#but a medieval studies course would be a bit more interdisciplinary

[ashleighneville]

I'm genuinely really like Nottingham I almost want to apply for a history masters there but I just like the courses better elsewhere

[rollercoasterwords]

hello! i was just thinking abt thtf (as one does) and i remembered your focus on colonization when dorcas talked abt her heritage and how in ur notes u mentioned that it was something to do with your major or something u were learning about? sorry if i got that wrong it’s been a while since i read it, but that just seems soooo interesting to me and i love the way u write it!! so i was just wondering what ur major is/was? if thats something you’d be willing to share <3 xxx

yeah sure! i studied international studies & history as an undergrad & that’s what my bachelor’s degree is in; my area focus was latin america which is where a lot of the postcolonial stuff was coming from—not sure what it’s like elsewhere but in the u.s. if ur studying like. asia, latin america, or africa in history/i.s. depts learning abt colonization is pretty unavoidable for obvious reasons. my impression is that there is perhaps less of a chance of encountering colonial/postcolonial perspectives if ur focusing on u.s. or european history, but it kinda depends on what ur studying…there’s definitely a bit of a split in more “traditional” veins of scholarship (wwii, medieval history, ancient greece & rome, western civ, etc) vs “area studies” where scholars have kinda fought to recognize the full scope & impact of colonization, which is then slowly incorporated more into “traditional” areas of study—like studying u.s. & european history should, realistically, entail at least some study of colonial histories, but universities tend to be pretty conservative lol & history & poli sci (of which i.s. is a subset) are particularly notorious for hanging onto their notions of traditionalism.

anyway. i’m now in grad school for gender studies broadly but most of the work i do currently is pretty historical & if i do go on to do a phd it’ll likely be in history—i ended up moving away from i.s. bc there was just too much about the field that i disliked & even tho history definitely comes w its own set of problems it ended up being a better fit for me. if ur interested in learning more abt colonialism, postcolonial studies, anti-imperialism, etc then there’s a broad variety of fields u could look into—history, anthropology, international studies, etc. it has less to do with the field & more to do w the specific scholars/professors in that field; i also would definitely not overlook departments like africana studies, gender studies, latin american studies, etc. many universities in the u.s. have these smaller “area studies” depts. that sometimes only offer minors & are made up solely of professors who are cross-listed w other depts, but they tend to be much more interdisciplinary & often have the kind of people doing work that focuses on the impact of colonization etc in their area of research. like the queer theory course i took as an undergrad introduced me to a lot more anti-imperialist writing than like my intro international studies class lmao

[willowgast]

Hi, i couldn’t find anything on ur blog about this but sorry if you’ve already answered something similar to it

I love that you’re taking medieval language studies, it’s so unique! I’d love to take courses about that too in the future because it seems really interesting. I’ve never seen anyone study such a niche discipline before—maybe medieval studies for fictional literature, but not specifically medieval languages. May I ask what you plan to do post-university? Like what can you even do/what jobs can you have with that kind of degree?

Have a great day!! :)

Heya, thank you so much for this ask!

It is a very niche field, but my degree/course/whatnot isn’t limited to medieval languages - it’s interdisciplinary and covers a range of aspects of medieval studies. So, I am taking papers in Old Norse (language & literature), Old English (language & lit), Medieval Irish (also both language and lit in combo), Scandinavian History (specifically Viking Age), Old English History (pre-Norman Conquest), and Palaeography & Codicology (studying old manuscripts, handwriting, how they were made, etc.). So it isn’t quite restricted to just medieval languages, but they form a sizeable part of the course and the field is still very niche.

The interdisciplinary aspect does however provide a better foundation for postgraduate options than I think just medieval languages would. People have graduated from my course going into museum work, schools, politics, libraries, even switching fields entirely to do their MA in STEM subjects! Many work in the arts, too, especially theatre and writing (one recent grad works as a playwright and drag king, another is rumoured to use their degree to write gay Odin fanfiction that I’m desperate to track down and see with my own eyes). Studying medieval literature attracts a lot of creative types, so that isn’t too surprising! A few others have gone into archaeology (in my course, we can borrow a paper from the university’s archaeology department in our second year), and some more have switched to modern languages for MA and gone into translation and interpretation work. One of my friends has plans to get into the publishing industry, and another is interested in journalism! The biggest field for alumni, though, is to just stay in academia - my department is tiny, so all the undergrads, master’s students, PhDs, and lecturers are on close-knit terms with one another, and a great many of the older department members just stuck around after finishing their undergrad course here. Four of my lecturers are graduates of this particular course/department, three of whom were all in the same cohort together and two of them now married to each other, and loads of the PhD students did either their undergrad, MA, or both here. Personally, my main plan is to just remain in academia, probably specialising in something to do with Old Norse literature or Scandinavian history. There’s a really great two-year MA course in Iceland that I’ve considered applying for (although I’m still only in my first year, I have a fair bit of time to go yet before I settle on a plan!), but that’s open to change, and academia definitely isn’t the only thing I’m interested in. Journalism and work in a library or museum have both appealed to me in the past and I may yet decide to go into one of them instead!

I hope that this has helped somewhat to give an idea of what kind of work is available with a degree in this field - it’s mostly confined to work in the arts, academia, education, and culture & heritage, but those are all fields that appeal to me, so I’m quite content with my future prospects even if I don’t currently know quite what I’m going to do. Finally, here is a link to the careers page on my department’s website, which has some links to profiles of past students and a list of past PhD graduates & what they’ve been getting up to in the academic world.

Hope you’re having a great day!

[askacambridgestudent]

i’ve always been set on applying to Oxford but i recently looked up the Cambridge english lit course and loved it. i was wondering what the differences between the two are and just a general overview of what Cambridge’s english lit course is like compared to A-level lit? thank you!

Are there any English helpful experts who would be better placed to answer this question? I’m afraid I can’t compare Cam’s english lit course to A-level english lit because I didn’t do A-level lit (IB all the way, lol)!

So from what I can tell, these are the key differences between Oxford and Cambridge’s courses: 

1. Practical criticism: Cambridge has a practical crit paper that you take across all three years. It involves a lot of unseen text analysis and introduces you to ideas in recent critical theory. Oxford doesn’t seem to have anything like it.

2. Chronology: so at Oxford, you seem to focus on very early and modern literature in first year, and nothing inbetween until you decide which ‘route’ you want to take. Oxford’s Course I looks a lot like Cambridge’s Part I (which is done over your first and second years rather than your second and third) - you examine literature from a wide range of time periods, but it doesn’t give you much option to focus on what you want, particularly if you’re really interested in post-1830 literature. So I feel like if you’re more interested in modern literature, Cambridge might be the way to go.

Course II is more like Cambridge’s ASNAC and offers a very focused look at medieval literature - so if that’s what you think you’d like to specialise in, then Oxford might be a better choice, as from what I’ve read, there’s less emphasis on medieval literature in the Cambridge course. 

3. Interdisciplinary study: ofc at Oxford there is the option to do joint honours, but at Cambridge, you can borrow individual papers from MML, ASNAC and Classics, which you can’t do at Oxford (or at least, don’t seem to be able to do based on what I’ve found on the Interwebs).

Those seem to be the main ones! Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you -- had to do a bit of research! Hopefully this’ll help you make your decision!