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UPPSALA
UNIVERSITET : Engelska institutionen / Department of English
Department of English,
Uppsala University
General information
While English was not a subject in 1477 when Uppsala University was established, it still enjoys a long history, having been an academic discipline at
the university since 1736, when Andreas Hesselius was appointed the
first tutor of the subject. Today the Department's three chairs cover the
fields of English Language (since 1904), English Literature (1948), and
American Literature (1968). Our Celtic Section has grown out of a research
professorship in Celtic Languages and Comparative Indo-European Linguistics
(1941-1948) and the Irish Institute (established in 1950). In 2003, SINAS, the Swedish Institute for North American Studies, became part of the Department of English, adding to its competence in related fields.
Location
The Department of English is located at the Center for the Humanities, English Park Campus (Engelska parken. Humanistiskt centrum), together with all the other language departments at Uppsala University as well as the departments of philosophy, history, art history, literature, musicology, sociology and theology, to mention just a few. Here several thousand students, teachers, and researchers from a number of disciplines enjoy both scholarly and personal exchange.
Undergraduate Studies
English is the medium of virtually all instruction at the Department, most of which is done in seminars with 10 - 15 students in a group; lectures are mostly reserved for overviews in different subject areas. Students generally study English full time, taking 30 credits each term. The first-term - or A-level - curriculum combines language training with courses dealing with American and British history of ideas, society, and literature, and these areas are explored further the second term, at the B level , and the third term, at the C-level, where one of the courses, C1, includes a degree project, while another, C3, does not.
The Department also offers a number of short, independent courses. There are four 7.5-credit courses in Practical English, which can be combined into a full thirty-credit course. There are also two 7.5-credit Australian studies courses, one at the A level, Practical English: Australia, and one at the C level, Australia: society and history. Other new courses are two 7.5-credit courses at the B and C level, respectively, What happened to the novel? Film adaptations of some English and American classics (B level), and "The Empire Writes Back": An introduction to postcolonial literature in English (C level).
Teacher Training Programs
An important function of the Department is to train future teachers of English. There are programs for elementary as well as secondary school teachers. In the program which was introduced in 2001, future teachers can either major in English (the term used is inriktning) or take the subject as their "specialization" (specialisering).
American Studies
In addition to these courses, SINAS, the Swedish Institute for North American Studies, offers American studies courses of thirty credits at the A, B and C levels. The four 7.5-credit courses that make up the A-level course can be taken as independent courses.
Special-Purpose Courses
Parallel to its general courses, the Department also
offers a great deal of special-purpose instruction. Specially designed
part-time courses are regularly given for students of economics, business,
and law. Special courses can also be arranged on a contractual basis for
companies and institutions both inside and outside of the University.
Courses at the Master's Level
Since the fall of 2007, the Department offers a two-year Master's Program, whose first year can be adapted to lead to a one-year Master's degree, one of the entrance requirements of the doctoral program. The Master's Program involves a choice between three specializations: English Linguistics, English Literature, and American Literature and Culture, and is intended to deepen students' knowledge in one of these three areas as well as in methods of research and advanced academic writing. Most of the modules that make up the program are also offered as separate 7.5-credit courses.
Graduate Studies
A number of students go on to do graduate
work in English. The three sections of the Department - English
language, English literature, and American literature (this latter the
only one of its kind in Sweden) - offer a wide variety of possibilities for
research. The breadth and depth of the faculty's expertise is great, and
students are always in close contact with ongoing research. Some fields
of current staff interest are syntactic variation, historical syntax, discourse
analysis, Renaissance, Restoration, 18th-century, and modernist literature,
20th-century American literature, American
studies, and transnational studies.
The doctorate requires 90 credits of course
work covering either language or literature as well as a 150-credit thesis.
Graduate students may also take an intermediate licentiate degree requiring
60 credits of course work and a short thesis worth 60 credits.
Celtic Section
The Celtic Studies Section
is designed to give students a comprehensive appreciation of the other
indigenous languages and cultures of the British Isles. A new curriculum was introduced in the autumn of 2008 with the focus on both languages and literature from Ireland, Wales and Scotland. There are full 30-credit courses at the A, B, and C levels, but many of the modules that make up these courses can also be taken as 7.5-credit free electives.
International Contacts
The Department's international contacts are
lively and extensive, including frequent visits by noted authors and scholars. In 1996, a permanent Fulbright Chair was established at SINAS and Uppsala University, held for 6 months or a year by senior scholars in the fields of American history, American literature, and American politics. Staff and students take part in exchange programs within the European Union framework, and
there are frequent contacts with, in particular, Great Britain and the United
States on graduate programs, teachers' training
programs, research programs, and international development programs. Questions concerning exchange programs are dealt with by the student counsellor at the department or by the International Office at the university. |
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