The department has established strengths in comparative European literatures, medieval and early modern studies, literature of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Romantic period, literature and gender, and literary and cultural theory. More recent areas of focus include colonial and postcolonial studies, world literature, drama and performance, and contemporary writing.

The department works closely with the University's Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning to support the development of innovative programmes of study and modes of delivery and maintains close ties with Warwick’s graduate centres for Philosophy and Literature and Renaissance Studies, as well as the interdisciplinary Humanities Research Centre.