Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a
constituent
Constituent or constituency may refer to:
Politics
* An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization
* Advocacy group or constituency
* Constituent assembly
* Constituencies of Namibia
Other meanings
* Const ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...
of the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the
Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, commonly known as the Goldsmiths' Company and formally titled The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London, is one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of Londo ...
in
New Cross
New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich, ...
, London. It was renamed Goldsmiths' College after being acquired by the University of London in 1904 and specialises in the arts, design, humanities and social sciences. The main building on campus, known as the Richard Hoggart Building, was originally opened in 1792 and is the site of the former
Royal Naval School
The Royal Naval School was an England, English school that was established in Camberwell, London, in 1833 and then formally constituted by the Royal Naval College Act 1840. It was a Charitable cause, charitable institution, established as a board ...
.
According to
Quacquarelli Symonds
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a British company specialising in the analysis of higher education institutions around the world. The company was founded in 1990 by Nunzio Quacquarelli.
History
On 5 October 2017, QS Quacquarelli Symonds acquired Hob ...
(2021), Goldsmiths ranks 12th in Communication and Media Studies, 15th in Art & Design and is ranked in the top 50 in the areas of Anthropology, Sociology and the Performing Arts. In 2020, the university enrolled over 10,000 students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
37% of students come from outside the United Kingdom and 52% of all undergraduates are mature students (aged 21 or over at the start of their studies). Additionally, around a third of students at Goldsmiths are postgraduate students.
History
![Goldsmiths Main Building](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Goldsmiths_Main_Building.jpg)
In 1891, the
Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, commonly known as the Goldsmiths' Company and formally titled The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London, is one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of Londo ...
, one of the
Livery Companies of the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
, founded ''The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute'' (more commonly referred to simply as the "Goldsmiths' Institute"). The Goldsmiths' Company was established in the 12th century as a medieval guild for goldsmiths, silversmiths, and jewelers. The Livery Company dedicated the foundation of its new Institute to "the promotion of technical skill, knowledge, health and general well-being among men and women of the industrial, working and artisan classes". The original Institute was based in
New Cross
New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich, ...
at the site of the former
Royal Naval School
The Royal Naval School was an England, English school that was established in Camberwell, London, in 1833 and then formally constituted by the Royal Naval College Act 1840. It was a Charitable cause, charitable institution, established as a board ...
; the building, now known as the ''Richard Hoggart Building'', remains the main building of the campus today.
![From the Services To Schoolmastering- Re-training at Goldsmith's College, London University, Nottingham, England, 1944 D22754](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/From_the_Services_To_Schoolmastering-_Re-training_at_Goldsmith%27s_College%2C_London_University%2C_Nottingham%2C_England%2C_1944_D22754.jpg)
In 1904, the institute was merged with the University of London and was re-established as Goldsmiths' College (the apostrophe was removed in 1993, and the word 'College' dropped in a rebranding in 2006). At this point Goldsmiths was the largest teacher training institution in the country. Training functions were later expanded to include refresher courses for teachers, the University Postgraduate Certificate in Education and an Art teacher's Certificate course. The college also ran its own Nursery School.
Shortly after the merger, in 1907, Goldsmiths added a new Arts building, designed by Sir
Reginald Blomfield
Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield (20 December 1856 – 27 December 1942) was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period.
Early life and career
Blomfield was born at Bow rectory in Devon, w ...
, at the back of the main building. During the Second World War it was decided to evacuate the faculty and students of the college to
University College, Nottingham
, mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom
, established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status
, type = Public
, chancellor ...
, a decision which proved wise both at the time and in hindsight, since the main building was struck by an
incendiary bomb
Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, th ...
and gutted in 1940 (and not finally repaired until 1947).
