About us

English literature and creative writing

English at Keele is a thriving and passionate community of academics, students, and researchers committed to the study of literature.

Our courses offer the teaching and learning of a wide range of literary texts from the medieval period to the present day. One of our great strengths is the flexibility for students to pursue their own areas of interest, and alongside the study of traditional literary forms we explore connections with other disciplines such as film and screen studies, history, cultural studies, and the medical humanities.

We also have a vibrant and active creative writing community with award-winning poets and novelists who lead courses that pursue a practice-led approach to the production of literary work.

All our academic staff are research active with specialisms in a number of areas including the Renaissance, the 18th century, Victorian literature, Modernism, postwar and contemporary literature, and Postcolonialism and world literature.

Film studies

The Film Studies community at Keele brings together academics and students of cinema and other screen media. Students work in close contact with their peers and lecturers throughout their time at Keele, focusing on the historical, theoretical and analytical study of film, as both an important cultural product, and as an art form.

Our courses cover a wide range of cinematic outputs, from early silent film to contemporary Hollywood blockbusters. As a programme we are committed to studying and exploring the role of film across international and historical contexts, engaging with issues of industry, aesthetics and representation. Most importantly, as a community and researchers we are forward-looking, engaging with pressing questions of film politics and policy, and how films respond to contemporary contexts.

Film students at Keele are also able to pursue practical work, such as creative writing and film-making, and explore film in an interdisciplinary way, through our connections to related disciplines such as Media and English. Our academic staff are all active researchers in the field and publish widely on a number of areas. These include books, chapters and articles on Hollywood and British cinemas, French, Francophone and wider European film, and American documentary and television; exploring topics and genres such as the road movie and migrant film, parody, science fiction, and crime.

History

Our programmes are broad and innovative, ranging from the medieval past to current events. Staff are internationally recognised leaders in their fields, and are committed to pastoral care and personalised learning.

Media, communications and creative practice

We offer a range of degree programmes, including single honours course in Media and Communications, combined honours degrees – such as Marketing and Media, Film Studies and Media, Media and Music Production, Business Management and Media, and Media & Sociology – and MA programmes in Global Media and Culture or Global Media and Management.

Whichever course you take, you will be part of a unique degree programme that:

• Offers a distinctive combination of media theory and creative media practice, with opportunities to tailor the course depending on your own skills and interests
• Gives you 24-hour access to our dedicated "home" in the Media Building, which offers access to specialist equipment, software, and workspaces (take a video tour of our facilities)*
• Enables you to be part of a committed, supportive academic community, at a University that consistently tops the National Student Survey for student satisfaction (see what our graduates say)

*In event of social distancing specialised software access and skills training is provided remotely.

Medical humanities

Medical humanities is an expanding area of study which aims to provide an appreciation of the cultural and historical contexts of medicine, via an investigation of literary, filmic and historical texts which address connections between disease, the individual patient or practitioner, and the practice of medicine.

At Keele, it offers medical students the opportunity to intercalate and graduate with a BSc in addition to their medical degree. Intercalation normally takes place after two full years of the MBChB, but can take place after the second, third or fourth years of study. It cannot be added as a final year after the completion of a medical degree.

Taught modules in humanities are typically assessed via a range of written tasks including essays and examinations. Humanities modules are taught via lectures and seminars. They also entail a lot of reading.

There are fewer, hands-on practical sessions than you will be used to in clinical medicine. Much more of your time is self-directed. This means students of medical humanities must quickly acquire skills in academic time management and fluent writing; however, tutors will be ready and willing to support you in making the transition from medicine to humanities.

For more information contact Dr Nicholas Bentley.

Criminology

Keele was the first university to offer criminology as an undergraduate degree in the UK.  From its pioneering beginnings, we continue to offer innovative and exciting programmes of study at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, which combine established and contemporary topics. The programmes are taught by a group of active criminological researchers who specialise in fields such as policing, prisons, community justice, criminological theory, environmental crime, drugs policy, the voluntary sector in criminal justice, mental health and offending, victim studies, and the history of crime and punishment. Staff are frequently nominated for, and win, University Learning and Teaching Excellence awards. The programme has extensive links with community and criminal justice agencies, which facilitates work experience, volunteering and practical learning opportunities. 

