School of English MA Handbook, 2012-13 - Queen's University Belfast

School of English
MA Handbook, 2012-13
Cover illustration by Sarah Longley

Welcome
We extend a very warm welcome to you as new MA students, both those returning to us after
undergraduate study in the School of English, and those who are joining us from other institutions or
places. We hope that you will enjoy your year of postgraduate taught study with us, enriching and
developing your enthusiasms in literature, writing or language study.
The key contact points for you as a MA student are the convenor of your particular MA pathway,
Linda Drain, as postgraduate secretary, and Ramona Wray and Adrian Streete as Co-Directors of
Education. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns or questions, but also let us know of
any achievements or news which we might include in our regular staff e-bulletins on postgraduate
issues.
PG Secretary:
Linda Drain
l.drain@qub.ac.uk
Tel: 028 90975103
Director of PG Education (1 st semester):
Ramona Wray
r.wray@qub.ac.uk
Tel: 028 90973331
Director of PG Education (2 nd semester):
Adrian Streete
a.streete@qub.ac.uk
Tel: 028 90971081
MA convenors, 2012-13
MA English (English Language and Linguistics): Joan Rahilly
MA English (Broadcast Literacy): Paul Simpson (1 st semester): Derek Johnston (2 nd semester)
MA English (Creative Writing): Joan Rahilly (1 st semester); Sinead Morrissey (2 nd semester)
MA English (Medieval Studies): Malte Urban
MA English (Reconceiving the Renaissance): Ramona Wray (1 st semester); Adrian Streete (2 nd
semester)
MA English (Irish Writing): Eamonn Hughes (1 st semester); Brian Caraher (2 nd semester)
MA English (Modern Literary Studies): Caroline Sumpter
MA English (Modern Poetry): Fran Brearton
This handbook is intended to help you in giving as much information as possible. If there is any
question not answered here, please do let us know, as we seek to improve the Handbook for future
students.
2

Contents
Introduction to Postgraduate studies 4
Induction Week: Enrolment and Registration 5
QUB Email 5
Queen’s Online (QOL) 5
Starting in Induction Week: Research Methods symposia 6
Studying for a MA course 7
First semester modules 9
Second semester modules 13
The dissertation 21
Submission of written assessments 23
Extensions 23
Plagiarism 23
Release of marks 24
How to Receive Feedback 24
Marking Criteria 24
How the School is run 26
How can your views be heard in the School? 27
Research Culture in the School of English 29
Weekly Research Seminars 29
Postgraduate Conferences, 2012-13 29
Reading Groups 29
Staff Profiles 30
Fulbright Distinguished Scholars (2013) 38
The English Society 38
Creative Writing in the School 38
The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry 39
Queen’s Writers’ Group 39
School-based Social Events for PG students, 2012-13 39
Information on Facilities for Postgraduate Taught Students:
The McClay Library 40
Past theses and dissertations 40
Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry: Reading Room 41
The International and Postgraduate Student Centre (IPSC) 41
General Information:
School of English contact details 42
Semester Dates for 2012-13 42
Support for Postgraduate Students 43
Further Support for students at Queen’s: 44
University support: Accommodation, Careers and Employability,
Chaplaincy, Counselling, Disability, Finance, Health Centre, Queen’s
Sport, Student Guidance Centre, Students’ Union, International
Students, Paid Employment and Part-time Work, Paid Employment and
Part-time Work for International Students
3

Introduction to Postgraduate Studies
Welcome to the postgraduate studies programme in the School of English at QUB. Every year
between fifty and sixty students begin MA study in the School, and it has acquired a reputation for
excellence in research and scholarship over many decades. Many of the graduates from our
postgraduate programmes are now leading experts in the field, and are teaching new generations of
scholars in the UK, Ireland and around the world. We are very pleased that you have decided to
undertake postgraduate study in the School of English, and we are committed to maintaining and
improving a flourishing postgraduate community as an essential part of the School’s academic life.
Our aim is to continue to encourage and stimulate the best work in all of our postgraduate students.
Becoming a postgraduate student is an exciting time, a time in which you have an excellent
opportunity to develop your own ideas, arguments and writing skills with the advice and tuition of
established scholars, critics and writers. It is a time not only for researching a subject which you find
stimulating and rewarding, but also for discovering your distinctive voice, whether as a scholar,
critic, or writer and making your original contribution to knowledge and understanding. Whatever
your aims in undertaking postgraduate study, the opportunities offered by a postgraduate degree to
explore, research and write about subjects which interest you will enable you to develop personally
and professionally.
We hope that you will find your life and work as a postgraduate student in the School of English
rewarding and stimulating, and that your achievements here will serve you well in the future.
With best wishes,
Ramona Wray and Adrian Streete,
Co-Directors of PG Education, 2012-13
4

Induction Week: Enrolment and Registration
You will be required to enroll for modules and register as a MA student in the week preceding first
semester (w/c Monday 17 th September, 2012).
This year, enrolment will take place on Thursday 20 th September, 2012 in the Social Space, in the
School of English (Ground Floor, 1 University Square). This process will use the QSIS system, but
administrative staff (including Linda) will be present to help with this process, and academic staff will
be present to help with queries concerning module choices. The Library holds information sessions
on using QSIS which you may find helpful.
You will be required to sign up for modules in both semesters. Modules in first semester are, with a
few exceptions, core modules for each pathway. Modules in second semester are elective modules,
so that you can choose from a wide range of modules within your designated pathway and across
different pathways. Don’t worry if you are not entirely certain at this point which modules you
would like to study in second semester: there will be an opportunity for you to change the
registration details of second semester modules during first semester. Changes to module choice can
be discussed with the convenor of your MA, with Ramona (1 st semester) or Adrian (2 nd semester),
and Linda can process any required changes.
MA students study the equivalent of 2 ‘full’ modules (ie taught over 12 weeks) in semesters 1 and 2
(eg you might be studying 2 ‘full’ modules’, or 4 ‘half’ modules). The dissertation is then equivalent
to 2 modules in terms of its credit within the MA.
At enrolment, you will need to tell us whether you wish to register as a part-time (rather than a fulltime)
student.
You need to complete enrolment before registration (ie enrol for your modules before paying tuition
fees, as the modules will determine the fee). Registration is available until 5pm on Thursday, 20 th
September, in the International and Postgraduate Students Centre, and should take only 10-15
minutes.
Email
Once you have registered you will be issued with a Queen’s email address. It is IMPERATIVE that
you use this account as your tutors and the School will be communicating with you using the QUB
email address you have been given.
Queen’s Online (QOL)
http://www.qub.ac.uk/qol
Queen’s Online (QOL) is an on-line information and learning environment for Queen’s students and
staff. You will need your student number and email password to login. Most of your administrative
contact with the School of English will be conducted through QOL. Course and exam information will
be stored on module-specific directories.
For more information, see:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/InformationServices/StudentComputing/
Students should familiarise themselves with QOL as quickly as possible as lecturers and tutors will be
making immediate use of the platform.
5

Starting in Induction Week: Research Methods symposia
An important aspect of postgraduate study is the preparation for it provides for independent
research, particularly in the form of the MA dissertation and also, potentially, in preparation for Ph.D
study. The School of English at Queen’s University Belfast has been highly praised for the quality of
its Research Methods teaching by independent and external assessors. These skills are taught in an
explicit way in a series of three Research Methods symposia, and tested and developed throughout
the course of MA study. Attendance at these Research Methods symposia is compulsory for all MA
students. All of the symposia are held in the training rooms on the ground floor of the McClay
library. Details are as follows:
1.) Friday, 21st September, 2012.
10am – 4pm: Training Rooms 1 and 2 (am) and Auditorium (pm), McClay library
Presenting Work at MA Level and Researching a MA level Bibliography
5pm-7pm: Welcome Drinks for all new PG students (the Social Space, School of English)
2.) Friday 25 th January, 2013. (Friday of the inter-semester break)
10am – 4pm: Auditorium, McClay library
Archival Research for MA Work and Preparing for PhD level Work
3.) Friday 10 th May, 2013. (Friday of week 12)
10am – 4pm: Auditorium, McClay library
The dissertation and archives
(for all students excepting Creative Writing students, who will have a separate information session
on their writing portfolio at a similar date).
================
Each MA course will also provide more specifically oriented research methods seminars. These three
research methods symposia offer core information and advice about postgraduate study and
research methods in general. They also serve to introduce MA students to our staff, and to each
other.
Recommended texts to purchase:
A key text for literary studies postgraduate scholars is the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook for
Writers of Research Papers (New York: Modern Language Association, 2003), an essential guide to
presenting a piece of scholarly writing. Alternatively, you may wish to purchase the second edition of
the more advanced guide, Joseph Gibaldi’s MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing
(New York: Modern Language Association, 1998), specifically designed for graduate students and
academics. In addition, the second edition of Joseph Gibaldi (ed.), Introduction to Scholarship in
Modern Languages and Literatures (New York: Modern Language Association, 1992), presents a
collection of essays addressing the development and directions of modern study in English. Students
might also acquire a copy of the second edition of the MHRA Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors,
Editors, and Writers of Theses (London: MHRA, 2008). You can download a free copy of this from
www.style.mhra.org or purchase a printed copy. Copies of these key texts are available for purchase
in No Alibis bookshop, Botanic Avenue.
6