During the 1960s, Goldsmiths experienced a rapid expansion in student numbers. It is during this period that Goldsmiths began to establish its reputation in the arts and
social science
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...
fields, as well as offering a number of new teacher training qualifications. The original main building was expanded, and the Lockwood Building, Whitehead Building, Education Building, Warmington Tower and St James's Hall were all built to accommodate the influx of new students. The university also acquired a number of historic buildings in the surrounding area, including the splendid former
Deptford Town Hall
Deptford Town Hall is a municipal building in New Cross Road, Deptford, London. It is a Grade II listed building.
History
The building was commissioned to replace the aging vestry hall of St Paul's. The site selected had previously been occupi ...
and Laurie Grove Baths buildings. The Richard Hoggart Building, Deptford Town Hall and the Laurie Grove Baths all retain
Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
building status.
In 1988, Goldsmiths became a full College of the University of London and in 1990 received its
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...
. Among its
wardens have been
Richard Hoggart
Herbert Richard Hoggart (24 September 1918 – 10 April 2014) was a British academic whose career covered the fields of sociology, English literature and cultural studies, with emphasis on British popular culture.
Early life
Hoggart was bor ...
,
Andrew Rutherford and
Ben Pimlott
Benjamin John Pimlott FBA (4 July 1945 – 10 April 2004), known as Ben Pimlott, was a British historian of the post-war period in Britain. He made a substantial contribution to the literary genre of political biography.
Early life
Pimlott was ...
. The current, and first woman, Warden is
Frances Corner
Frances Marie Corner, ( Agnew; born 25 February 1959) is a British art and design historian and academic, specialising in fashion. Since 2019, she has been Warden of Goldsmiths, University of London. On 23 November 2020, staff announced a vote o ...
.
In 2018, the former boiler house and public laundry of Laurie Grove Baths was refurbished and opened as
Goldsmiths CCA
Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, known as Goldsmiths CCA, is a contemporary art gallery in New Cross, London within the campus of Goldsmiths, University of London.
The gallery is located in the former boiler house and public laundry of Laur ...
.
In August 2019, Goldsmiths announced that it would be removing all beef products from sale and would be charging a 10p levy on bottled water and single-use plastic cups. The changes were introduced as part of the university's efforts to become carbon neutral by 2025.
Campus and location
![Deptford Town Hall Building](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Deptford_Town_Hall_Building.jpg)
Goldsmiths is situated in
New Cross
New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich, ...
, a highly populated area of
south-east London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
with a considerable art and music scene.
The main building, the ''Richard Hoggart Building'', was originally designed as a school (opened in 1844) by the architect
John Shaw, Jr (1803–1870). The former Deptford Town Hall building, designed by
Henry Vaughan Lanchester
Henry Vaughan Lanchester (9 August 1863 – 16 January 1953) was a British architect working in London. He served as editor of ''The Builder'', was a co-founder of the Town Planning Institute and a recipient of the Royal Gold Medal.
Biography
La ...
and
Edwin Alfred Rickards
Edwin Alfred Rickards (1872–1920) was an English architect.
Early life
Rickards was born in 1872.
Career
Rickards worked alongside the architects Henry Vaughan Lanchester and James Stewart. He specialized in baroque architecture. He designed ...
, acquired in 1998, is used for academic seminars and conferences. In addition to this Goldsmiths has built several more modern buildings to develop the campus, including the
RIBA
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
award-winning Rutherford Building completed in 1997, the ''Ben Pimlott Building'' designed by
Will Alsop
William Allen Alsop (12 December 1947 – 12 May 2018) was a British architect and Professor of Architecture at University for the Creative Arts's Canterbury School of Architecture.
He was responsible for several distinctive and controversial ...
and completed in 2005, and the ''Professor Stuart Hall Building'' (formerly the ''New Academic Building)'' which was completed in 2010.
The library, or the ''Rutherford Building'', has three floors and gives students access to an extensive range of printed and electronic resources. The third-floor library is believed to house the largest collection of audio-visual material in the UK. Goldsmiths' students, like all other students in the University of London, have full access to the collections at
Senate House Library at
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...
in central London.
