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English

Welcome to English studies at Karlstad University. We are proud of our internationally diverse academic staff. At Karlstad University you will study English with experienced teachers from four continents and will be exposed to a truly global perspective on English and its varieties worldwide.

Ongoing internationalisation means that language skills and cultural understanding are becoming increasingly valuable competencies in many fields. Studying English means acquiring the knowledge and tools needed to interact with the rest of the world, and to lay the foundation for lifelong learning. Studying English also opens up many exciting benefits and career opportunities. 

As a university subject, English is concerned with studying the language and its use, as well as English-language cultures and the way these cultures are expressed, for example, in literature, film and the mass media. Undergraduate courses in English cover three areas: linguistics, language proficiency, and literary and cultural studies. For a list of our courses, see Courses under ‘Education’ in the menu bar to the right.

We also offer the opportunity to study abroad through our international exchange programmes.

Research

At Karlstad University, English has two distinct research fields: linguistics and English literature. In English literature, current projects include research into different aspects of African and American texts. Research in English linguistics also spans a wide field, including areas such as English syntax, semantics and pragmatics, second language acquisition, language teaching, conversation analysis, and bi/multilingualism.

Doctoral students in English are currently writing dissertations on poetry by Black British poets, the teaching of English as a foreign language in China, intersectionality in literature, English as a Lingua Franca, family language policy in English-Swedish bilingual families, fairy figures  in the modern fantasy genre, and assessment of oral proficiency in English.

Several teachers are involved in various research projects and active members of research groups and research environments: The Centre for Language and Literature in Education (CSL), an umbrella group for teachers and researchers specialising in teaching methodology, and in KuFo, a research group in culture studies.

Conferences