Research Community

We share a desire to make our research excellent, innovative, and often disruptive. All of our provisions encourage such aspirations and we constantly learn from each other.

We share these endeavors with our Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) and Postdoctoral Researchers (PDRs) from whom we also learn a great deal.

We have developed a distinctive style of collegiality, and while we have clear areas of strength defined by period and region, we also come together around themes, concepts and methodologies. This sharing of interests is promoted by a regular School seminar, in Research Centres, and in reading groups. We workshop drafts of publications and share expertise and learn from each other.

Our research also benefits from collaborations within Queen Mary. Several of our team supervise PhD jointly with colleagues from the Schools of Geography, English, Law, and Politics. Our Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS) promotes research activities across the disciplines with funding to centres and collaborative networks, and by the appointment of Visiting Global Professors.

Our School also benefits from the Distinguished Visiting Fellows scheme, which has allowed us to host international scholars: Sara Lipton, John Tolan, and Tawfiq Deadlee. 

Our research environment benefits a great deal from the involvement of many members of the School in public conversations informed by historical knowledge and insight. Our Mile End Institute (MEI) is distinctive in its orientation towards policy.

Work with museums, commentary on political change, and delivery of Lecture series aimed at broad audiences are some of the ways in which our history informs and is informed by the world around us. Our PGRs and PDRs are similarly encouraged and offered training towards such public uses of our research. 

All of what we do at the School of History, leads to a research environment that nurtures exciting research that is the product of collective endeavour.