Studying for a MA course
The taught Master’s degree is usually considered attractive either as a ‘top-up’ degree, which probes
deeper into specialised areas of literary study than the BA, or as a ‘bridge’ degree, which enables
students to make the transition from taught undergraduate study to the independent research skills
necessary for advanced postgraduate work. Whether or not you intend to pursue academic study
beyond the Master’s degree, the time you spend studying for the Master’s is an opportunity to
refine your skills as a literary scholar, language specialist or writer and to engage in critical discussion
with a small group of committed students and staff who are interested in advanced study of various
kinds. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of taking a Master’s course is that there is very little time
to ‘settle in’. It is important that you get to know your way around the resources available in the
library, speak to your tutors about your taught courses, and begin to work on ideas for your
dissertation in the first few weeks of term. Right from the start, you should look to read as widely as
possible for your taught courses and come to every class prepared to engage in discussion with your
peers.
The skills and methods appropriate to Master’s study
MA courses are aimed primarily at students wishing to pursue further academic study, and to
develop their expertise in literary study for professional careers in teaching, journalism, publishing,
or research posts in both the private and public sectors. Beyond this, the profile of high level
research and communication skills which a successful MA graduate in English could offer is always
attractive to a wide range of employers. The taught Master’s degree continues to develop some of
the key skills of an undergraduate education in English, such as close textual analysis, contextual and
conceptual understanding, writing and communication, working independently and in small groups,
engaging critically with a diversity of arguments and opinions, and learning how to acquire and use
knowledge effectively. It also invites students, often for the first time in their educational
experience, to research and write a dissertation on a specialised area of literary study, and to
introduce students therefore to key research skills. This is vital training for those students
considering PhD research, and has a wider function in training students to manage their own
research project, and motivate themselves to produce research and written work independently.
How you should approach the taught courses
The methods of study appropriate to the taught courses differ very little from those of
undergraduate work. You will attend seminars which are longer and more intensive than BA
seminars, write essays which are longer and more specialised, and read a more extensive range of
literary and scholarly books and articles. But because postgraduate teaching is often more focused
on a specialised area, and involves students who are very committed, and staff who are heavily
involved in researching the topics they are teaching, participating in a MA course can seem to be a
giant leap up from undergraduate study. Taking a MA course is a test of how well you can work as an
independent scholar, and this is not just the case when you are preparing your dissertation, but is
also a factor in how you undertake the work for your taught course units. Most MA course units are
taught over a short period of time (some for as few as five or six weeks), and you should endeavour
to get the most out of each class by preparing thoroughly in advance. Read as much of the course
bibliography as you can, and prepare notes or questions in advance of the class. Be prepared to
engage in discussion, and if there are points you wish to articulate, or questions you wish to ask, try
to think of specific examples to which you might direct the attention of the class. You should also
spend some time after the class writing up what you have learned, and use these notes to begin
your preparations for the next class. If you are experiencing problems with understanding the
course, or having difficulties with particular reading materials or essay topics, MA tutors always
7

publicise set times when they are available for consultation, and you should discuss your problems
with the most relevant tutor or the MA convenor.
First semester modules
These may be comprised of ‘full’ (12-week) or ‘half’ (6-week) modules. In most instances, these are
core modules which set up issues and methods which will underpin your studies throughout the
year. These are usually team-taught modules , which draw on the expertise of different staff. Each
module will have its own module convenor, however, who is responsible for the teaching and
assessment of the module. (See following pages for 1 st semester modules for each MA pathway.)
The deadline for first semester final assessments will be announced via e-mail early in the semester.
Second Semester Modules
Second semester modules are usually taught by a single tutor, due to the specialised nature of these
options. (See following pages for 2nd semester modules for each MA pathway.)
N.B Students may choose second semester elective modules outside of their chosen pathway. This is
particularly common across the 3 pathways within modern literary studies (ie Irish Writing, Modern
Literary Studies, Modern Poetry). If two modules are scheduled for the same time, contact Moyra or
Ramona, as we will seek to ensure that your preferred choices can be made.
Further information on all MA modules can be obtained by contacting the relevant module
convenor. (For core modules, unless otherwise directed, you may contact the MA convenor.)
The deadline for second semester final assessments will be announced via e-mail early in the first
semester.
The School of English prides itself on the excellence of its teaching. As part of on-going staff
development, and the dissemination of good teaching practice, the School operates a system of
regular peer-observation, in which colleagues sit in on each other’s lectures, tutorials and seminars.
The system operates across undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, and in both semesters.
8

First semester modules, 2012-13: Broadcast Literacy
ENG7201 Research Methods 1 Broadcast Literacy (D
Johnston)
6 x 4 hour seminar (wks 1-6)
Monday 3-5 & Thursday 11-1
ENG7202 Research Methods 2 Broadcast Literacy (D
Johnston)
6 x 4 hour seminar (wks 7-12)
Monday 1-3 & Thursday 2-4
First semester modules, 2012-13: Creative Writing
ENG7090 Research Methods Creative Writing (Core)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-6)
Thursday 3-5
ENG7091 Poetry Workshops 1 (M McGuckian)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Monday 1-3
ENG7093 Creative Writing Craft and Technique (Core)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 7-12)
Thursday 3-5
ENG7097 Scriptwriting Workshops 1 (D McCann)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Friday 10-12
ENG7292 Fiction Workshops 1 (G Carr)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Tuesday 10-12
9

First semester modules, 2012-13: English Language and Linguistics
ENG7087 Research Methods 1 English Language (Core)
6 x 4 hour seminar (wks 1-6) 30 CATS
Monday 3-5 and Thursday 11-1
ENG7088 Research Methods 2 English Language (Core)
6 x 4 hour seminar (wks 7-12) 30 CATS
Monday 3-5 and Thursday 11-1
First semester modules, 2012-13: Irish Writing
ENG7100 NI Since the 1960s (Core)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-6)
Monday 4-6
ENG7010 Research Methods Irish Writing (Core)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 7-12)
Monday 4-6
ENG7115 Irish Intellectual History (Core)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Thursday 4-6
10

First semester modules, 2012-13: Medieval Studies
ENG7040 Research Methods Medieval Studies (Core)
12 x 2 hours seminar (wks 1-12)
Monday 2-4
ENG7246 Medieval Literatures and Cultures (Core)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-6)
Tuesday 2-4
ENG7057 Inventing the Middle Ages (Core)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 7-12)
Tuesday 2-4
First semester modules, 2012-13: Modern Literary Studies
ENG7160 Theorising Modernity (Core, D Dwan)
6 x 2 hour seminar (weeks 1-6)
Monday 3-5
ENG7060 Research Methods Modern Literary Studies (Core,
B Caraher)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 8-12)
Monday 3-5
ENG7161 The Literature of Modernity (Core, C Sumpter)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Tuesday 3-5
11

First semester modules, 2012-13: Modern Poetry
ENG7300 Structure and Serendipity (Core)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-6)
Monday 3-5
ENG7301 Approaches to Poetry: Methods and Sources (Core)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 7-12)
Monday 3-5
ENG7302 Poetry and Criticism 1880-2005 (Core)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Wednesday 11-1
First semester modules, 2012-13: Reconceiving the Renaissance
ENG7021 Material Worlds (Core)
2 x 3 hour seminars & 3 x 6 hour workshops
Seminars Fri 11-12 weeks 1 & 12; Fri 11-1 week 10
Workshops Fri 11-5 weeks 3 & 5
ENG7137 State, Church and Subject (A Streete)
12 x 2 hour seminars (wks 1-12)
Monday 10-12
ENG7024 Shakespearean Childhoods (E Lamb)
12 x 2 hour seminars (wks 1-12)
Thursday 2-4
12

Second Semester Modules, 2012-13: Broadcast Literacy
ENGxxx Broadcasting and Identity (Core, D Johnston)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Monday 2-4
ENG7180 Media Discourses of Crime and Deviance (A Mayr)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Tuesday 2-4
ENG7195 The Radio Talk
6 x 2 hour workshop (wks 1-6)
Thursday 4-6
ENG7203 Special Directed Study: Journalism, News Gathering and War
Reporting
6 x 2 hour workshop (wks 7-12)
Thursday 4-6
13

Second Semester Modules, 2012-13: Creative Writing
ENG7092 Poetic Form (L Flynn)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-6): Monday 11-1
ENG7094 Poetry Workshops 2 (M McGuckian)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12): Thursday 11-1
ENG7095 Fiction Workshops 2 (G Carr)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12): Friday 1-3
ENG7096 Scriptwriting Workshops 2 (D McCann)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12): Friday 10-12
ENG7192 Poetics of Translation (C Carson)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 7-12): Monday 11-1
ENG7194 Page to Stage (T Loane)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 7-12): Thursday 11-1
ENG7199 American Poetry since 1995 (W Miller, Fulbright Fellow)
12 x 2 hour seminar (weeks 1-9 & 10-12): Thursday 2-4
ENG7291 Life Writing (G Carr)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 7-12): Thursday 11-1
ENG7293 Seven Basic Plots (G Carr & D McCann)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-6): Thursday 11-1
14

Second Semester Modules, 2012-13: English Language and Linguistics
ENG7085 Phonological Concepts (J Rahilly)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Tuesday 10-12
ENG7180 Media Discourses of Crime and Deviance (A Mayr)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Tuesday 2-4
ENG7181 Corpus Linguistics (J Kirk)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Wednesday 11-1
15

Second Semester Modules, 2012-13: Irish Writing
ENG7001 Social Joyce (B Caraher)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-6)
Monday 3-5
ENG7013 Irish Writing 1800-1845 (S Sturgeon)
6 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-6)
Thursday 4-6
ENG7016 Law and Literature in Irish Writing (S Sturgeon)
6 X 2 hour seminar (wks 7-12)
Thursday 4-6
ENG7119 Yeats (A Bradley, Fulbright Fellow)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Thursday 10-12
N.B Students may also choose second semester elective modules from ‘Modern Literary Studies’
and ‘Modern Poetry’.
16

Second Semester Modules, 2012-13: Medieval Studies
ENG7041 Cultures of Piety (S Kelly)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Wednesday 10-12
ENG7047 Chaucer, Gower and the Competitive Spirit (M Urban)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Friday 10-12
ENG7049 Anglo Saxon Voices
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Thursday 2-4
ENG7159 Special Research Topic (M Urban)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Tuesday 10-12
17

Second Semester Modules, 2012-13: Modern Literary Studies
ENG7062 Georgic Transformations (D Russell)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Thursday 10-12
ENG7063 Private, Public Women (L Cogan)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Friday 12-2
ENG7067 Modern Indian Literature (D Roberts)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Tuesday 3-5
ENG7068 Modernisms and the Postmodern in Anglophone Poetry (B Caraher)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Thursday 2-4
ENG7071 Slavery, Empire and Abolition, 1660-1840 (S Regan)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Thursday 11-1
ENG 7073 Victorian Visual Culture (L Litvack)
12 X 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Wednesday 10-12
ENG7075 Literary Culture at the Fin de Siecle (Caroline Sumpter)
12 x 2 hour seminar (weeks 1-12)
Wednesday 12-2
ENG7078 Contemporary American Fiction (A Pepper)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Tuesday 10-12
N.B Students may also choose second semester elective modules from the ‘Irish Writing’ and
‘Modern Poetry’ pathways. If two modules that you would like to take are scheduled to run at the
same time, please contact Ramona (1 st semester) or Adrian (2 nd semester).
18

