English department

Nau mai and welcome to the English department. As a community we look to learn from each other – students, academic staff and professional staff alike.

Our department, the oldest in the country, has a history of innovative and distinguished scholarship. We have a strong programme in the more 'traditional' areas of English, such the study of literature (including novels, plays, short stories and poetry) from Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world.

We also have specialists in contemporary fields such as science fiction and dystopia, horror and the supernatural, popular culture, gender and queer studies, critical animal studies, digital literary studies and cultural studies.

Our postgrads undertake exceptional research in fields including Māori writing in English, narratology in podcasting, postmodern satire in American literature, and maternal aesthetics in contemporary poetry. We also offer popular creative writing courses across all levels.

We are proud of our interdisciplinary and community connections. We house the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies, teach the core courses for UC’s Cultural Studies programme and are involved in the Digital Humanities programme. We host the CNZ Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing. Our academics teach into and offer supervision within other departments and programmes. We also house the Cinema Studies programme, who teach into our offerings at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.