![Goldsmiths Pimlott Building](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Goldsmiths_Pimlott_Building.jpg)
The seven-storey ''Ben Pimlott Building'' on New Cross Road, complete with its distinctive "scribble in the sky" (made from 229 separate pieces of metal) has become a signature of modern Goldsmiths. It contains studio and teaching space for the Department of Art, as well as housing the Goldsmiths Digital Studios and the Centre for Cognition, Computation and Culture.
The ''Professor Stuart Hall Building'' (formerly the ''New Academic Building)'', situated next to the green, is home to the Media and Communications Department and the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE). Facilities include a 250-seat lecture theatre, seminar and teaching rooms, as well as a cafe with outdoor seating.
Academic profile
Faculties and departments
Art
* The Head of Department is Richard Noble. Notable alumni include
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst (; né
Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...
,
Sarah Lucas
Sarah Lucas (born 1962) is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s. Her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humour by incorporating photography, collage and found objects.
...
,
Steve McQueen
Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...
,
Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing CBE, RA (born 10 December 1963) is an English conceptual artist, one of the Young British Artists, and winner of the 1997 Turner Prize. In 2007 Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Her ...
,
Fiona Banner
Fiona Banner (born 1966), also known as The Vanity Press is a British artist. Her work encompasses sculpture, drawing, installation and text, and demonstrates a long-standing fascination with the emblem of fighter aircraft and their role within cul ...
,
Angela Bulloch
Angela Bulloch (born 1966 in Rainy River, Ontario, Canada), is an artist who often works with sound and installation; she is recognised as one of the Young British Artists. Bulloch lives and works in Berlin.
Life and career
Bulloch studied at Go ...
and
Graham Coxon
Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Cox ...
.
* The university is also a member of the
Screen Studies Group, London
The University of London Screen Studies Group (SSG) is a research consortium in film studies, founded in 2001. Member institutions include Goldsmiths, Birkbeck, University College London, King's College London, Royal Holloway, SOAS, Queen Mar ...
.
Design
The Department of Design's approach to design practice grew from a concern for ethical and environmentalist design. This developed alongside research by
John Wood,
Julia Lockheart
Julia Lockheart is a British artist, academic and researcher.
She currently works as a metadesign researcher and Associate Lecturer in Design Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London; as a Senior Lecturer, Head of Contextual Practices, and ...
, and others, which informs their research into
metadesign
Metadesign (or meta-design) is an emerging conceptual framework aimed at defining and creating social, economic and technical infrastructures in which new forms of collaborative design can take place. It consists of a series of practical design-r ...
. TERU, the Technology Education Research Unit, has been instrumental in understanding how design and technology work in schools, how to encourage learners towards creative interventions that improve the made world, and how to help teachers to support that process. The Writing Purposefully in Art and Design Network (Writing-PAD) has its main Centre at Goldsmiths. The Network now spans some 70 institutions across the art and design sector with 6 national and 2 International Writing PAD Centres.
Sociology
The
Sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
Department include
Nirmal Puwar
Nirmal Puwar is a senior lecturer at the department of Sociology at Goldsmiths University and Co-Director of Methods Lab. She is a member of the Feminist Review editorial collective since 2000. Puwar has co-edited 17 Collections, including: Post-c ...
,
Les Back
Les Back (born 17 December 1962) is a professor of sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London and an author.
Biography
Les Back was born in Croydon in south London and studied at both undergraduate and postgraduate level at Goldsmiths, Univer ...
, Yasmin Gunaratnam, Vikki Bell and Paul Stoneman.
Cultural studies
The Media and Communications Department, as well as the Centre for Cultural Studies, include
Matthew Fuller, David Morley,
Scott Lash
Scott Lash (born December 23, 1945) is a professor of sociology and cultural studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Lash obtained a BSc in Psychology from the University of Michigan, an MA in Sociology from Northwestern University, and a PhD ...
