysis, stylistic examination, genre research, and rhetorical history and theory. Literature students may enroll in Language graduate courses, with recent options covering topics such as reported speech's genre-crossing rhetorical flexibility, applying classical rhetoric to modern criticism, and literary language analysis through cognitive frameworks. Conversely, Language students can explore the diverse Literature curriculum available through our department.

English Literature

The English Literature program provides specialized study across historical periods, literary forms, and prominent authors from British, North American, and global English-language traditions. Faculty research explores varied subjects including ecological perspectives on Renaissance theater, transportation themes in Romantic verse, broadcasting's influence on modernist poetry, post-identity politics in Asian American writing, and war's traumatic effects in 20th-century Canadian, American, and British literature. Graduate candidates also have opportunities for cross-disciplinary work, leveraging UBC's excellent interdisciplinary programs in Medieval Studies, North American Studies, Gender and Sexuality Research, and Science and Technology Studies, among other fields.