Environmental Humanities (MA) (2025 Entry)

Environmental Humanities students engaged in cheerful conversation while strolling in nature

Course code

P-Q3PK

Start date

29 September 2025

Duration

1 year full-time;
2 years part-time

Qualification

Led by

English and Comparative Literary Studies

Location

University of Warwick

Course code

P-Q3PK

Start date

29 September 2025

Duration

1 year full-time;
2 years part-time

Qualification

Led by

English and Comparative Literary Studies

Location

University of Warwick

Meet us

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Explore our Environmental Humanities taught Master's degree at Warwick

Warwick is a thriving hub of Environmental HumanitiesLink opens in a new window research and teaching. The Environmental Humanities MA at Warwick draws on renowned expertise across the English Department, the wider Arts Faculty and specialist centres across the University to enhance your knowledge of the ways in which culture engages with the crucial environmental and ecological issues of our age.

Course overview

The MA in Environmental Humanities at Warwick will introduce you to major debates around climate change, the Anthropocene, energy, sustainability, ecological futures and environmental justice. Drawing on a combination of seminars, research projects and fieldwork, you will deepen your critical understanding of key ecological concepts and methods, while developing your competence in analysing the implications and developments of the global environmental crisis and ongoing climate emergency. As important, you will be given the opportunity to think creatively about ways of connecting theory and practice.

Considering your position as a future scholar and environmentally conscious global citizen, this MA will immerse you in the study of cultural work from across the globe. You will take a core module in the history, methodology and theory of Environmental Humanities, choose from a wide range of modules that address various perspectives in climate change, environment, sustainability and ecology, and write a dissertation on an (approved) topic of your choice with a specialised supervisor.

Entry requirements

General entry requirements

Minimum requirements

65% in an undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in a related subject.

Applicants are asked to provide a writing sample and/or personal statement to demonstrate suitability for the course.*

*For example, those applicants from a non-Humanities background but with strong elements in Environmental Studies.

English language requirements

You can find out more about our English language requirementsLink opens in a new window. This course requires the following:

Band C
IELTS overall score of 7.5, minimum component scores of two at 6.5/7.0 and the rest at 7.5 or above.

International qualifications

We welcome applications from students with other internationally recognised qualifications.

For more information, please visit the international entry requirements pageLink opens in a new window.

Additional requirements

There are no additional entry requirements for this course.

Modules

Core modules

Critical Environments

Critical Environments introduces key topics, concepts, methodologies and theoretical debates in the emergent field of environmental humanities, with special attention to its interdisciplinary origins. It allows students to navigate their own subsequent pathways through the MA in Environmental Humanities, depending on individual research interest. You will develop an informed perspective in a variety of areas, from debates over nature to the cultural registration of natural ecologies, histories and trajectories of pollution and waste, ecopoetics, the emergence of the Anthropocene, the energy humanities, ecological imperialism and more, all analysed through our trademark Warwick global-local lens. The module will provide a focused understanding of the cultural challenges in responding to such topics as climate change, environmental despoliation, species extinction, media ecology and truly sustainable futures.

Dissertation

The Dissertation offers you the opportunity to pursue your own distinct research interests. You can develop any idea you’ve discovered in your modules or write on a completely new topic that has always fascinated you. Our students choose an array of topics within the broadly-conceived boundaries of ‘environmental humanities’, although we’ll discuss your plans with you to make sure an available member of our teaching staff can support your topic.

Students often use their MA dissertations as springboards to PhD projects and have sometimes gone on to publish parts of their work in scholarly journals.

You are also able to fulfil the dissertation requirement by opting for an extended fieldwork project, which will allow you to carry out your research using a combination of qualitative data-gathering and written analysis.

Optional modules

Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:

Petrofiction: Studies in World Literature
World Literature in the Anthropocene
Ecopoetics
Early Modern Ecologies
The Caribbean: Reading the World Ecology
Culture and Global Sustainable Development
Ecological Futures: Transdisciplinary Approaches
Ecologies: Science, Media and Culture
Managing Creativity for Sustainable Development
Urban Data
Media, Policy and Markets

For more information, please visit the Environmental Humanities webpageLink opens in a new window on the English website.

Teaching and learning

Teaching

The MA in Environmental Humanities comprises a Research Methods module, the core module, Fundamentals of World Literature, three further optional modules, and a Dissertation of 16,000 words. You can take one of your three optional modules from outside of the Faculty, including from the Centre for Global Sustainable Development (GSD), the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM), or Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL).

For more information, please visit the Environmental Humanities webpageLink opens in a new window on the English website.

Class sizes

Seminars consist of 5 to 18 students.

Typical contact hours

Contact hours comprise 4 hours of seminars a week, 2 office hours per member of staff, weekly reading groups, workshops and research seminars, and one-to-one Dissertation supervision in terms 2 and 3.

Assessment

All essays are marked by two members of staff. The standard length for essays for modules on this course is 6,000 words; the Dissertation is 16,000 words. Marks are given out of 100.