,
Angela McRobbie,
Nirmal Puwar
Nirmal Puwar is a senior lecturer at the department of Sociology at Goldsmiths University and Co-Director of Methods Lab. She is a member of the Feminist Review editorial collective since 2000. Puwar has co-edited 17 Collections, including: Post-c ...
and (formerly)
Sara Ahmed
Sara Ahmed (30 August 1969) is a British-Australian writer and scholar whose area of study includes the intersection of feminist theory, lesbian feminism, queer theory, affect theory, critical race theory and postcolonialism. Her seminal wor ...
.
Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship
The Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship delivers entrepreneurship, cultural management and policy education to the creative and cultural sectors.
Anthropology
The Department of Anthropology teaching staff include
Keith Hart and (formerly)
David Graeber
David Rolfe Graeber (; February 12, 1961September 2, 2020) was an American anthropologist and anarchist activist. His influential work in economic anthropology, particularly his books '' Debt: The First 5,000 Years'' (2011) and ''Bullshit Jobs ...
. The department is known for its focus on visual anthropology. The realm of continental philosophy is represented with academics such as
Saul Newman
Saul Newman (born 22 March 1972) is a British political theorist who writes on post-anarchism. He is professor of political theory at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Newman took up the term "post-anarchism" as a general term for poli ...
, Alberto Toscano and Jean Paul Martinon as well as Visiting Professors
Andrew Benjamin
Andrew Benjamin (born 1952, Australia) is an Australian philosopher. He holds a post as Distinguished Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney. Benjamin first came to critical attention with his writings in continental philosophy, writ ...
and
Bernard Stiegler
Bernard Stiegler (; 1 April 1952 – 5 August 2020) was a French philosopher. He was head of the Institut de recherche et d'innovation (IRI), which he founded in 2006 at the Centre Georges-Pompidou. He was also the founder in 2005 of the politi ...
. In the area of Psychology there is
Chris French
Christopher Charles French (born 1956) is a British psychologist specialising in the psychology of paranormal beliefs and experiences, cognition and emotion. He is the head of the University of London's anomalistic Psychology Research Unit and ...
who specialises in the psychology of
paranormal
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...
beliefs and experiences, cognition and emotion.
Saul Newman
Saul Newman (born 22 March 1972) is a British political theorist who writes on post-anarchism. He is professor of political theory at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Newman took up the term "post-anarchism" as a general term for poli ...
– notable for developing the concept of
post-anarchism
Contemporary anarchism within the history of anarchism is the period of the anarchist movement continuing from the end of World War II and into the present. Since the last third of the 20th century, anarchists have been involved in anti-globalisat ...
– is currently leading the department of politics.
English and comparative literature
The English & Comparative Literature Department covers English, comparative literature, American literature, creative writing and linguistics. Current academics include
Blake Morrison
Philip Blake Morrison FRSL (born 8 October 1950) is an English poet and author who has published in a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. His greatest success came with the publication of his memoirs ''And When Did You Last See Your Fat ...
,
Chris Baldick, Uttara Natarajan and Peter Dunwoodie. Its work in comparative literature developed after a merger with the Department of European Languages, later joined by its Creative Writing section.
Music
The
Research Centre for Russian Music
The Centre for Russian Music (CRM) is a research centre based at Goldsmiths, University of London. The main purpose of the centre is to promote research, publication and performance. It offers interdisciplinary activities focused on cultural, soc ...
, convened by
Alexander Ivashkin
Alexander Ivashkin (russian: link=no, Александр Васильевич Ивашкин), (17 August 1948 – 31 January 2014) was a Russian cellist, writer, academic and conductor.
Ivashkin studied at the Gnessin Institute, where his teache ...
until his death in 2014, is internationally renowned for its archives devoted to Prokofiev and Schnittke, and unique collections including of music by Stravinsky, and Russian Piano Music first editions.
Educational studies
The Department of Educational Studies teaches undergraduate, masters and doctoral courses, and is home to a large programme of initial teacher education (primary and secondary), based on partnership arrangements with over 1500 schools and colleges.
