Our eight research clusters are not exclusive or restrictive, but supportive and inspiring. These areas of research strength and dynamism attract and sustain our doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, and host visiting researchers.
Our specialisms in British history stretch from the early modern period to the present, with particular strength in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We have a rich vein of research considering the relationships between mainland Britain and the wider world, from British-Irish and British-European to Anglo-American and colonial and postcolonial connections focusing on Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean.
This cluster studies religious cultures in the fullness of their diversity. We are interested in lived religion, in encounters between religion, in the operation of gender within religions, and in visual and material expressions of religious ideas. With expertise in the history of Christianity, Islam and Judaism as these evolved and spread, gained political hegemony, or were marginalised and persecuted
We are home to one of the strongest clusters of historians of political thought in the world while also hosting world-class historians of politics. We have also developed specialism in Indian, African, and Caribbean political thought. These researchers form the foundation for the Centre for the History of Political Thought. Our historians of politics focus upon the Americas, Britain, and Europe.
This research cluster explores theories and histories of imperialism and colonialism, the cultures and political languages of resistance, the study of decolonisation as historical event and ongoing process, the (post)colonial histories of Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, as well as (post) Soviet histories of eastern and southeast Europe and themes and approaches in global, comparative and transnational history.
Over the course of the past two and a half centuries, war and conflicts have shaped and transformed the world in profound ways. From anti-colonial struggles to world wars, from civil wars to genocide. Beyond the historical events themselves, we also examine the legacies of war and violence through memory, commemoration and the historical narratives they have produced.
We have a unique concentration of expertise on health and wellbeing in modern Britain, America, and Europe and early modern antecedents. Our research span's themes such as, mental health, psychiatry, clinical medicine and laboratories, practice and governance, epidemiology and public health, eugenics, population sciences and policies and sex, women’s health and many more.
Our history is informed by the appreciation of material objects and practices. These range from the study of devotional objects, through attention to space and place, to dress and furnishings, and even the scientific analysis of books and manuscripts. We conduct our work in collaboration with the London Museum, the British Library, the National Gallery and the National Archives.
Gender is a powerful category of historical analysis that informs all areas of historical research. Our historians of gender and sexuality bring together insights into private lives and public acts, ranging from the role of women as leaders of late medieval religious movements, to the intersections of race and gender in the making of Black Britain in the later twentieth century.