Second Semester Modules, 2012-13: Modern Poetry
ENG7303 British Poetry (A Wylie)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Wednesday 10-12
ENG7304 American Poetry (P McGowan)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Tuesday 2-4
ENG7305 Irish Poetry (F Brearton)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Thursday 2-4
ENG7306 Paul Muldoon (L Flynn)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Monday 2-4
N.B Students may also choose second semester elective modules from other pathways (eg
‘Modernism and the Postmodern in Anglophone poetry’ within Modern Literary Studies)
19

Second Semester Modules, 2012-13: Reconceiving the Renaissance
ENG7136 Catholic Writing in Early Modern England (L Gallagher)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Wednesday 11-1
ENG7038 Shakespeare and World Cinema (M Burnett)
12 x 2 hour seminar (wks 1-12)
Thursday 3-5
Modules in ‘Writing Conflict in Early Modern Ireland’, ‘New Worlds, Old Worlds’ and ‘Poetry, Piety,
Patronage’, taught in University College Dublin, are also available to MA students in ‘Reconceiving
the Renaissance’. Please contact Dr Ramona Wray (r.wray@qub.ac.uk) for details on how to register
for modules delivered at UCD.
20

The dissertation
The following notes apply to all MA students excepting Creative Writing students.
Students who have attained a pass mark (50%) for the taught modules may proceed to a
dissertation, which constitutes the last two modules of the MA programme, researched during the
summer months of the MA year.
Deadline: Monday, 16 th September, 2013
Word count: 15,000 words (inclusive of bibliography and notes)
How you should prepare for the dissertation
The MA dissertation is an independent research project, which offers you an exciting opportunity to
choose what to study and write about in a dissertation which accounts for a third of the MA award.
You are not entirely on your own, of course. You will be assigned a supervisor who will advise you
about the scope of your topic, the organisation of your material, the list of books and articles you
should consult, and who will read drafts of your dissertation prior to submission. The dissertation
should test your skills in working independently on a research project, and the supervisor is there
simply to advise on the direction of your studies. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that
your dissertation meets the required standards for submission, and for acting on the advice given to
you by your supervisor. You will have a set number of meetings with your supervisor. Three or four
meetings are common. The first will be an opportunity to discuss what topic you wish to research,
the viability and scope of your research topic, and what problems you might anticipate in completing
it. The last meeting will be a chance to review the draft which you will have submitted to your
supervisor prior to the formal submission. Try to use the time with your supervisor wisely. Prepare in
advance for the meeting, making a list of all the questions or problems you wish to discuss.
Supervision takes place over the summer months when academics are frequently attending
conferences, working on or writing up research and, at some point, taking some summer leave. In
the first meeting with your supervisor you will agree a schedule for submitting draft chapters which
can take these factors into consideration.
Choice of topic: Scope and methodology, topics and approaches: these factors can vary widely. Past
MA dissertations submitted as part of your MA programme give some indication of the potential
variety. If you are uncertain how to shape your interests into a coherent, realistic dissertation topic,
you should make contact with a relevant member of staff, who will be happy to advise.
Supervisor: Usually a member of staff on the teaching team of your specific MA programme, and
someone whose own research interests intersect to some degree with the topic of your dissertation.
Meetings or correspondence with your supervisor will take place June-August, by arrangement on an
individual basis.
Format and layout (those in square brackets are optional):
Title-page
[Acknowledgements]
Table of contents (keyed to page numbers at beginning of each chapter)
Introduction
Chapters (usually 3 or 4)
Conclusion
Bibliography
[Appendices]
21

Structure:
The introduction should present and explain the scope of the dissertation, survey existing work on
the topic and explain how the dissertation represents an original response to such existing work (or
its lack). It should also introduce each chapter briefly.
Each chapter should have its own introductory and concluding sections, with the more general
‘Introduction’ and ‘Conclusion’ of the dissertation providing the opportunity to discuss issues of
relevance across all of the individual chapters.
Think about the overall pace of the dissertation, keeping an eye on the word-count of each chapter.
A possible structure might be: Introduction, 1500 words approx
3 chapters, 4000 words approx each
Conclusion, 1500 words approx
The dissertation structure can vary, but this provides an indication of how you should think about
the overall structure of the dissertation. It is quite common for the general introduction and
conclusion to be written last.
You must submit two soft bound / spiral bound copies of a typed version of the dissertation, and
should observe the following features:
• 1.5 or double spacing.
• 2.5 cm margins all around except binding edge (left-hand margin) where it’s 4cm.
• 12 point font.
• Typing on one-side of paginated (i.e. page numbers) A4 paper only.
• Quotes longer than 30 words indented in separate paragraph without inverted commas.
• Footnotes or endnotes (at bottom of each page or the end of each chapter, or after Conclusion).
• Sub-headings within chapters (if used) should be in bold or underlined on a separate line.
22

Submission of written assessments
Essays and projects required for final assessment must be submitted to the School Office (House 2,
University Square) on or before the deadline. TWO hard copies must be submitted in addition to an
electronic copy, uploaded onto QOL.
Assessed work submitted after the deadline will be penalised at a rate of 5% of the total marks
available for each day of lateness up to a maximum of 5 days in accordance with University
regulations. For example, if your assignment is worth 60% of the module marks and is submitted 5
days late, we are obliged to deduct 15 marks from the mark you are awarded . After 5 days a mark
of zero will be awarded. Please note that essays not received by 12:00 noon on the day of
submission will be considered a day late.
Late penalties will be applied automatically unless an extension has been granted on the piece of
work in question (see below). Where an extension has been granted, there will be no penalty so
long as the new deadline is met.
When calculating days of lateness, weekends will not be included.
Extensions
Extensions will be granted only to students who can produce documentary evidence of extenuating
circumstances which they believe have led to late submission. In most cases, this would be a
certificate signed by a medical practitioner. It is up to the student to ensure that evidence is
provided. No extensions will be granted without documentary evidence.
Extensions must be requested within three working days of the due date: i.e., if work is due on a
Monday, an extension must have been sought by the following Thursday. After that, the work will
be counted as late. Retrospective extensions will not be granted.
Students wishing for apply for extensions must do so by contacting the relevant Co-Director of PG
Education (Ramona Wray or Adrian Streete).
Plagiarism
All assessed work must fully acknowledge the secondary sources used in the preparation of the
submitted piece. These sources may be in print or electronic form: use of the words or ideas of
others must be properly referenced in the form of parenthetical citation or footnote / endnote form
and supplemented with full bibliographical details in the bibliography. Plagiarism – the act of passing
off the work of others as your own – will be severely penalized. The University regulations on
plagiarism can be accessed at http://www.qub.ac.uk/calendar.
23

Release of marks
All assessment at MA level is double-marked and a high percentage of scripts are also sent to our
external examiners for final confirmation. Marks for all modules are then ratified at the MA Exam
Boards (January, June, September). The School adheres to the University publication of results
deadlines and students receive an email from the University to alert them to these deadlines; results
can be accessed via QSIS. The School also emails students (using qub addresses) one week in
advance of each deadline.
Receiving Feedback on Your Work
In advance of receiving written feedback, all students must fill out a self-reflective statement, which
can be downloaded from the module resources on QOL. This is designed to encourage you to reflect
upon the development of your own work. Once this form is submitted to the module convenor, s/he
will then provide written feedback on assessed work. All students MUST complete this process, as a
key aspect of their ongoing skills development.
Marking Criteria
General Standards
MA classifications
The ‘pass’ mark for the MA in English is 50%. A mark between 40% and 50% indicates a pass at
Diploma level; a mark below 40% is a Fail. The MA degree at Queen’s is classified as
• 50% and above Pass
• 60% and above Pass with Commendation
• 70% and above Pass with Distinction.
For MA degrees, a Pass with distinction will only be awarded where an overall average of 70%+ is
achieved, a mark of 70%+ is achieved in the dissertation, and the average mark for other modules (ie
the taught modules) is 65% +.
Marks for MA modules
Marking at MA level in the School of English is conducted according to the Conceptual Equivalents
Scales as set out in Appendix A of the General Regulations and as reproduced on the following page
(p.25).
24

How the School is run
You are always free to ask at the School Office if you are in doubt about which staff member to
consult on a particular issue that concerns you. But, in order to gain some preliminary impression of
the way the School is administered, you may find it useful to consult the list of staff below (with a
brief summary of their particular administrative responsibilities). These are all experienced staff
who are prepared to assist all students in making the most of their time in the School.
Key Administrators in the School you may need to consult
The Head of the School is Professor Ed Larrissy. He is responsible for all aspects of the School’s
activities. He is also the Chair of the School Board. Students who are having problems that cannot
be resolved by consultation with their tutors, MA convenors or PG DEs should make an appointment
to see the Head by contacting the School Office.
The Co-Directors of Postgraduate Education (Dr Ramona Wray and Dr Adrian Streete) also chair the
School Postgraduate Examining Board. They are responsible for developing and overseeing the
implementation of the School's teaching and learning strategy for Postgraduate Studies, in
conjunction with the Head of School and the School Management Board.
The School Manager (Ms Carmel Beaney) is responsible for contributing to the development and the
delivery of the School's strategic and operational academic objectives and managing its financial
resources, in conjunction with the Head of School and the School Management Board.
Key committees in the School
It may be helpful for you to know where major School issues are discussed and decisions made on
matters that directly affect you. The following is a list of the key committees in the School and the
types of work they do:
The School Management Board meets regularly, and is chaired by the Head of School. It is made up
of the Directors of Research, the Directors of Education, the Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre,
the Chair of Research Committee, the School Manager and an elected representative from the staff
of the School.
The School Board meets monthly and is also chaired by the Head of School. It comprises all
permanent members of the teaching staff, the School Manager and other support staff. The School
Board also includes SSCC student members (representing Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3 and postgraduate
students) and circulates the unreserved minutes of its meetings to SSCC. Meetings of the School
Board will usually have a reserved section (for business such as examining and confidential staffing
matters) which is not attended by the student representatives. If you have business that you would
like the School Board to discuss, you should approach your Student representative or consult with
the Head of School at least one week in advance of the next stated Board meeting. The names of
your MA student representatives will be distributed to you by e-mail at the beginning of each
academic year. Nominations for these representatives will be sought at the beginning of each
academic year.
The Education Committee is chaired by the Director of Education and meets at least twice per
semester in order to discuss curriculum provision, development and review.
26

