Master of Arts - English Literature - Specialization in Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Major Research Paper or Project)

The Department of English offers the degrees of Master of Arts (with coursework, major research paper, or thesis) and Doctor of Philosophy in English. Both programs equip students to pursue advanced studies in British, Canadian, or American literature informed by a broad knowledge of literary history and by recent developments in literary criticism and cultural theory. The department is well known for its annual Canadian Literature Symposium, and its faculty is distinguished and well-published. The Ontario Council on Graduate Studies (OCGS) has consistently awarded the department the council's highest rating.

The department also offers a CO-OP option at the master's level that students can apply to add to either the coursework or the major research paper program.

The department participates in the collaborative programs in Feminist and Gender Studies and in Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the Master's level, and in the collaborative program in Canadian Studies at the PhD level.

The collaborative master’s in Medieval and Renaissance Studies (MDR) has two goals: • To offer at the graduate level a multi-disciplinary education in Medieval and Renaissance Studies; • To teach students the theoretical approaches and methods of research specific to the study of the period.

Since the 16th century, study of the middle ages implies studying a ‘middle’, or intermediary period, seen as standing between two great civilizations: Roman antiquity and the modern western world. This definition has had a major impact on scholarship, crystallizing a periodization that has now become traditional in most of the humanities.