English Studies: British and American Studies Major Subject (Academic)

For anyone with a strong interest in English-language literature and media, “English Studies: British and American Studies” is the right subject. In this course of study, we examine, research, analyse and discuss authors like William Shakespeare, J.K. Rowling, Mark Twain or Jack Kerouac.

At the start of their degrees, students acquire a broad, solid grounding in academic approaches to language, literature and culture. In the second part of their degrees, guided primarily by their future career plans, students specialize in a particular area. Throughout the degree, the teaching of content-focussed academic competences is closely linked with the teaching of key intercultural and communicative competences.

In “English Studies: British and American Studies”, students can choose between two different geographic foci: British Studies or American Studies. These variants specialize in either British or North American cultures and histories, as well as the particularities of the literatures and media of these regions. Students thus address British as well as North American linguistic, cultural and literary forms and acquire not only competences in analysing texts and media, but also in particular intercultural and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills.

English studies in Bielefeld are by no means restricted in their academic scope to Great Britain and the USA, however. Teaching and research include the languages, cultures and literatures of linguistic and cultural communities in Africa, the Caribbean or India, and of countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland or Scotland.

Students with a degree in “English Studies: British and American Studies” have a large choice of different professional fields for their future careers. Like many other subjects in the humanities, this Bachelor programme is not focussed on a specific professional career. The competences that our graduates acquire in the programme are put to a wide range of different uses, for example in cultural institutions like museums or archives and in adult education, as well as in public institutions or private firms in areas like public relations, communications or media analysis.