PhD students

We welcome inquiries from New Zealand and international students who wish to undertake doctoral research in English, Drama or creative practice. Our staff are particularly interested in supervising research projects in the areas of settlement studies, social justice and public affect, as well as many other areas where traditional literary studies intersect with social theory and creative practice.

You will be supervised by our researchers and have access to a range of resources to assist you in your academic and professional development. These can include graduate teaching assistantships, scholarships and writing stipends, funds to cover direct research costs and access to library and computing facilities.

Many of our PhD students are employed as Graduate Teaching Assistants and research assistants while they undertake their doctoral degrees.

We look forward to your contribution to the intellectual life and research profile of the department.

Please note: If your primary interest is in teaching English as a Second Language, or in Linguistics, please contact the Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics.

The Department of English offers various sources of support for PhD study.

• The Department will normally fund conference expenses for PhD students once or twice during their candidature, generally if they are out of their provisional year, with preference given to conferences closely related to thesis topics. Travel for archival research can also be funded. Students are expected to draw on their University PReSS accounts in the first instance.
• The Department’s Research Committee awards an annual Writing Bursary  to assist completion of PhDs. This is awarded to a student or students who can expect to complete within the year, and expedites thesis completion by reducing the students’ need for paid employment.
• There is also an annual Best Chapter prize for the best thesis chapter written in the preceding year: all PhD students are encouraged to compete.
• There is a modest Publication Incentive award for any PhD student who achieves a refereed publication.
• The Department also gives a modest amount towards the cost of printing and binding doctoral theses for final submission.
• In 2009, in response to an initiative by PhD students, the Department’s Research Committee funded the first English Department PhD Writing Retreat. This residential retreat ran over two-and-a-half days, facilitated by staff from the Department and from the University’s Centre for Academic Development.

To apply to the PhD programme in the English Department you must submit an Application for Admission (AfA) to study a PhD at The University of Auckland.

How to apply.

For more information about other support and resources, including scholarships, bursaries and writing stipends, please refer to the Faculty of Arts PhD pages.

Read more about PhD students in English on the individual PhD student homepages.

Read more about our PhD students’ thesis topics on the Recent thesis topics page.