The Postgraduate Committee
The Postgraduate Committee is chaired by the Director of PG Education and meets at last three
times per semester to discuss issues pertaining to PG students, both MA and PhD. Postgraduate
student representatives attend for the ‘unreserved’ section of the agenda of this meeting.
Postgraduate Committee will meet on the following dates in 2012-13:
Wednesday, 12 th September, 2012
Wednesday 17 th October, 2012 (week 4)
Wednesday 28 th November, 2012 (week 10)
Wednesday, 13 th February, 2013 (week 3)
Wednesday, 17 th April, 2013 (week 9)
Wednesday, 15 th May, 2013
How can your views be heard in the School?
Postgraduate student representatives sit on the following School committees: School Board,
Education Committee, Postgraduate Committee (see above) and SSCC (see below). Becoming a MA
rep means that you might become a member of one or two of these committees.
The Staff/Student Consultative Committee (SSCC) is made up of a number of staff members and
student representatives who have been elected by the student body at the beginning of each
academic year. The Chair of the committee is chosen by the members. Since you can vote to elect
the SSCC members from your year who you feel will best represent student opinion, you should
ensure that you not only play a part in the election process but also that your representatives are
kept informed of the School issues that are most important to you. The SSCC also provides student
representation for the School Board.
We take the work of the SSCC very seriously, firstly because this is one of the places where our
students can make their collective voices clearly heard, and secondly, because this is where staff
members in the School can test student opinion on important issues that may affect our teaching
and administrative systems and your general well-being. For example, recommendations made by
the SSCC play their part in the information contained in this Handbook. Some years ago, it was the
SSCC who designed the Tutor Feedback document which has proved its worth for students and
tutors alike. And, more recently, SSCC student representatives have played a crucial role in shaping
the 10% assessment component for tutorial contribution and the current Module Evaluation
Questionnaire. Your response questionnaires influence not only how we will teach the same module
to other students next year, but also, perhaps, how we will teach you next semester. The SSCC also
played a large part in the Quality Assessment exercise, in which the School was judged "Excellent",
and commented on the School’s self-appraisal document which is our blueprint for the future.
These examples testify to the fact that today’s SSCC is one of the most important committees in the
School.
Dates of SSCC meetings in 2012-13:
Wednesday 17 th October, 1-2pm (week 4)
Wednesday 28 th November, 1-2pm (week 10)
27

Wednesday 20 th February, 1-2pm (week 4)
Wednesday 20 th March, 1-2pm (week 8)
Wednesday 8 th May, 1-2pm (week 12)
We do like to hear from others when they have positive things to say about us, so please tell us
when you feel that things are working well for you in the School. As part of our efforts to improve
the quality of life in the School for yourself and others, we would also like to hear from you when
you are aware of matters that may not otherwise get raised in the School. We list here a number of
obvious ways in which you can make your views known:
i. Talk to your tutors and other members of the School staff named in this Handbook. If you feel
that something is wrong or malfunctioning, tell us directly!
ii. Make sure you know who represents you on SSCC and make sure they know your views (why
not stand for election yourself?).
iii. Use the Module Evaluation Questionnaire to give Module Convenors feedback, both positive
and negative.
iv. Join the English Society (see below).
28

The Culture of the School
Research Culture in the School: weekly seminars
As postgraduate students in the School of English, you join a lively body of active researchers, of
academic staff, postgraduate students, post-doctoral fellows, visiting scholars and teaching
assistants. We are a relatively ‘large’ School, in terms of numbers of permanent staff, and this
allows us to provide breadth of research coverage, across all literary periods, aspects of English
language study and in creative writing. Staff profiles below give an indication of this diversity (pp.29-
35).
One of the most important venues for the School’s research culture are our weekly Research
Seminars. Each Wednesday afternoon, in term time, the School hosts a research seminar paper or
papers. This takes place on:
Wednesdays, 4.15pm. Peter Froggatt Centre 03/006B
Current staff and postgraduate students, in addition to visiting speakers, attend and participate in
these seminars, which provide an important dimension to the introduction of research methods and
potential areas of research topic to current MA students. All MA students are encourage to attend
on a regular basis.
In 2012-13, the School’s Research Seminar series is organized jointly by Maria Cesario and Sinead
Sturgeon.
Staff and students from the School also participate in a range of research seminars hosted by fora
across the Faculty, including: Medieval Cultures, the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Postcolonial
studies, Women’s History, and the Institute of Irish Studies.
There are also regular conferences and symposia held throughout the year.
Conferences, 2012-13:
At the time of writing this Handbook, we know of two forthcoming conferences in the School of
English, 2012-13, although there are almost certain to be more. The ‘News and Events’ postings on
our School web-site will publicise these.
ILinC conference. 9-10 November, 2012.
This is the second international ILinC (Interdisciplinary Linguistics in Context) conference. This is
organized by Linguistics PhD students in the School and Faculty.
IASIL conference, 22-26 July, 2013.
The annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literature will be held in
QUB in 2013.
Reading Groups
In past years, the School of English has seen its PG students establish a number of initiatives, such as
regular reading groups, publications (such as the recently formed Yellow Nib, a magazine of creative
writing) and conferences. PG students who wish to begin new initiatives should speak to a relevant
member of staff, as the School would hope to facilitate such endeavours.
29

Staff Profiles
BREARTON, Dr Fran *Modern British and Irish literature
Fran’s research interests are in modern British and Irish poetry, with particular interests in war
literature, literary modernism, the work of Robert Graves, and contemporary poetry. She is author of
The Great War in Irish Poetry (OUP 2000) and Reading Michael Longley (Bloodaxe 2006). She is coeditor
of Last before America: Irish and American Writing (Blackstaff 2001), Modern Irish and Scottish
Poetry (Cambridge UP, 2011) and Incorrigibly Plural: Louis MacNeice and His Legacy (Carcanet Press,
2012). She is currently co-editing the Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry.
BURNETT, Professor Mark *Renaissance literature and culture
Mark teaches and researches on early modern literature and culture, on Shakespeare and film, and
on adaptation and appropriation. He is the author of Masters and Servants in English Renaissance
Drama and Culture: Authority and Obedience (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), Constructing
‘Monsters’ in Shakespearean Drama and Early Modern Culture (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002) and
Filming Shakespeare in the Global Marketplace (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007), the editor of The
Complete Plays of Christopher Marlowe (London: Dent, 1999) and The Complete Poems of
Christopher Marlowe (London: Everyman, 2000), and the co-editor of New Essays on ‘Hamlet’ (New
York: AMS Press, 1994), Shakespeare and Ireland: History, Politics, Culture (Basingstoke: Macmillan,
1997), Shakespeare, Film, Fin de Siècle (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000), Reconceiving the
Renaissance: A Critical Reader (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), Screening Shakespeare in the
Twenty-First Century (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), Filming and Performing
Renaissance History (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011) and The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare
and the Arts (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012).
CARAHER, Professor Brian *Modern literature and literary theory
Brian’s teaching and research dwell on literary theory and modern literature -- especially poetics,
cultural modernity and literary modernism. He has edited several books, including On Contradiction,
Empiricism and Hermeneutics and Intimate Conflict and authored work on Wordsworth, Joyce and
theories of reading. His new book, with Palgrave, is called Trespassing Tragedy: Melodramas of
Horror: Intertextual Studies in the Ideology of Literary Form, and he is preparing The Joyce of Reading
and Joycean Negotiations for publication.
CARR, Garrett * Creative Writing (Prose fiction)
Garrett Carr has published three novels for younger readers, The Badness of Ballydog, Lost Dogs and
Deep Deep Down. He is currently writing a fourth. He also writes on the topic of cartography and
creates his own maps, exhibiting them widely. He has maps in the collections of the National
University of Ireland and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
CARSON, Professor Ciaran *Director, Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry
An internationally distinguished, multi-prize winning poet and prose stylist, Ciaran is the author of
Belfast Confetti, The Irish for No, First Language, Opera et Cetera, The Alexandrine Plan, The Twelfth
of Never, Breaking News, For All We Know, and On The Night Watch as well as the brilliantly
innovative fictions Last Night’s Fun, The Star Factory, Fishing for Amber and Shamrock Tea. He
assumed the directorship of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry in October 2003.
CESARIO, Dr Marilina *Old English Language and Literature and Historical Linguistics
Marilina teaches Old English Language and Literature and Historical Linguistics and her research
interests focus on prognostication, magic, science, and weather-lore in Medieval England. She has
30

published articles on Anglo-Saxon Prognostics in Anglo-Saxon England and English Studies and is the
author, with Gale Owen-Crocker, of “Handling Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts”, in the textbook Working
with Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (Exeter, 2009). She is also interested in the reception of Greek and
Latin mythology (particularly Ovid’s Metamorphoses) in Anglo-Saxon England. She is currently
researching the role and significance of natural phenomena in Anglo-Saxon prose.
DOUGLAS-COWIE, Professor Ellen *Speech analysis & speech pathology
Ellen’s teaching interests cover a range of topics in the study of language--such as patterns of spoken
English, phonetics and sociolinguistics--while her research is focused in speech analysis, especially
prosody and speech pathology. Her publications include co-authorship of Postlingually Acquired
Deafness: Speech Deterioration and the Wider Consequences, the editing of a special volume of
Speech Communication, and numerous journal articles.
DWAN, Dr David *Twentieth-century literature and intellectual history
David’s research and teaching interests are in modernist-era Anglophone writing and literary culture,
especially Yeats and Woolf. He has published a set of essays on Yeats and the cultural politics of
modernity and The Great Community: Culture and Nationalism in Ireland (Dublin: Field
Day/NotreDame) was published in 2008. The Cambridge Companion to Edmund Burke, which he has
co-edited with Chris Insole, will appear in 2012.
FLYNN, DR Leontia *Modern Poetry/Creative Writing (Poetry)
Currently Research Fellow in the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, Leontia is preparing a
monograph on the work of Medbh McGuckian for publication. To date she has authored three
collections with Jonathan Cape: the Forward Prize winning These Days (2004), which was also
shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award; Drives (2008), when she was awarded the 2008 Rooney
Prize for Irish Literature; and Profit and Loss (2011), which has recently been shortlisted for the T.S.
Eliot Prize for Poetry.
HASLETT, Dr Moyra *Eighteenth-century and Romantic literature
Moyra’s publications include Byron’s Don Juan and the Don Juan Legend (Clarendon, 1997), Marxist
literary and cultural theories (Macmillan, 1999) and Pope to Burney, Scriblerians to Bluestockings
(Palgrave, 2003). She is one of the general editors of the ‘Early Irish Fiction, 1680-1820’ series, a
collaborative research project between the School of English, QUB and Trinity College Dublin, and has
co-edited a special issue of the Irish University Review, 41.1 (2011) and completed a critical edition of
Thomas Amory’s The Life of John Buncle, Esq (1756; Four Courts Press, 2011) for this series. She is
currently working on a monograph, provisionally entitled, Imagining Female Community: literary
representations of female societies, 1660-1850 and has published articles on friendships between
women and on literary representations of the bluestockings as part of this project.
HERBISON, Dr Ivan *Old English literature
Ivan’s teaching interests encompass Medieval English literature and research interests include the
history of Old English scholarship, OE biblical narrative poetry and hagiography, and Ulster-Scots
language and culture.
HUGHES, Dr Eamonn *Irish literature in English
Eamonn’s teaching interests include Irish writing and culture, critical theory, and cultural studies. He
has edited Northern Ireland: Culture and Politics 1960-1990 and co-edited with Fran Brearton Last
before America: Irish and American Writing (Blackstaff Press, 2001). He is the author of various
articles on modern and contemporary Irish writing in English. His current major projects are a book
on Irish autobiography from the seventeenth century to the present and a book on ideas of place in
31

