Humanities Research - Literature and Contested Spaces

Overview

Novels, poems and plays shape our perceptions and affect our lived experience of spaces like nation, wilderness or the body. 

These spaces are contested in our current context, and have been for centuries. If you choose the Literature and Contested Spaces track, you’ll examine the roles that literary texts play in the representation and shaping of contested spaces. In your seminars, tutorials and individual research projects, you’ll explore how literary texts have played a role in forming our experience of such spaces. 

During your study Humanities Research - Literature and Contested Spaces MA programme from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, you’ll pursue the ways in which literary representations interact with real or imagined spaces, geographies and ecosystems. You’ll focus on literature and three kinds of contested space: the (trans)national, the environment and the body.

The track is ideal for students who are keen to hone their critical thinking and research skills in this area; you’ll get the chance to pursue your research interests under the guidance of specialists in the field. Plus, the track’s involvement in environmental humanities makes it unique in the Netherlands.

Pursue an academic career

After graduating in the Humanities Research Master’s programme, you’ll be well placed to work as an independent researcher. You’ll have the skills needed to pursue a PhD within academia, and we’ll guide you in writing a research proposal for a PhD project. In recent years, many of our alumni have been awarded PhD grants in the Netherlands and abroad.