Education

Education has been taught at Keele for over 50 years and we take pride in combining world-class research with committed teaching. Our programmes cover three distinct but combinable strands: teaching-pedagogy, sociology of education, and educational leadership and management, which we offer across our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, from our BA Education (available as both joint and single honours), through PGCE and a range of Masters programmes to our flagship Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD). 

International Relations

International Relations at Keele offers students a flexible and dynamic curriculum informed by cutting-edge research, a friendly, open-minded and multidisciplinary atmosphere, and the chance to test out the skills and knowledge you will develop throughout your degree in the Keele Model United Nations, a forum for simulating multilateral debates in which Keele students have participated at both domestic and international events.

Philosophy

Keele Philosophy has enjoyed a strong reputation since the 1950s, with well-known Keele philosophers including Antony Flew, Richard Swinburne, Jonathan Dancy, and many others. Today it remains a strongly research-led programme but with a friendly and easygoing environment offering a philosophy degree course that includes analytic, continental and world philosophy. 

Politics

Politics at Keele provides a challenging treatment of the ways in which modern political science and political theory have understood a range of contemporary issues and debates. We take a global approach to politics which gives students the opportunity to analyse the complex events and forces that shape our world. One crucial feature of the world is its interconnectedness in geographical, social, economic, cultural and intellectual matters, and these connections cannot be understood without understanding the role of politics.

Sociology

Sociology has been taught at Keele for over 50 years and we are proud of our approach to the discipline that combines a recognition of the need to understand the tradition of the subject with a focus on creativity, innovation, and problem-solving in real-world social situations. In order to ensure that our teaching is live and that it engages with current social concerns relevant to students, our practice is based on our internationally recognised research and engagement with the wider sociological community.

Research

Students can be assured that courses are influenced by current research, with staff actively researching and publishing in their fields:

• English has 71% of its research graded as internationally excellent and world-leading overall (3* and 4*) and 25% of its research outputs assessed as world-leading (4*)
• History is in the top 3 performing subjects at Keele: 82% of its research is recognised as world-leading and internationally excellent (4*and 3*) by the latest Research Excellence Framework
• 29% of Music’s overall research is rated as world-leading (4*).  It was, moreover, awarded the top category (4*) for one of its Impact Case Studies.  80% of its environment is of internationally excellent and world-leading quality (3 and 4*)

Links to relevant professional organisations

The School seeks to ensure that our courses are linked to national developments and provide students with a high-quality course.  Examples of such links are:

• Dr Rachel Adcock is a member of the Executive Committee for the International John Bunyan Society
• Dr Ben Anderson is one of ten New Generation Thinkers 2018, a scheme organised by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which aims to develop a new generation of the brightest academics who can turn their university research and scholarly ideas into fascinating broadcasts
• Dr Nick Bentley is a member of the Executive Committee of the UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies
• Dr Rachel Bright is a member of the Social History Society Committee
• Professor Susan Bruce sits on the Advisory Council of the Institute of English Studies
• Dr Liz Poole is a member of the Executive Committee for the Media, Culture and Cultural Studies Association
• Dr Jon Shears is the Editor of the Byron Journal
• Dr Siobhan Talbott is co-editor of the Journal of Scottish Historical Studies

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The Athena SWAN charter is a framework which has been established worldwide to acknowledge efforts to support and realise gender equality within teaching and research in Higher Education. Although the charter began in 2005 specifically to acknowledge institutional progress towards advancing the careers of women in science, it now serves as a global marker of recognition for progress in gender equality in different disciplines and academic departments more generally.

In particular, Athena SWAN assists institutions to assess themselves thoroughly in the areas of teaching, student recruitment and retention, academic culture, opportunities for staff progression and promotion, in addition to research funding and environment. The central objectives are to encourage continued efforts to reflect on good practice in bringing about gender equality.