Additional academic programs
Goldsmiths paired with
Tungsten Network
Tungsten Network is a global electronic invoicing firm that provides supply chain financing services from international offices in the United Kingdom, United States, Bulgaria, Germany, and Malaysia. As a small- to medium-sized IT company, the ...
in 2015 to develop a research program that explores advanced artificial intelligence techniques for
Big Data
Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
and business practices. Known as Tungsten Centre for Intelligent Data Analytics, the program is based in the company's London office.
Rankings
In 2017, Goldsmiths' Media and Communications department was named the second best in the UK and eighth worldwide, although by 2020 this department's ranking had fallen to 18th in the UK. Goldsmiths' overall national rankings are about 70th, and in the TEF Goldsmiths achieved a Bronze rating, the lowest possible ranking.
Open access to research by Goldsmiths academics
Goldsmiths Research Online (GRO) is a repository of research publications and other research outputs conducted by academics at Goldsmiths. The repository also holds Goldsmiths' collection of doctoral theses. GRO is part of Goldsmiths Online Research Collections (ORC) which also includes Goldsmiths Journals Online (GOJO), a hosting platform for
open access
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
journals and conference proceedings.
Student life
Sports, clubs and traditions
Sports teams and societies are organised by the
Goldsmiths Students' Union
Goldsmiths Students' Union (GSU) is the students' union for Goldsmiths, University of London. It offers services to students including advice, sports clubs and activities as well as a list of entertainments and events and a 1000 capacity live mu ...
. The Union runs 18 sports clubs, 11 of which compete in either
University of London Union
Student Central was a students' facility of the University of London. It was previously the students' union of the federal University of London, known as the University of London Union (commonly referred to as ULU, pron. 'yoo-loo'), which was clo ...
or
BUCS
British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the governing body for higher education sport in the United Kingdom. BUCS was formed in June 2008 following a merger of British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) and University College Sport ...
leagues.
The Students' Union runs 35 societies, ranging from political societies and identity-based societies (for example the Jewish society and the
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
society) to interest-based societies (the Drama Society and the on-campus radio station Wired) and more.
Student media
Goldsmiths has a long history of student-led media platforms, including ''Smiths Magazine'', ''The Leopard'' newspaper, and Wired radio. The student media is run independently by students at the college.
Student housing
The university owns seven halls of residence:
* Chesterman House
* Dean House
* Loring Hall
* Surrey House
* Surrey House Annexe
* Raymont Hall
* Ewen Henderson Court
Several of the halls include electricity bills and gas bills as part of rent. Free internet is also offered in some of the halls. Visiting international students are generally assigned accommodation in Loring Hall, Dean House or Chesterman House. Loring Hall currently holds around 400 students.
Students' Union
The union provides, among other things, catering facilities, a
chaplaincy
A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...
, a
medical clinic
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...
, an advice service on academic and welfare issues and a state of the art
gym
A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...
for students' use.
In October 2014, the union faced critical coverage, from student newspaper
The Tab
''The Tab'' is a tabloid-style youth news site, published by Tab Media Ltd. It was launched at the University of Cambridge and has since expanded to over 80 universities in the United Kingdom and United States. The name originates from both an ...
after voting down a proposal to commemorate
Holocaust Memorial Day, with Education Officer Sarah El-alfy describing it as "Eurocentric" and "colonialist." El-alfy offered to help put forward a redrafted version of the motion for the following Student Assembly meeting. The Union issued a statement claiming "Redrafting motions and re-entering them at a later date isn’t unusual in Students' Unions and shouldn't be misinterpreted as opposition."
In 2015 the student union Welfare and Diversity Officer,
Bahar Mustafa
In 2015 a racial controversy developed in the United Kingdom surrounding the activities of Bahar Mustafa, a representative for Goldsmiths Students' Union. The incident resulted in media and academic discussions regarding race relations and the im ...
