English Literature and Sociology BA (with Foundation Year)

ENGLISH LITERATURE

*Single Hons English Literature is available for 2025 entry only

The city of Liverpool is the perfect place for literature lovers to study. There is a rich cultural scene with literary organisations, festivals, and performances, independent bookshops, and the famous Central Library. The Reader Organisation in the beautiful Calderstones Park is a short walk from the Hope Park campus where English Literature at Liverpool Hope is taught. The BA English Literature programme will offer you the opportunity to explore literature across different genres and periods as well as the history, ideas, people and places that shape it and are shaped by it. Throughout our course, we emphasise how literary texts address and influence the most important issues facing society today.

Key features of our programme include:

- Study of a wide range of literature from different historical periods, and critical and theoretical writings that help us to better understand them. The course includes fiction, poetry, drama and a range of non-fiction prose including autobiography, slave narratives, essays and travel writing. You will study well-known authors, but will also have the chance to explore work by writers who will be new to you, and who offer fresh, alternative perspectives on the themes and ideas we examine

- An emphasis on literature’s relationship to sustainability and the environment, work and employability, travel and global perspectives, and health, happiness and well-being

- A focus on books, publishing, and reading that includes working with historically important items from Liverpool Hope’s collection of rare books and manuscripts, digital approaches, and creative hands-on learning

- A strong commitment to individual student support through small group teaching and personal tutors

- Employability awareness and skills development embedded in our curriculum and enhanced by activities and events.

Our English Literature programme is taught by experienced tutors with internationally recognised expertise in their fields. Our staff are active researchers and writers who publish books and articles that are rated highly. In the last national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) English was identified as the strongest subject for research outputs in the University: over 80% of publications by staff in English at Liverpool Hope were rated "world leading" or "internationally excellent".

We pride ourselves on offering a stimulating and challenging degree that allows each student to develop not only sophisticated knowledge and interpretations of a broad selection of literature but also highly sought-after skills including critical analysis, problem-solving, and effective communication. Our graduates are informed, independent, and imaginative thinkers who go on to a range of wide range of careers including publishing, the creative industries, journalism, marketing, teaching, and further academic study.

SOCIOLOGY

Contemporary society is becoming ever more complex and the need to understand how it works is increasingly important. Sociology is the study of how society is organised, how this influences the attitudes and behaviour of individuals and the impact this has on social relationships, both within and between societies. Accordingly, sociology is now commonly regarded as an essential discipline for understanding the development of all modern societies. The Sociology degree at Liverpool Hope will help you to think critically and constructively about the key questions relating to modern society.

Our sociology degree is based around a core that provides inputs from social theory and from the comparison of different forms of society. The degree will help you to examine ‘common-sense’ assumptions about the world by exploring the issues that confront society, both nationally and globally, and by studying the theories and methods that help to explain and understand these issues. It also examines and evaluates the methods of research which make the study of society possible. The degree enables you to study a range of additional topics which cover the whole spectrum of sociological inquiry.

Staff are enthusiastic and dedicated and will help you to get the most out of your degree. In line with Liverpool Hope’s commitment to social justice, both nationally and internationally, Sociology attempts to understand social issues and problems that confront the modern world and, in so doing, challenges received wisdom.