Contemporary Craft and English Literature

Contemporary craft and English literature is a degree that brings together the practice of making with the critical and interpretive study of texts. Contemporary craft is a field concerned with the skilled production of objects through hands-on design and making, encompassing ceramics, textiles, jewellery, glass, wood, and other material practices that combine technical mastery with creative and conceptual thinking. English literature engages with the aesthetic, historical, and cultural dimensions of written texts, developing close reading, analysis, and the ability to engage with how writers have shaped experience and meaning through language.

Together, the two disciplines develop both the maker's instinct for materials, process, and form and the literary scholar's capacity for interpretive depth and critical reflection.

At Liverpool Hope University, this three-year programme is built around a supportive community where emerging makers and designers can reach their creative potential, leading to specialised craft works, innovative projects, and new career paths. You will develop your making practice through studio work alongside developing your literary critical skills through the study of texts across periods, genres, and cultural traditions. The programme encourages you to see connections between the material and textual dimensions of culture, enriching both strands through the perspective the other provides.

The degree includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and a work placement, giving you professional and international experience in craft, design, literary, or educational contexts.

Graduates from contemporary craft and English literature degrees move into careers in craft practice, design, arts education, galleries and museums, publishing, communications, community arts, and heritage. Many graduates work as professional makers, building careers that combine studio practice with teaching and arts engagement. Postgraduate study in craft, design, or literature is available for those who wish to develop further.