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.
Our unique concentration of expertise on health and wellbeing in modern Britain, America, and Europe as well as early modern antecedents, brings together research by members of the School in the following areas. Mental health, psychiatry, the study of animal and human behaviour and of the emotions, the self, clinical medicine and laboratories, cases and populations as units of knowledge, practice and governance, epidemiology and public health, eugenics, population sciences and policies and sex and reproduction, sex education, contraception and abortion, and women’s health.
Members of the School research histories since 1000 CE, with specialisms in African, American, British, European, South Asian, and Middle Eastern History. We interact in period groups but, as meaningfully, around shared themes that we explore in different periods and places. These commonalities are expressed through three main clusters:
Each cluster promotes productive contact and exchange between researchers with shared interests, while stimulating the emergence of sub-specialisms too. Within these clusters a genuine coming together of researchers at all stage - from PhD students, through postdoctoral researchers and on to early career and later career scholars - takes places. This is facilitated by our research centres, specialist seminars, annual lectures, and the contributions of Distinguished Visiting Professors.