Research Centres and Groups

Faculty Research Centres

The Faculty hosts five research centres which exist as hubs for innovative, cross-disciplinary research. Research Centres nurture and promote individual and collective research excellence, and also encourage ongoing conversations with the public to engage new audiences and shape ideas.

• Centre for Black Humanities

  The Centre seeks to foster the broad range of research currently being done in the Faculty of Arts around the artistic and intellectual work of people of African descent. It aims to create an international hub for Black Humanities research in the heart of Bristol. Current interdisciplinary projects include work on Black Health and the Humanities, Black British Art, African small magazines, and UK Hip-Hop, ethics and social justice, slavery and its legacies, and race and genetics in contemporary fiction.
• Centre for Creative Technologies

  The Centre provides a focus for colleagues working with or on creative technologies – whether analogue or digital – from film and print to gaming and VR. This includes researchers who are: using creative technologies as a methodology; creating content in their research; collaborating with creative industries; or engaging theoretically, ethically, or historically with media. New Bristol Blog site coming soon.
• Centre for Environmental Humanities

  The Centre for Environmental Humanities is a forum for sharing and developing expertise on humanity’s interactions with nature through history, literature, and lived experience. It aims to promote collaboration and conversation, highlighting the opportunities for working together in academic fields that have traditionally relied on individual researchers pursuing isolated projects. Centre activities include outreach work with local museums and galleries, academic research seminars and events, and funding collaborative research activities.
• Centre for Health, Humanities and Science

  Our vision is to be recognised as a leader in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research at the intersection of humanities, medicine, health and science. Our aims are to develop those areas in which our research stands out in the UK and internationally; consolidate these strengths; and achieve a step-change in the work done in these areas at the University.
• Centre for Medieval Studies

  The Centre for Medieval Studies creates an exciting and supportive forum for our staff and our postgraduate students. Our research and research events foster interdisciplinary exchange on topics ranging from Medieval archaeology and law to music and the History of the Book. The Centre has internationally recognised expertise in an unrivalled range of areas reflecting Bristol's historic role as a gateway to Europe, and we have strong local partnerships and international networks.

Faculty Research Groups

• Ageing Futures

  Interdisciplinary work focused on improving well-being and quality of life in older age.
• American Studies

  Interdisciplinary academic research group based in the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences including PhDs and academic staff and as well as researchers from allied programmes.
• Bristol Digital Game Lab

  The Lab brings together researchers and practitioners from a radically diverse range of perspectives, from history to AI, game design, and beyond.
• Bristol-Exeter Modern British History

  Co-ordinators: Dr Amy Edwards (History) and Dr Simeon Koole (History)
• Digital Societies

  Strong, actionable research to understand and shape how digital technologies are changing society.
• Drinking Studies Research Group

  Co-ordinator: Dr Mark Hailwood (History)
• Early Modern Studies

  Co-ordinators: Dr Kenneth Austin (History) and Dr Sebastiaan Verweij (English)
• Education and Pedagogy

  Examining how education can be transformative at both an individual and a societal level.
• Environment and Society

  Exploring solutions to environmental problems and impacting policy.
• Families and Parenting

  Looking at how policy and law define and support ‘good parenting’.
• Food Justice Network

  Supporting the transition to a fairer food system.
• Gender

  Research addressing methodological and conceptual approaches to the study of gender, sexuality and feminist theory.
• Global Political Economy

  Addressing the transformations brought about by globalisation.
• Health and Wellbeing

  Exploring the human and social impacts of health and wellbeing interventions at national and global levels.
• International Development

  Focused on collaborative work that examines Global Development Challenges at the interface of the social and natural worlds.
• Perspectives on Work

  Looking at the analysis of work and its governance in the contemporary world.
• Screen Research

  Co-ordinators: Professor Catherine O'Rawe (Italian) and Dr Miguel Gaggiotti (Film and Television)
• Sense and Sensations

  Placing emphasis on how critical the sensing body has been and is to our study of human and nonhuman worlds, across historical and contemporary contexts.
• Smart Networks for Sustainable Futures

  Using the power of networks to find long-term solutions to contemporary issues.
• Urban Research Cluster

  Facilitating collaborative research into urbanism around the world.