The essay task for the 2026/27 applications is now online!

As part of your application, the MA NTS programme requires an original scholarly essay from you (and no letter of motivation). Please find this year’s essay topic below. For further details about the application process, please see here.

 

Representing transnational mobilities

The often-adapted distinction between roots and routes has remained a mainstay of scholarship exploring different and at times intertwined forms of mobility, with migration, diaspora, exile, and postcolonial studies among them. At a fundamental level, the homophones “roots and routes” (Clifford) on one hand denote the overlaps between mobilities and on the other evoke the complexities of home and belonging. Over the past century, many of these complexities have arisen from violent displacements that European colonialism and, more generally, regimes of coloniality (Quijano) have wrought upon large swathes of the globe. Crucially, these dislocations are ongoing processes, not least in the face of multiple and often violent displacements that mark the current moment.

Literature and the arts have always allowed for the representation and negotiation of the conditions and possibilities of human (and more-than-human) experiences. For this essay we ask you to draw upon a text*, a piece of artistic expression, or use an example from linguistics to analyse and explain how it engages with the notion of ‘transnational mobilities.’ To give you an idea of what kinds of questions you might engage with:

• How does a particular work of art represent multiple and intersecting forms of mobility or displacement?
• How can literature, media, language, and the arts facilitate and/or subvert conceptions of “mobility” and whom they include?
• How do these cultural forms register the uneven distribution of vulnerabilities that often mark transnational movement?
• How can narrative structures expose or obscure epistemic power and colonial legacies in our understanding of mobility?

Please bear in mind that your analysis must be rooted in literary and cultural studies/philology, linguistics, or book studies and needs to demonstrate your ability to work within one of these fields.

Your essay must meet accepted standards of academic writing (with respect to both form and referencing) and the word-count should be approx. 2,000 words. If your essay contains plagiarism and/or has been generated using AI, your application for a place on the MA NTS programme will inevitably be rejected.

*As an English Department, we use ‘text’ in a wide sense here, encompassing but not limited to novels, drama, poetry, books as artefacts (book studies), museum exhibits, films, (new) media, video games, architecture, activist practices, music and music videos, etc. We encourage you to choose a text that allows you to draw on your own disciplinary knowledge acquired during your BA studies and connect it to transnational perspectives.

Welcome to the pages of the Master of Arts (MA) programme "National and Transnational Studies: Literature, Culture, Language" (NTS) at Muenster University!

This two year (four semester) programme offers:

• A specialisation in anglophone literatures and cultures from around the world, and in English linguistics, combined with an interdisciplinary orientation towards other modern languages and literatures, history, and social anthropology. The programme also draws on scholarship from other fields such as sociology or political science.

• Reflections on nationalism and nationality as cultural (rather than merely political) phenomena: How are nationalism and nationality constructed through literature, language and other forms of cultural expression? 
  (with topics including theories of nationalism, tradition and memory, national aesthetics, canon formation, and varieties of English)
• Research on the global role of English with a focus on New English varieties in the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. The programme offers the possibility to apply different approaches to the study of World Englishes, including for example sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, language attitude research, phonetics, or (variational) pragmatics.

• Explorations of complex cultural dynamics beyond national frameworks in an increasingly globalised world
  (with topics including colonialism & postcolonialism, migration & diasporas, transculturalism, English as a world language and the sociolinguistics of globalization)

• Studies in a wide range of literature, cultures and varieties of English
  (e.g. British Isles, North America, Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Pacific)

• Advanced understanding of theoretical approaches from literary and cultural studies as well as sociolinguistics, including reflections on selected approaches from the social sciences (e.g. social anthropology, sociology, political science)

• Courses on anglophone literatures and cultures (incl. film and media), English linguistics, and subjects  from related disciplines (e.g. other languages and literatures, history, social anthropology)

• Combination of taught courses and independent research

• International orientation reflected in the possibility of spending one semester abroad. The compulsory module "Work Experience" can likewise be completed abroad

• Course language: English
  Due to the interdisciplinary orientation and the integrated External Module students can participate in thematically relevant courses in other departments and disciplines, where the language of instruction may also be in other languages (e.g. German, Spanish).

As the focus of the MA NTS programme is on anglophone literatures and cultures and on varieties of English, students will mainly be based in the English Department. Our staff possess a broad range of specialisations, ranging from Shakespeare to Bollywood and from Adam Smith to Zadie Smith. Linguistic research foci range from sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics to phonetics and pragmatics. Current research projects include Mobile outer circle speakers’ attitudes towards different varieties of English, Standardisation processes in Nigerian English, The Language of English Pop and Rock Music, Translocality in the anglophone Caribbean, or the global spread of Jamaican Creole. This variety is reflected in our teaching and in the wide range of topics available for students' own research choices.  Our MA NTS students form a friendly and lively community that is characteristically shaped by the diversity of students' cultural backgrounds. The high proportion of international applications we receive every year from outside Europe reflects this diversity. Inclusiveness and pluralism are at the heart of this MA programme which is why we especially like to welcome international students to Münster.

Interdisciplinary components can be chosen from a number of related fields and departments, such as other literatures and languages, history, or social anthropology. Beyond our established partnerships, our students have also taken classes in fields like sociology and political science.

The various options for individual choice and specialisation enable students to develop precisely tailored academic and professional profiles in preparation for national and international careers in both academic and non-academic sectors.

Preparation for academic careers (e.g. via PhD study) is facilitated through this Master programme’s strong orientation towards research, as well as towards recent disciplinary and theoretical developments.

Preparation for non-academic careers is facilitated through the programme’s emphasis on international perspectives and on transferable skills. Students are trained not only in self-organised independent work, but also in team work and group projects. They develop their media competence and possess advanced English-language skills in oral and written communication. A compulsory module "Work experience" is also part of this programme.

Potential fields of employment for our MA graduates include academic institutions, media and publishing, advertising and public relations, museums, festival organisation, consulting, national and international organisations dealing with migration, language policy or international cultural relations, as well as multinational private businesses in various sectors.

You can watch an introductory video here:

Additionally, you can watch an interview with one of our alumnae, Emma Weissenfels, here: