When I finished my undergraduate course (English Literature at Cambridge) I didn’t imagine I’d be applying to do any further study for a while. However, after six months away from it, I started really missing academia and was itching to immerse myself again. When I heard about the Culture of the European Renaissance MA I couldn’t resist - I was drawn to the very interdisciplinary nature of the programme and, of course, the idea of a term in Venice! That Venice term feels like a dream looking back - commuting to seminars by boat, discussing our reading over coffees or cicchetti or glasses of prosecco, exploring hidden canals and churches, piazzas and palaces. Whilst there, I developed a new love for art and a new way of seeing it. I also wrote an essay all about the weird and wonderful clothes that Venetian women wore in the Renaissance and the ways these clothes could challenge social hierarchies.

I had so much fun with all my essays for the MA. I wrote about daggers and other weapons in domestic tragedies, the idea of creative acts in witchcraft plays and the way emotion is handled in the plays of Christopher Marlowe. My writing became more confident and playful than it had been at undergraduate. I’m so grateful for that. And for all the great people I worked with on the MA – staff and students alike.

I’ve now moved to East London and work for an educational charity called IntoUniversity: we support young people from less advantaged backgrounds to raise their aspirations and achieve their potential. In one of our workshops, Year 6 students interview us about our university experience - it makes me so happy to remember my time at Warwick and in Venice and to see their excited reactions when I describe it.’

Contact Amy on: amyjanetpike@gmail.com