contemporary Northern Irish poetry.
JOHNSTON, Dr Derek *Broadcast Literacy
Derek’s research focuses on genre media in its social and historical context, incorporating the history
of genres and of the media, particularly British television. He has written a number of articles and
book chapters on science fiction film and television, and is currently preparing a monograph for
Palgrave Macmillan about the seasonality of Gothic television.
KELLY, Dr Stephen *Late Medieval literature and culture
Stephen's interests span late medieval religious cultural practices, including literary, theological and
philosophical writings, visual and material culture, historiography and performance. Current projects
include Imagining History in Medieval Britain (Continuum, 2012), an account of the ideological
interests and literary strategies of English historiography from Bede to the English Reformation
and Tears and Saints, an investigation of 'religious enthusiasm' both in later medieval English culture
and among contemporary scholars of the medieval past. With David Griffith (Birmingham), Stephen
is co-editing the second edition of Chaucer to Spenser (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). He is also preparing
'Meke Reverence and Devocyon': A Reader in Late Medieval English Religious Writing (Exeter), coedited
by Ryan Perry, which will be the first anthology of Middle English devotional texts since
Horstmann's Yorkshire Writers (1895-6). He is co-director of the Queen's Research Forum on
Translation and Cultural Encounter and is director of the Medieval Forum.
KIRK, Dr John *English and Scottish language
John specialises in corpus linguistics and dialectology (especially Scots and Hiberno-English), with
interests in the history of English, syntax, pragmatics, and register and text-type variation. He is a
compiler of the AHRB-funded Ireland component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-Ireland,
2007 & 2011); a developer of the annotation system for the SPICE-Ireland Corpus (‘Systems of
Pragmatic Annotation in ICE-Ireland’, 2011); and an author of the User’s Guide for each of these
(2008 & 2012). He co-organised annual symposia for the AHRC Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies
on the language and politics of the Gaeltacht and Scotstacht (2000-2010), and edited eight
proceedings volumes, in the series Belfast Studies in Language, Culture and Politics. In 2008–09, he
held an AHRC research network grant for a project on multi-lingual, pan-British political poetry and
song in the Age of Revolution. His co-editing of two volumes of proceedings (United Islands? The
Languages of Resistance [2012] and United Islands? The Cultures of Radicalism in Britain and Ireland
[2013]) has led to a general editorship of a new series on political poetry and song (Pickering &
Chatto).
LAMB, Dr Edel *Renaissance literature and culture
Edel’s research and teaching focuses on Renaissance literature (including Shakespeare, Jonson,
Marston, Beaumont, Chapman and Field), Renaissance performance cultures and theatre practices
and childhood studies. She has published essays on boy actors and early children’s literature in Ben
Jonson Journal (2008), Literature Compass (2010) and The New Companion to Renaissance Literature
and Culture (2010) and is the author of Performing Childhood in the Early Modern Theatre: The
Children’s Playing Companies (1599-1613) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). She is currently writing a
monograph on early modern books for children, Reading Children in Early Modern Culture.
LARRISSY, Professor Edward *Romantic and Modern Poetry
Ed’s work centres on two areas: Romantic poetry and twentieth-century poetry (British, Irish and
American). Irish writing of both periods is a special interest. He is also fascinated by the relationship
between the two periods - in twentieth-century constructions of Romanticism, and in the influence
32

of Romantic writing in the twentieth century. Yeats, the subject of a 1994 monograph Yeats the Poet:
The Measures of Difference, is only the most obvious case. His edited CUP volume, Romanticism and
Postmodernism (1999), addresses the most recent form of this relationship, and contains the only
substantial body of work on this subject. His monograph Blake and Modern Literature (2006), looks at
the influence of Blake on writers from Yeats, Joyce and Auden to Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan,
Salman Rushdie and Angela Carter. A further monograph from Edinburgh University Press, The Blind
and Blindness in Literature of the Romantic Period, was published in 2007.
LEHNER, Dr Stefanie *Contemporary Irish and Scottish Literature; Post-conflict Cultures
Stefanie’s research interests are in contemporary Irish and Scottish writing as well as post-conflict
literature and culture (Northern Irish, South African and Rwandan). She is specifically interested in
the relationship between politics, ethics, and aesthetics and her work, which takes inspiration from
the field of postcolonial studies, has both a comparative and interdisciplinary dimension. She has
published several articles on the intersections of Irish and Scottish writings with postcolonialism and
on Northern Irish film, fiction, and drama in relation to the politics of conflict resolution. She is
author of Subaltern Ethics in Contemporary Scottish and Irish Literature: Tracing Counter-Histories
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). Stefanie is currently working on a second monograph, which explores
the performative dimensions of reconciliation in a British-Irish and African context.
LITVACK, Dr Leon *Nineteenth-century and Canadian literature
Leon is Reader in Victorian Studies, and teaches in the areas of 19th and 20th century literature. His
primary speciality in the life and works of Charles Dickens. He is an editor of Dickens’s letters, a
Trustee of the Dickens Museum in London, and Festival Director of Dickens 2012NI, a year-long arts
and culture celebration of Dickens's bicentenary. He works on manuscripts, paintings, photographs,
and film versions of Dickens. He has also written on Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Oscar Wilde,
and religion and literature in the 19 th century. Leon also has an abiding interest in 19 th and 20 th -
century visual culture, particularly painting and photography. He has authored John Mason Neale
and the Quest for Sobornost, Dombey and Son: An Annotated Bibliography and Literatures of the
Nineteenth Century: Romanticism to Victorianism and has edited Ireland in the Nineteenth Century:
Regional Identity. He has completed a book-length critical guide to Dickens for Routledge and is
preparing the Clarendon Press edition of Our Mutual Friend.
LOANE, Tim *Creative Writing (Script-writing)
Tim has worked extensively as a writer, director and actor in film, television, theatre and radio. He
co-founded Tinderbox Theatre Company in 1988, Northern Ireland’s leading independent company
dedicated to developing and producing new writing, of which he was joint Artistic Director until
1996. For the stage he has written the political satires Caught Red Handed and To Be Sure and for
BBC radio, the inner-city thriller The Tunnel and the post-ceasefire ensemble comedy I can see
clearly. Screenwriting includes the comedy films Out of The Deep Pan (BBC), Reversals (ITV) and he
was creator and lead writer of Bafta-nominated Teachers for Channel 4, the format adapted by NBC
(US) in 2006. He wrote the four-part conspiracy thriller Proof 2 (RTE), the three-part family drama
serial Little Devil (ITV) and the 2009 updating of 80’s television classic Minder (Channel 5). In addition
to numerous theatre productions, he directed the short film Dance Lexie Dance which was
nominated for an Academy Award in 1997.
MAGENNIS, Professor Hugh *Old English literature and culture
Hugh’s teaching and research interests are in Old English, particularly focusing on traditions of
hagiographical writing and the history of literary ideas and images. His publications include editions
of The Anonymous Old English Legend of the Seven Sleepers, The Old English Lives of St Margaret and
The Old English Life of St Mary of Egypt. He has authored the books, Images of Community in Old
33

English Poetry and Anglo-Saxon Appetites: Eating and Drinking in Old English and Related Literature.
MAYR, Dr Andrea *Sociolinguistics
Andrea’s teaching and research interests cover Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis with a focus on
the media, and in particular media representations of crime and deviance, and True Crime. Her
publications include Prison Discourse (2004), Language and Power: an Introduction to Institutional
Discourse (2008)), and Language and Power: A Resource book for Students (2010, co-written with
Paul Simpson). Her most recent publications include The Language of Crime and Deviance
(Continuum) and How to do Critical Discourse Analysis: A Multimodal introduction (Sage), both
published in 2012.
MCGOWAN, Dr Philip *American literature
Philip offers an American Poetry module at MA level, and researches nineteenth- and twentiethcentury
US poetry, fiction and film. His publications include American Carnival: Seeing & Reading
American Culture (2001), Anne Sexton and Middle Generation Poetry: The Geography of Grief (2004),
and the co-edited collection After Thirty Falls: New Essays on John Berryman (Rodopi, 2006). He is
currently completing a literary and cultural study, Reading Las Vegas (Berg).
MCGUCKIAN, Medbh *Creative writing (Poetry)
Medbh’s collections of poetry include: The Flower Master (1982), Venus and the Rain (1984), On
Ballycastle Beach (1988), Marconi’s Cottage (1992), Captain Lavender (1995), Shelmalier (1998),
Drawing Ballerinas (2001), The Face of the Earth (2002) and The Book of the Angel (2004). Her
Selected Poems 1978-1994 was published in 1997.
MORRISSEY, Dr Sinéad * Creative writing (Poetry)
Sinéad is the author of four poetry collections: There Was Fire in Vancouver (1996), Between Here
and There (2002); The State of the Prisons (2005) and Through the Square Window (2009), all of
which are published by Carcanet Press. Her awards include the Patrick Kavanagh Award, an Eric
Gregory Award, the Rupert and Eithne Strong Award, and the Michael Hartnett Poetry Prize. Her last
three collections have all been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. In 2007 she received a Lannan
Literary Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation, U.S.A. Her poem ‘Through the Square Window’
took first place in the UK National Poetry Competition the same year. Her collection ‘Through the
Square Window’ was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and was the winner of the Irish Times/Poetry
Now Award. She is currently working on a fifth collection, due in 2013.
O’DOHERTY, Malachi. *BBC Writer in Residence
Malachi is currently the Louis MacNeice Writer in Residence at Queens University. His specialisms are
journalism, broadcast journalism and the writing of memoir. To date he has authored five works of
non fiction, including appraisals of the strategy of the Provisional IRA (The Trouble With Guns 1998)
and an assessment of the decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland (Empty Pulpits 2008). Three of his
books are themed memoirs dealing with religion, journalism and his father, and a fourth, due for
publication in Spring 2012, is a reflection on the bicycle. Malachi has done over a thousand radio
talks on varied themes and writes often in the local media.
PATTERSON, Dr Glenn *Creative writing (Fiction)
Glenn is the author of seven acclaimed novels: Burning Your Own (1988), for which he was awarded
the Rooney Prize and a Betty Trask first novel prize; Fat Lad (1992); Black Night at Big Thunder
Moutntain (1995), The International (1999); Number 5 (2003), That Which Was (2004), The Third
Party (2007). He is also the author of the essay collection Lapsed Protestant (2006), and the family
memoir, Once upon a Hill: Love in Troubled Times (2009). His short stories have been broadcast on
34

