This page contains key information on what’s next and suggested preparation for your degree
Jump to a section: What Happens Next | Preparation for your degree
What happens next
Congratulations, you’ve got a place with us in the School of English and Drama – here’s a handy list of what to expect.
- Welcome: You should receive a welcome email from QMUL and your UCAS account should change to reflect that you have a place with us.
- Email: In the next few weeks you should get online enrolment information, IT account information, welcome week timetable and lots more information about starting with us. Once your IT account email is set up all emails are sent there so please do keep an eye on it, add to your phone or download our QMUL app.
- Preparation: Please read the information below for preparation advice for your course. Our module directory will tell you which modules you’re studying.
- Welcome Week: Welcome week starts on Monday 18 September 2023 so please make sure you are ready to attend all sessions you’re invited to in this week. Check out the new student information here.
- First Week of Teaching: Teaching begins on Monday 25 September 2023. Be sure to check your timetable and the QMUL map or Apple iOS / Android app to get your bearings and arrive on time.
If you have any questions please get in touch.
Preparation for your degree
Skip to: General | English | Drama | Creative Writing
General
Please join our Get Ahead programme run by our library service to help with a smooth transition to university life. You can join a book club to meet new students and read together.
English & Creative Writing Preparation Information
Creative Writing
In the first semester of your Creative Writing module, we’ll be focusing on poetry. It would be very useful (perhaps also for your own writing during the summer) to look at the great variety of poetry on the Poetry Foundation website, which we’ll be using a lot in the early weeks. In particular, you might look at work by the contemporary poets Claudia Rankine, Cathy Park Hong and Anne Carson, who are all also great writers of prose.
On the Poetry Foundation pages for those poets, you’ll find links to their poems and essays, videos and podcasts with their readings and interviews, and much more. As an exercise, you could challenge yourself to write a poem in the style or voice of one of these poets over the summer.
Drama
We look forward to welcoming you to a Drama programme at Queen Mary University of London This is an indicative list of some advance reading that will prepare you for starting BA (Hons) Drama or any joint honour programme with Drama.
These are useful suggestions to help you prepare for your degree. None of them are compulsory. These books may also be useful during your first year, and throughout your entire degree.
Critical Studies
- Allain, Paul and Jen Harvie (eds). Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance 2nd Addition (New York: Routledge, 2014).
- Campbell, Ali. The Theatre of The Oppressed in Practice Today: An Introduction to The Work and Principles of Augusto Boal (London: Methuen, 2019).
- Harvie, Jen. Theatre & the City (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
- Johnson, Dominic. Theatre & the Visual (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
- Kuppers, Petra. Theatre & Disability (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
- McAvinchey, Caoimhe. Theatre & Prison (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
- Ridout, Nicholas. Theatre & Ethics (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
- Young, Harvey. Theatre & Race (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
Collections of Plays and Performance Texts
- Adebayo, Mojisola. Mojisola Adebayo: Plays One (London: Oberon Books, 2011).
- Adebayo, Mojisola. Mojisola Adebayo: Plays Two (London: Oberon Books, 2019).
- Fugard, Athol ed. by Dennis Walder. Township Plays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
- Deavere Smith, Anna. Notes From the Field (New York: Anchor, 2019).
- Sophocles, Antigone, trans. by Don Taylor (London: Methuen Drama, 2006).