For more information, please visit the Environmental Humanities webpageLink opens in a new window on the English website.

Reading lists 

If you would like to view reading lists for current or previous cohorts of students, most departments have reading lists available through Warwick Library on the Talis Aspire platformLink opens in a new window. 

You can search for reading lists by module title, code or convenor. Please see the modules tab of this page or the module catalogueLink opens in a new window.  

Please note that some reading lists may have restricted access or be unavailable at certain times of year due to not yet being published. If you cannot access the reading list for a particular module, please check again later or contact the module’s host department.  

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, compulsory and optional, and you have been allocated to your lectures, seminars and other small group classes. Your compulsory modules will be registered for you, and you will be able to choose your optional modules when you join us.

Careers

Your career

Graduates from our courses have gone on to work for a range of employers, including: Deloitte; International Institute for Environment and Development; TeachFirst; The Times; V&A Museum; Yale University Press. They have pursued roles such as: arts officers, producers and directors; higher education teaching professionals; journalists, newspaper and periodical editors; management consultants and business analysts and marketing associate professionals.

Our department has a dedicated professionally qualified Senior Careers Consultant offering impartial advice and guidance together with workshops and events throughout the year. Previous examples of workshops and events include:

Understanding Assessment Centres
Careers following your English and Comparative Literary Studies Degree
Discovering Careers in the Creative Industries
Careers in Publishing and Journalism
Freelancing
Careers in the Public Sector
Warwick careers fairs throughout the year

About the Department

English and Comparative Literary Studies at Warwick

Have the freedom to follow your own path.

We’re fond of freedom at Warwick. Freedom to learn, through an enormous array of modules to suit your interests, and through a range of innovative assessment techniques. You’re also free to explore the award-winning Warwick Arts Centre on campus or you can travel further afield and visit the home of Shakespeare in Stratford or immerse yourself in the poetry scene in Leamington Spa and Birmingham.

In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, the Department ranked among the top 10 in the country for research environment: a great place for graduate study.

Find out more about us on our website.Link opens in a new window

Our Postgraduate courses

Tuition fees

Tuition fees are payable for each year of your course at the start of the academic year, or at the start of your course, if later. Academic fees cover the cost of tuition, examinations and registration and some student amenities.

Find your taught course fees

Fee Status Guidance

We carry out an initial fee status assessment based on the information you provide in your application. Students will be classified as Home or Overseas fee status. Your fee status determines tuition fees, and what financial support and scholarships may be available. If you receive an offer, your fee status will be clearly stated alongside the tuition fee information.

Do you need your fee classification to be reviewed?

If you believe that your fee status has been classified incorrectly, you can complete a fee status assessment questionnaire. Please follow the instructions in your offer information and provide the documents needed to reassess your status.

Find out more about how universities assess fee status

Additional course costs

As well as tuition fees and living expenses, some courses may require you to cover the cost of field trips or costs associated with travel abroad.

For departmental specific costs, please see the Modules tab on the course web page for the list of core and optional core modules with hyperlinks to our Module Catalogue (please visit the Department’s website if the Module Catalogue hyperlinks are not provided).

Associated costs can be found on the Study tab for each module listed in the Module Catalogue (please note most of the module content applies to 2024/25 year of study). Information about module department specific costs should be considered in conjunction with the more general costs below:

Core text books
Printer credits
Dissertation binding
Robe hire for your degree ceremony

Scholarships and funding

Scholarships and bursaries

Scholarships and financial support

Find out about the different funding routes available, including; postgraduate loans, scholarships, fee awards and academic department bursaries.

Living costs

Find out more about the cost of living as a postgraduate student at the University of Warwick.

How to apply

Applications are now open for courses that start in September and October 2025.

Applications will close on 2 August 2025 for students who require a visa to study in the UK, to allow time to receive a CAS and complete the visa application process.

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2024 entry

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Why Warwick

Discover why Warwick is one of the best universities in the UK and renowned globally.

Why Warwick

Discover why Warwick is one of the best universities in the UK and renowned globally.

8th in the UK

in the Guardian University Guide 2025

6th Most Targeted University

by the UK's top 100 graduate employers (The Graduate Market in 2024, High Fliers Research Ltd)

69th in the World

out of 1,500 institutions across 104 locations (QS World University Rankings 2025)

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We may have revised the information on this page since publication. See the edits we have made and content history.

About the information on this page

This information is applicable for 2025 entry. Given the interval between the publication of courses and enrolment, some of the information may change. It is important to check our website before you apply. Please read our terms and conditions to find out more.

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Environmental Humanities (MA) (2025 Entry)

Explore our Environmental Humanities taught Master's degree at Warwick

Scholarships and financial support

Living costs

After you’ve applied

Applicant Portal

Admissions statement

Join a live chat

Find out how to apply to us, ask your questions, and find out more.

Why Warwick

Why Warwick

Why Warwick

Why Warwick

8th in the UK

6th Most Targeted University

69th in the World

5th best student city in the UK

Gold standard teaching

92% of our research

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