Radio 3 and Radio 4, and he has also presented a number of television documentaries on literary and
cultural subjects.
PEPPER, Dr Andrew *Twentieth-century American literature
Andrew’s research and teaching interests cover various aspects of 20th century American prose, film
and cultural studies, and crime fiction in particular. He has published a book entitled The
Contemporary American Crime Novel: Race, Ethnicity, Gender (Edinburgh, 2000) and is co-author of
American History and Contemporary Hollywood Film (Edinburgh, 2005). He is also the author of four
(to date) crime novels set in London between the 1820s and 1840s: The Last Days of Newgate
(2006), The Revenge of Captain Paine (2007), Kill-Devil and Water (2008), and Bloody Winter (2011)
all published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
RAHILLY, Dr Joan *Speech Analysis
Joan’s primary research and teaching interest is in the phonetics of normal and disordered speech,
with particular emphasis on the contribution of speech analysis to interaction and literacy issues.
Recent published work includes a study of the communicative consequences of errors in phonetic
perception and categorisation, an analysis of vowel systems among hearing-impaired speakers, a
critical account of techniques for speech imaging, and reflections on interfaces between current
transcription practices and clinical speech profiling.
REGAN, Dr Shaun *Eighteenth-century and Romantic literature
Shaun’s research and teaching interests include prose fiction, comic discourse, the culture of
politeness, and the early Black Atlantic. With Professor Brean Hammond (University of Nottingham),
he is the author of Making the Novel: Fiction and Society in Britain, 1660-1789 (Palgrave Macmillan,
2006). He has published articles on Sterne, satire, print culture and the novel, and on Olaudah
Equiano's The Interesting Narrative. He is currently writing a monograph titled Comic Writing and the
Culture of Politeness in Britain, 1690-1789, and editing essay collections on 1759 and the Seven Years'
War.
ROBERTS, Dr Daniel S. *Romantic literature
Daniel’s teaching interests range from eighteenth-century literature to contemporary Indian
literature and postcolonial theory, though his research is focussed largely in the Romantic period. He
has produced definitive scholarly editions of Thomas De Quincey’s Autobiographic Sketches (volume
19 of The Works of Thomas De Quincey) and Robert Southey’s The Curse of Kehama (volume 4 of
Robert Southey: Poetical Works 1793-1810). His most recent book is Thomas De Quincey: New
Theoretical and Critical Approaches edited with Robert Morrison. He is currently editing Charles
Johnstone’s Oriental novel, The History of Arsaces, Prince of Betlis (1774) for the Early Irish Fiction
series from Four Courts Press.
SHEEHAN, Professor Estelle Haan *Seventeenth-and eighteenth-century literature & literary culture
Estelle specialises in Latin literary cultures and their influence on writers in seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century England. She has authored/edited eleven books, including From Academia to
Amicitia: Milton’s Latin Writings and the Italian Academies (1998), Thomas Gray’s Latin Poetry
(2000), Andrew Marvell’s Latin Poetry (2003), Vergilius Redivivus: Studies in Joseph Addison’s Latin
Poetry (2005), Classical Romantic: Identity in the Latin Poetry of Vincent Bourne (2007), Sporting with
the Classics: The Latin Poetry of William Dillingham (2010), a full-scale edition of Milton’s Latin Poetry
(Oxford University Press, 2012), and Both English and Latin: Bilingualism and Biculturalism in Milton’s
Neo-Latin Writings (American Philosophical Society, 2012). She is currently working on an edition of
Milton’s Latin letters for Oxford University Press, chapters for The Cambridge Guide to Reading Neo-
Latin and The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Latin, and a book on Georgic transformations in eighteenth-
35

century poetry and culture.
SIMPSON, Professor Paul *Sociolinguistics and stylistics
Paul’s teaching and research involve study of the English language, with specific interests in stylistics,
discourse pragmatics and critical linguistics. He was the general editor of the journal Language and
Literature until 2009 and his books include Language, Ideology and Point of View and Language
through Literature, both with Routledge. He has also published On the Discourse of Satire (2003),
Stylistics (2004) while his textbook Language and Power, co-authored with Andrea Mayr, appeared in
2010. He is currently working on a number of research projects, including a monograph on the
discourse of irony.
STREETE, Dr Adrian *Renaissance literature
Adrian works on early modern literature and religion. He is the author of Protestantism and Drama
in Early Modern England (CUP, 2009), editor of Early Modern Drama and the Bible: Contexts and
Readings, 1570-1625 (Palgrave, 2012), and co-editor of The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare
and the Arts (EUP, 2011), Filming and Performing Renaissance History (Palgrave, 2011) and
Refiguring Mimesis: Representation in Early Modern Literature (UHP, 2005). He is currently writing a
book on apocalypse and drama in the early modern period.
STURGEON, Dr Sinéad *Irish writing in English
Sinéad teaches nineteenth-century Irish writing in English, and has particular research interests in
popular culture and the literary representation of law. She has published on the cultural and literary
life of illegal Irish whiskey, and is a contributor to the Dictionary of Irish Biography (Cambridge
University Press). She is currently working on a monograph exploring the significance of legal
discourse and tropes in early nineteenth-century Irish writing.
SUMPTER, Dr Caroline *Nineteenth-century literature
Caroline’s research interests include the nineteenth-century press, Victorian literature and science,
and political appropriations of fantasy (including the fairy tale and science fiction). She is the author
of The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) and has published on late
Victorian politics and culture in journals including Victorian Studies, Literature and History,
Nineteenth-Century Contexts and Cultural and Social History. She is currently working on a book
which explores links between literature and debates over moral evolution in the late nineteenth
century.
THOMPSON, Professor John *Later Medieval literature
John teaches Medieval literature, especially Chaucer and post-Chaucerian romance and lyric poetry,
and researches the production and circulation of ME manuscripts and early prints, most recently
through the AHRB-funded ‘Traditions of the Book’ project. He has authored two monographs: Robert
Thornton & the London Thornton Manuscript, and The Middle English Cursor Mundi: poem, text and
context, and many articles on the sociology of medieval literature and medieval textual cultures; He
has co-edited two books: The Court and Cultural Diversity (with Evelyn Mullally) and Imagining the
Book (with Stephen Kelly). With Stephen Kelly and Ryan Perry he has published Making Histories: the
Middle English Prose Brut and the Bibliographical Imagination (2007). A monograph on Anglophone
textual cultures in Ireland is also under way.
URBAN, Dr Malte *Medieval literature
Malte’s research interests focus on late-medieval English literature, especially Geoffrey Chaucer and
John Gower. He is particularly interested in the ways in which medieval writers appropriate older
texts, manipulating their cultural past for poetical and political purposes in their immediate present.
36

Malte’s work also queries the current position of post-medieval, twenty-first-century readers of
medieval texts and the usability and validity of poststructuralist theories for our understanding of the
medieval past in the present.
WRAY, Dr Ramona *Renaissance literature
Ramona teaches and researches on Renaissance literature in English, specializing in Shakespeare and
women’s writing of the period. She is the editor of the Arden Early Modern Drama edition of
Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam (2012) and the author of Women Writers in the Seventeenth
Century (Northcote House, 2004). She is also the co-editor of The Edinburgh Companion to
Shakespeare and the Arts (Edinburgh University Press, 2011), Screening Shakespeare in the Twenty-
First Century (Edinburgh University Press, 2006), Reconceiving the Renaissance: A Critical Reader
(Oxford University Press, 2004), Shakespeare, Film, Fin de Siècle (Macmillan, 2000) and Shakespeare
and Ireland: History, Politics, Culture (Macmillan, 1997). Her articles on Shakespeare appropriation,
Shakespeare on film and early modern women’s writing have appeared in Shakespeare Bulletin,
Shakespeare Quarterly, Women’s Writing and elsewhere.
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Fulbright Distinguished Scholars (2013)
The School of English, QUB, has secured two UK/US Fulbright Commission Distinguished Scholar
Awards. These scholars will be attached to the School from January –June 2013 and are both
offering MA modules (on Creative Writing and Irish Writing):
BRADLEY, Anthony Prof
Anthony Bradley is Professor Emeritus at the University of Vermont, Burlington, where he was
Frederick and Fanny Corse Distinguished Professor of English Language and Literature until his
retirement in 2009. He is the author of 'William Butler Yeats' (NY: Ungar, 1980) and 'Imagining
Ireland in the Poems and Plays of W B Yeats' (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and co-editor of
'Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland' (Amherst: U Mass P, 1997). He will be teaching modules
on Yeats at Queen's as well as working on the third edition of his 'Contemporary Irish Poetry: An
Anthology' for University of California Press.
MILLER, Wayne, Prof
Wayne Miller is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Central
Missouri, Warrensburg, and editor-in-chief of the high profile journal Pleiades: A Journal of New
Writing and Reviews. He has published three well regarded and prominently reviewed collections of
poetry to date as well as translated and edited several collections of European and Japanese modern
and contemporary poetry. He will be teaching creative writing modules while at Queen's as well as
working on his fourth major collection of poems, tentatively entitled 'A Breath in the Record' and
largely about the nature of individuals and individual experiences 'from inside the socio-historical
and economic collectivity of our modern cities.'
The Fulbright Scholars will also contribute to the postgraduate and undergraduate teaching profiles
of the School of English, offering various specialist seminars and workshops.
The English Society
The English Society organises readings and social events during the academic year. It is run by a
committee of students and new committee members are always welcome. Society events feature
new writing by students in the university. It is responsible for organising the annual School of
English formal dinner and arranges occasional trips to conferences and theatres outside Belfast.
Details of events and further information can be found on the English Society noticeboard on the
ground floor of 2 University Square, and on the website:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/AboutUs/TheEnglishSociety/
Creative writing in the School
The School is renowned for its vibrant and highly successful community of creative writers: Ciaran
Carson, Leontia Flynn, Glenn Patterson, Tim Loane, Medbh McGuckian, Sinéad Morrissey, Malachi
O’Doherty and Ian Sansom. Details of their work can be found in the ‘Staff Profiles’ section. The
School also hosts an on-line poetry magazine, POETRY PROPER:
http://poetryproper.blogspot.com/
and publishes Yellow Nib, the annual journal of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry and edited by
Leontia Flynn.
38

