English

Master of Arts (MA)



Meet Jordana Mendicino, MA candidate in English

“The amazing professors, and my fellow classmates, allow me to feel supported and maintain my success within the English program.”

Why did you come to Western for your graduate degree?
I chose Western to complete my graduate studies because of the great reputation that the university has and the highly respected faculty teaching and researching at the institution.

What’s your favourite book?
Loaded question, I can never fully answer that because it depends on the day. Today it is Solar Storms by Linda Hogan.

Describe your research.
My research investigates female indigenous literature, specifically intergenerational trauma. I focus on the ways in which indigenous texts allow for a closer proximity to literature and the human condition, offering an alternative epistemology that has been missing in our mainstream cultural dialogue.

What’s the best advice you could give to someone considering applying to your graduate program?
If you love English deeply, and don’t mind having everything you believed about yourself as a student to be challenged, then do it! It is rewarding to be around people that can make you confront your own beliefs to create a more nuanced and well-rounded approach to academia.

Have you worked as a TA or RA?
I work as a TA. This is one of the most fruitful experiences of my graduate studies. You learn a lot about yourself by becoming a teacher, and get to spread your enthusiasm to others!

Program Websites


Program Contact

Leanne Trask (genglish@uwo.ca)
Graduate Affairs Assistant

Department of English

Western University
University College 2401
London, Ontario N6A 3K7

t. 519-661-2111 ext. 85793
f. 519-661-3776

The Department's graduate program ranks as one of the strongest and most diversified graduate programs in Canada. Its central attraction is the Department's distinguished faculty and its considerable accomplishments in all areas of criticism and scholarship. The faculty's range of expertise provides the advantages of traditional scholarship and an array of historical approaches to the major literary periods and genres, as well as diverse theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives that include discourse analysis, cultural studies, postcolonial literature and theory, feminist and gender studies, gay studies and theories of masculinity, ecological criticism, film, hypertext, theories of race, and the intersection between literature and the discourses of science, medicine, music, art, and law.

Program Length

  • 3 Terms

Program Design

  • Full-time study
  • Course-based or project-based or thesis-based

Funding Information

Applicants are encouraged to apply for the following scholarships (if eligible):

Tuition and Fees

Tuition and fee schedules (per term) are posted on the Office of the Registrar's website at http://www.registrar.uwo.ca/student_finances/fees_refunds/fee_schedules.html

Graduate Student Affordability Calculator

Use this helpful tool to estimate how much money you will need to pay for your tuition, fees, housing, food, and other necessities for a 12-month (three term) academic year.

Admission Requirements

  • Honours B.A. in English or in English combined with another subject.
  • Achieved at least an A minus average in the Honours English courses of their B.A. program.

English Language Proficiency

Applicants whose first language is not English must furnish evidence of their proficiency in the use of the English language:

Application Deadline

  • January 15

Fields of Research

  • American Literature
  • Canadian Literature
  • Cultural Studies
  • English Drama to the Restoration
  • Indigenous Literature and Literary Criticism/Theory
  • Literary Criticism and Theory
  • Nineteenth-Century British Literature
  • Old and Middle English Language and Literature
  • Postcolonial Literature
  • Renaissance Non-Dramatic Literature
  • Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature
  • Textual Studies (may only be chosen as a secondary field)
  • Twentieth-Century British and Irish Literature
  • Women’s Literature and Gender Studies