English and Politics

English and politics is a combination that might initially seem unusual but is actually deeply coherent. Both disciplines are concerned with language: how it creates meaning, how it is used to persuade and to exercise power, and what it reveals about the societies and historical moments in which it is produced. Literature and politics have always been in conversation, from the political pamphlets of the seventeenth century to contemporary fiction that engages with war, migration, and inequality.

Studying them together deepens your understanding of both, developing a set of skills in critical reading, analytical writing, and argumentation that are genuinely transferable.

At the University of Dundee, this four-year full-time programme gives you a wide range of modules across both disciplines, allowing you to tailor your studies to your particular interests while developing depth in each. Your English studies will take you across literary periods and genres, developing your capacity to read texts closely, engage with critical and theoretical debates, and write essays of sustained analytical quality. Your politics studies will cover political theory, comparative politics, international relations, and public policy, giving you the conceptual tools to analyse how political systems operate and how political ideas evolve and contest one another.

A year abroad is part of the programme, giving you the opportunity to study at a partner university and to develop an international perspective on both literature and politics.

You will graduate with strong skills in research, written argument, critical thinking, and the ability to engage with complex material from multiple disciplinary angles.

Graduates go on to careers in law, journalism, politics and public policy, the civil service, education, communications, advocacy, and the arts. The combination of analytical writing and political understanding is valued across a diverse range of careers. Postgraduate study in politics, English, law, or public policy is a well-supported route.