The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry
Poetry is one of the activities for which Queen’s has always been best known. Nobel Prize winner
Seamus Heaney was a student and later a lecturer in the School of English at Queen’s, one of a
number of internationally renowned poets and writers who have worked or studied at the University
over the last forty years. The Centre for Poetry is located in 46-48 University Road, connected to the
School through 1 University Square. Its director is the internationally-renowned poet, Professor
Ciaran Carson. The creative writing staff are located in the Centre, along with the Heaney Centre
Research Fellow. The Centre promotes the study and practice of poetry. It contains a library of
contemporary poetry, and runs various events – for example, readings, seminars, creative writing
workshops – which complement the activities of the School of English. In the last few years visitors
to the School of English have included Allen Ginsberg, James Fenton, Andrew Motion, Carol Ann
Duffy, Seamus Heaney, Graham Swift, Alasdair Gray, Simon Callow, Seamus Deane, Edwin Morgan,
Paul Durcan, Doris Lessing, Simon Armitage, and Trevor Griffiths. There is a lively and everincreasing
interactive traffic through the Centre: poets, academics, research students, creative
writing students, members of the public, visitors from outside Northern Ireland. The Centre
provides a focal point for poetry as a living art, and for criticism of/research into modern poetry:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/heaneycentre
Queen’s Writers’ Group
The Queen’s Writers’ Group has been in existence since the first appointment of a Writer-in-
Residence at the University in the 1970s. The ethos of the group, however, stretches back still
further than that, to the 60s, when the famous Belfast Group - Heaney, Mahon, Longley et al -
gathered in the University to read and discuss their work. The Writers’ Group still follows roughly
the same format. It is an open forum for anyone interested in writing, from published writers
through to absolute beginners, to share their work and discuss it with their peers. The Group meets
once a week, on Wednesday afternoons (4.00-6.00pm) in the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry.
The atmosphere is open, friendly and inclusive.
For further information contact the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, on (028) 90971070.
School-based Social Events for PG students 2012/2013
Friday 21 September
Thursday 25 November
December (date tba)
Monday 3 –
Tuesday 4 June
Welcome Reception for new PG students (5pm, Social Space, School
of English)
Annual Postgraduate Party for all PG students (6pm, AHSS PG
Centre, College Green)
PGT Graduation Event for all those graduating
Common Ground IV: The Annual PG Conference
All PG students should attend the Staff and PG Student Research Seminar. This weekly seminar is an
opportunity to hear more about the research that is going on in your School and to meet up with
staff and peers in a relaxed and informal setting. The seminars take place every Wednesday in
semester at 4:15 in the Peter Froggatt Centre 03/006B.
For more information on any of the above events, contact Ramona Wray (r.wray@qub.ac.uk)
39

Information on Facilities for Postgraduate Taught Students
The McClay Library
Library opening hours are available on the library’s home-page: www.qub.ac.uk/lib. These vary
across the year, according to teaching and assessment schedules. In assessment weeks (weeks 13-15
of semesters 1 and 2), 24-hour opening is usually available.
Details of books and journals held in the library can be accessed through the electronic Library
catalogue (QCat).
PCs and printing facilities are available on the ground and first floors and the wireless network is
fully operational throughout the building, apart from the cafe area. Laptops may also be borrowed
from the main enquiries desk on the ground floor. Self issue facilities (for borrowing and returning
books) are available on all floors.
The following services are in operation in the McClay library:
Borrower Services Desk
Information and Enquiry Desks
Special Collections
Law and Official Publications
Computer Help Desk
There are other important research resources within Belfast. The Public Record Office of Northern
Ireland is located in the ‘Titanic Quarter’; the Newspaper Library, the Belfast Public Library and the Linen
Hall Library are all in the City Centre. Queen's has reciprocal borrowing rights with the University of
Ulster. Further afield, the Robinson Library in Armagh and the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan library in
Derry / Londonderry contain a number of early printed books and are particularly valuable resources for
people working on early literature. Trinity College, Dublin and the National Library of Ireland can also be
easily visited from Belfast.
Theses and Dissertations
The School has archived copies of dissertations and theses written over the last forty years under
research supervision in the School in the Exams Office and external examiners’ consultation room. A
comprehensive list of past PhD theses (since 1990) is available on-line: see
http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/Research/CompletedPhDsintheSchoolofEnglishsince19
90/. Most of these theses are available for consultation in the McClay library.
40

Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry: Reading Room
The School has a resources room affiliated with the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry: The Reading
Room. Room 1002 is located on the first floor of 46/48 University Road. It contains a number of
essential reference works, as well as an ample and growing selection of several thousand books related
to modern and contemporary poetry, poetics and criticism. It also has a web-linked computer to
expedite cross-checking and cross-searching for materials. You need to get the permission of the
Heaney Centre secretary, Gerry Hellawell, in order to gain admission to this locked room. The Heaney
Centre is an important resource for postgraduate students not only on the MA and PhD programmes in
Creative Writing but also across the board. Many of its rooms, especially on the ground and first floors,
provide important workplaces and social space for the literary research and creative writing cultures of
the School.
The International and Postgraduate Student Centre (IPSC)
Located close to The McClay Library, the Centre provides dedicated support to, and is a hub for
many aspects of information, advice and guidance for international and postgraduate students.
Students have the opportunity to meet and socialise with their peers from other Schools and
disciplines and wireless access to the University network is provided throughout the Centre.
The Postgraduate Student Centre located on the first and second floors serves as a focal point for
the postgraduate community, where all postgraduate students can access tailored information and
advice on a range of postgraduate issues.
The second floor of the building provides dedicated study and social space for postgraduates. This
includes a computer facility offering 50 networked computers with black and white and colour
printing, scanning and photocopying facilities. The second floor also houses the Postgraduate
Students’ Association (PGSA), which represents the interests of all postgraduate students in the
University and co-ordinates a number of research-related and social events throughout the year.
Opening hours for postgraduate students are 9:00am–10:00pm Monday–Friday.
Postgraduate Centre
International and Postgraduate Student Centre
T: 028 9097 2585
E: pg.office@qub.ac.uk
http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/aboutus/ipsc
41

GENERAL INFORMATION
School of English contact details:
The School Office is located on the Ground Floor of 2 University Square.
Office hours are: Monday to Friday, 9 am – 1 pm and 2 pm – 4.15 pm.
Tel.: 028 9097 3320.
Fax: 028 9097 3334.
Email: english@qub.ac.uk
Postal address: School of English, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT7 1NN
Postgraduate students should also consult the “Postgraduate Students” webpages at:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/Education/Postgraduates/
Semester dates for 2012-2013:
Autumn Semester
Teaching Monday 24 September – Friday 14 December 2012
Christmas vacation Monday 17 December 2012 – Friday 4 January 2013
Assessment Monday 7 January – Tuesday 22 January 2013
Inter-Semester Break Wednesday 23 January – Friday 25 January 2013
Spring Semester
Teaching Monday 28 January – Friday 22 March 2013
Easter Vacation Monday 25 March – Friday 12 April 2013
Teaching Monday 15 April – Friday 10 May 2013
Revision Period Monday 13 May – Wednesday 15 May 2013
Assessment Thursday 16 May – Saturday 1 June 2013
42

SUPPORT FOR POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS
It is important that you maintain contact with your tutors and immediately inform them of any difficulties or
problems you are having with your work. Although we are a large School, we do the best we can to support
our students who are having genuine difficulties.
Student Support Staff in the School
If you feel that you would rather talk to someone else in the School other than your tutor or the convenor of
your MA pathway, you are invited to contact either Dr Moyra Haslett or Dr Ramona Wray, Co-Directors of
Postgraduate Education.
Academic Problems and Issues
There are some academic problems and issues that can only be dealt with by consulting particular
members of staff. We list here a number of staff and the procedures you should follow in each case. As
always, however, if you have any doubts about who you should see or what you should do in certain
circumstances, you should consider asking a member of the academic staff or the Postgraduate
secretary, all of whose advice will usually be worth following.
Have you medical or other problems that are affecting your academic progress? These can be discussed
confidentially with the Director of Postgraduate Education or with the Head of School. If you have
medical or other certification to explain absences from the University, you should ensure that you
deliver this to the School Office, Ground Floor, 2 University Square. You may well want to explain to
your tutors that such certification exists. Don't hesitate to tell them, if you have been ill.
Are you unhappy with the way the School has dealt with your academic problems? We hope that we
always deal fairly with our students. If you are not satisfied with the way we have dealt with your
academic problem or complaint, you may want to discuss the matter further with the Director of
Postgraduate Education. As a last resort, if you wish to proceed with a formal complaint against the
School, you should do so either by writing to the Dean of the Faculty or making an appointment to see
the Dean through the Faculty Office.
43

