Dean's welcome

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences offers an invigorating and enriching educational experience, built upon our international reputation for excellence in research and teaching. We are located in the heart of Bloomsbury on a number of sites: in Russell Square, Gower Street, Tavistock Square and Gordon Square where, a century ago, Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Lytton Strachey and other members of the Bloomsbury Group lived and worked.

We collaborate with many academic, private and public sector organisations internationally, as well as in London and other parts of the UK, and members of the faculty have a very high profile within their subject areas. Much of our innovative research is funded by the UK research councils and other public, private and third sector organisations and contributes to our high rankings in the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Our research feeds into high-profile events and public engagement activity, working with community groups, local government, policy institutes and many others. We also run collaborative programmes with world-class cultural institutions such as the British Museum and the Globe Theatre which give our students and researchers access to the best that London can offer. 

In our teaching and research we strive to develop independent and critical knowledge and understanding. Interdisciplinarity is central to our work, enabling both staff and students to ask new kinds of questions, as well as draw on the most appropriate ideas and research in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. This approach is promoted across the Faculty, and reflected in the work of the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities, the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, the Birkbeck Institute for Gender Studies, the Centre for Law and the Humanities and the Institute of Criminal Policy Research.

Classes are held on Birkbeck’s campus in Bloomsbury as well as in our new state-of-the-art building at 373 Euston Road. Facilities in the Faculty include an award-winning state-of-the-art cinema, the Peltz Gallery exhibition space that displays the work of the Faculty as well as a diverse programme of events, and the beautifully restored Keynes Library, hung with paintings by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.

Our provision is highly flexible, and we offer part-time, accelerated, work-based and blended learning options to suit all types of students. So, whether you are a research student wishing to work with distinguished and dedicated academics, an undergraduate looking for flexible delivery in a lively learning environment, an access student, or a lifelong learner, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences offers you the opportunity to learn with others in the same position as you and with expert staff to support you.

Professor Matthew Davies