Message from the Head of the School
There has never been more need for social and political science that is at once innovative and imaginative yet relevant to our increasingly complex and globalizing world. Our research and teaching in SPAIS addresses some of the most important topics that face us today: questions of globalisation, risk and uncertainty; issues of security and the resilience of states; problems of migration, ethnicity and citizenship; and dilemmas of global development and sustainability. We address these with reference to our research conducted in areas as diverse as the societies of East Asia, the European Union and the United Kingdom, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East.
SPAIS is an interdisciplinary research and teaching environment with over fifty academic staff, where prominent sociologists and political scientists, cutting-edge theorists and world-leading empirical researchers share ideas and engage in lively debate across the School in seminars, lectures and workshops.
SPAIS is a lively and friendly place in which to work and study. Benefiting from the vibrant environment of the city of Bristol and the excellent facilities of the University, we provide a warm and accommodating welcome to students - undergraduate and postgraduate - and to scholars from diverse parts of the world.
Professor Thomas Osborne
Head of the School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies
Thomas.Osborne@bristol.ac.uk