Further Support for students at Queen’s
Introduction
The School works closely with both the Student Guidance Centre and the Students’ Union to provide
a full set of support services during your time at Queen’s:
The
University takes the view that all aspects of student life offer opportunities for learning and
development. This is reflected in the range of services to both support you and help you develop
your skills as you study.
University Support
The University takes the view that all aspects of student life offer opportunities for learning and
development. This is reflected in the range of services we offer both to support you and to help you
develop your skills as you study.
Specialist support services are offered through both the University’s Student Guidance Centre and
the Students’ Union. The Student Guidance Centre and the Students’ Union work closely together
to provide comprehensive services. The Students’ Union is located on University Road, opposite the
Lanyon Building. The Student Guidance Centre is also on University Road, above the Ulster Bank,
Post Office and the University Bookshop.
44

What follows is a brief summary of support that is available and how to access them. If you are not
sure which service is most appropriate, call the Student Guidance Centre on 028 9097 2727 and one
of the Information Assistants will point you in the right direction.
Accommodation
The University has a range of accommodations for students, based mainly at the Elms Village which
is a 15 minute walk from the main campus. If you would like to be considered for a place in
University accommodation or need assistance in searching for private accommodation, or if you are
a resident and have any queries, please contact:
Accommodation Office Elms Village
78 Malone Road, BT9 5BW
Tel: 028 9097 4403
Email: accommodation@qub.ac.uk
http://www.stayatqueens.com
If you are living in the private sector and need advice on tenancy issues or any other matter related
to your accommodation contact, please contact:
Brian Slevin
Education & Welfare Adviser
Student Advice Centre
2 nd Floor, Students’ Union
University Road
Tel: 028 9097 1135 / 028 9097 3106
b.slevin@qub.ac.uk
Careers and Employability
The School’s Career Liaison Officer is Sinead Morrissey (semester 1); Carmel Beaney (semester 2) .
The Careers Service has a range of facilities including a drop-in service, appointments, workshops,
careers fairs and other events to help students map their career path. It is never too early to visit
the Careers Service and talk about how you can use your time at Queen’s to enhance you
employability:
Student Guidance Centre
University Terrace
Belfast BT7 1NN
Tel: 028 9097 2727
Email: careers@qub.ac.uk
www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/careers/
Chaplaincy
The University Chaplaincy is available to support students regardless of their own personal
convictions. The Chaplaincy website is the best source of information:
www.qub.ac.uk/chaps
The four main chaplaincy centres and points of contact are:
45

Roman Catholic 28 Elmwood Avenue Rev Fr Gary Toman
Presbyterian 12 Elmwood Avenue Rev Karen Mbayo
Church of Ireland 22 Elmwood Avenue Rev Barry Forde
Methodist 24 Elmwood Avenue Rev John Alderdice
Counselling
Whilst we hope your time at Queen’s is trouble-free, there may be times when you find things
difficult for a range of reasons. If that is the case then please speak to the Counselling Service. Staff
are friendly, approachable and experienced in dealing with issues that University students have to
cope with. Don’t leave things until the problem escalates; speak to them at the earliest opportunity.
Counselling is free and confidential to any student of the University:
Student Guidance Centre
University Terrace
Belfast BT7 1NN
Tel: 028 9097 2727
Email: counsellor@qub.ac.uk
http://www.qub.ac.uk/counselling
Disability
The School’s Disability Officer is Carmel Beaney (semester 1); Caroline Sumpter (semester 2).
The Disability Service assists students with disabilities in arranging study-related support. This
includes specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. If you have a disability or have become
disabled since studying at Queen’s staff are happy to help you get the support that you need:
Linda Maguire, Disability Co-ordinator
Student Guidance Centre
University Terrace
Belfast BT7 1NN
Tel: 028 9097 2727
Email: disability.office@qub.ac.uk
http://www.qub.ac.uk/disability
Finance
The Student Income and Finance Office deals with all the administration in relation to fee payments
for your course. If you have any concerns about your fee assessment speak to staff in the office,
who have experience in advising students on these matters. They also administrate a range of
bursaries and hardship funds to help students in financial difficulty, and which do not need to be
repaid:
Student Guidance Centre
University Terrace
Belfast BT7 1NN
Tel: 028 9097 2727
Email: IncomeOffice@qub.ac.uk
www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/finance
46

The Students’ Union Advice Centre also has two members of staff who provide advice and guidance
on personal finance, debt management, income maximisation and applying for bursaries. They are
usually free to see students from 9.30am – 4.30pm, Monday – Thursday and 9.00am – 3pm on
Friday:
Connie Craig
Financial Adviser: advises on grants, loans, fees, Support/Hardship Funds, the financial
aspects of repeating years and course changes, Social Security Benefits and other financial
issues.
Student Advice Centre
2 nd Floor, Students’ Union
University Road
Tel: 028 9027 1049
Email: connie.craig@qub.ac.uk
Debbie Forsey
Money Management Adviser: advises on debt, including overdrafts, credit cards, loan
agreements, arrears of rents, negotiating with creditors. Also offers guidance on budgeting
and money management and students do not need to be in a ‘crisis situation’ in order to
seek advice.
Student Advice Centre
2 nd Floor, Students’ Union
University Road
Tel: 028 9097 1166
Email: d.forsey@qub.ac.uk
Health Centre
The University Health Centre at Queen’s is a General Practice that provides both general National
Health services and University-funded, non-NHS services for students at Queen’s. We strongly
recommend that you register with the Centre even if you come from Northern Ireland. This is so
that they can provide you with care should you become unwell at University. International Students
in the UK for 6 months or more on a student visa are entitled to free NHS care and can also register
with the practice:
University Health Centre
5 Lennoxvale
Belfast BT9 5BY
028 9097 5551
reception.157@uhcq.gp.n-i.nhs.uk
www.universityhealthcentreatqueens.co.uk
Queen’s Sport (Physical Education Centre)
The PEC is a unique facility for students at Queen’s. Its recently renovated facilities offer a state-ofthe-art
gym, a range of indoor facilities for team sports, a climbing wall, exercise studios, a
comprehensive class timetable, an outdoor training area and much more. The PEC is located in
Botanic Park, a five-minute walk from the main Queen’s campus. All fully enrolled Queen’s students
are automatic members of the PEC and are entitled to subsidised, All Inclusive memberships. Some
47

students may also qualify for a bursary for heavily subsidised membership – please contact the
Income and Finance Office:
Physical Education Centre
Botanic Park,
Belfast BT9 5EX
Tel: 028 9068 1126
Email: sport@qub.ac.uk
www.queenssport.com
Student Guidance Centre
The Student Guidance Centre is a co-location of a number of support services for students, including
Student Administration (Exams, Records and Graduation), Admissions and Access Services, the
Widening Participation Unit, Disability Services, Counselling Services and Student Affairs. The Centre
has a reception desk with trained Information Assistants who will be your first point of contact and
will happily help you or refer you to someone who can help with your query:
Student Guidance Centre
University Terrace
Belfast BT7 1NN
Tel: 028 9097 2727
sgc@qub.ac.uk
www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/
Students’ Union
The Students’ Union offers a range of membership services including entertainment venues, food
and other retail outlets, non-alcoholic study space in the SPACE, a student enterprise centre, a
Welfare Advice Service, clubs and societies, student volunteering, campaigns and representative
work and much more. There is something for every student in the Students’ Union. The Sabbatical
Officers, elected from the student body for a year to run the Union, as well as the full-time members
of staff, work with the student body to ensure the improvement of facilities and support services for
students of Queen’s: http://www.qubsu.org/
International Students (non-EU)
The School’s International Students Officer is Dr Andrea Mayr.
All the services listed in this Handbook are equally applicable to international students, and staff are
happy to support you during your time at Queen’s.
In addition, the International Students Support Office (ISSO) has staff specifically trained to provide
advice, support and guidance for international students.
The staff in the ISSO are the only staff in the University who are permitted to provide advice or
guidance on immigration/visa matters. The ISSO is located in the International and Postgraduate
Student Centre (IPSC). We offer a wide range of services including confidential advice on
immigration, problems affecting your studies or personal concerns. We provide information on
matters relating to arriving in the UK, opening a bank account, police registration, healthcare and
48

doctors, safety and security, working in the UK, driving in the UK, activities in the University, local
activities and events, travel, British culture, local shops and services, facilities for families. More
general support is provided to help with settling in the UK, life in Belfast, academic life and study
methods, homesickness and culture shock and schools and childcare.
It is very important that international students meet the conditions of their visa while they live in the
UK. This means that if you have a job you must not work more hours than you are permitted.
If you want to work (paid or unpaid) you should make an appointment with the ISSO to discuss what
you are allowed to do in the UK.
The UK has introduced new immigration rules called the Points Based System. This affects both you
and the University. The University has a number of obligations to meet for the UK Border Agency,
which include (but are not restricted to) keeping copies of your immigration documents, monitoring
your arrival/enrolment and you attendance. The International Student Handbook contains a list of
the recording and reporting obligations which must be carried out by the University. If you have any
questions about these please contact the ISSO.
You can contact the ISSO at internationalstudentsupport@qub.ac.uk with any questions, enquiries
or to make an appointment. Alternatively you can drop into the IPSC where we will be delighted to
meet you and help with any problems you may be having.
When you attend an appointment at the ISSO you should always bring your passport with you.
International Student Support Office
International and Postgraduate Centre
Ground Floor
T: +44 (0)28 9097 3899
E: internationalstudentsupport@qub.ac.uk
Paid Employment and Part-time Work
A high percentage of students work part-time whilst completing their degree. There are a number of
good reasons for doing this as part-time work can help you:
Develop valuable employability skills that will impress future employers
Gain experience and a greater understanding of the workplace
Access and develop networking opportunities
Help financially during your studies
Register with the Student Jobshop to access a range of opportunities and fairly paid part-time jobs at
http://www.qub.ac.uk/careers > Vacancies.
Please note: the University strongly recommends that students do not exceed 15 hours part-time
work per week as there is strong evidence to show that significant levels of part-time work can affect
degree outcomes.
Paid Employment and Part-time Work for International Students
International Students may have prohibitions or restrictions on working in the UK. It is very
important that you confirm you have a legal right to work and if you do have the right to work, that
you don’t exceed the permitted hours. If you want to work, you must bring your visa to the
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International Student Support Office where your visa will be checked to confirm whether or not you
can work and if you can, how many hours you are allowed to work.
T: +44 (0)28 9097 3899
E: internationalstudentsupport@qub.ac.uk
http://www.qub.ac.uk/isso
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