, caused a public controversy by banning white people and men from a student union event. Bahar Mustafa caused more public controversy through her justification of the ban, and through her use of the hash tag #KillAllWhiteMen. A group of students petitioned for a vote of no confidence in her, but the petition was signed by less than 3% of the student body and therefore failed to trigger a referendum.
Notable alumni
Goldsmiths' alumni have been influential in the fields of art, design, visual arts, film, journalism, literature, theatre, comedy, music, politics, history, and sport.
Alumni of the Department of Art include
Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger (born 25 May 1959) is a British artist. Having previously been nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995, he won in 2007 for his installation ''State Britain''. His work ''Ecce Homo'' (1999–2000) was the first piece to occupy the ...
,
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst (; né
Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...
,
Antony Gormley
Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the ''Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; ''Another Pla ...
,
Sam Taylor-Johnson
Samantha Louise Taylor-Johnson OBE (née Taylor-Wood; 4 March 1967) is a British filmmaker and photographer. Her directorial feature film debut was 2009's ''Nowhere Boy'', a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter an ...
,
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...
,
Mary Quant
Dame Barbara Mary Quant, Mrs Plunket Greene, (born 11 February 1930)The Mary Quant exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2019-20 stated her year of birth as 1930, and that she became a student at Goldsmiths College around 1950. is a ...
,
Bridget Riley
Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France.
Early life and education
Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in West Norwood, No ...
,
Sarah Lucas
Sarah Lucas (born 1962) is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s. Her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humour by incorporating photography, collage and found objects.
...
,
Gary Hume
Gary Stewart Hume (born 9 May 1962) is an English artist. Hume's work is strongly identified with the YBA who came to prominence in the early 1990s. Hume lives and works in London and Accord, New York. ,
Steve McQueen
Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...
,
Carl Hopgood,
Ely Dagher
Ely Dagher is a Lebanese director, screenwriter and artist known for his short film '' Waves '98'' and most recently his first feature film '' The Sea Ahead'' which had its premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival
Early years
Ely graduated fro ...
,
Michael Dean,
Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing CBE, RA (born 10 December 1963) is an English conceptual artist, one of the Young British Artists, and winner of the 1997 Turner Prize. In 2007 Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Her ...
,
Brian Molko
Brian Molko (born 10 December 1972) is a Belgian-born Scottish-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and lyricist of the band Placebo. He is known in particular for his distinctive nasal, high-pitche ...
and
Benjamin Spiers.
The Department of Music has a number of notable alumni, including
Tunday Akintan,
Martyn Brabbins
Martyn Charles Brabbins (born 13 August 1959) is a British conductor. The fourth of five children in his family, he learned to play the euphonium, and then the trombone during his youth at Towcester Studio Brass Band. He later studied compositi ...
,
Katy B
Kathleen Anne Brien (born 8 May 1989), better known as Katy B, is an English singer and songwriter. She released her debut studio album, ''On a Mission (Katy B album), On a Mission'', in 2011, which spawned two top five hits, "Katy on a Mission ...
,
James Blake,
John Cale
John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styl ...
,
A. G. Cook
Alexander Guy Cook (born 23 August 1990) is an English music producer, singer, songwriter and the head of the UK record label PC Music.
Cook released his first solo singles in 2014. He has also collaborated with PC Music artists such as Hannah ...
,
Peter Graham,
Robin Haigh
Robin Haigh (born 1993 in London) is a composer of contemporary classical music.
Career
In 2017, Robin Haigh won a BASCA British Composer Award at the age of 24 for his recorder quintet, ''In Feyre Foreste''. His piece ''Zorthern'' features o ...
,
Rosie Lowe
Rosie Lowe is an English singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence by releasing her debut single "Right Thing" in November 2013. She released her debut extended play under the same name the following year. She subsequently released her 2016 ...
,
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English impresario, visual artist, singer, songwriter, musician, clothes designer and boutique owner, notable for combining these activities in an inventive and provoc ...
,
Benedict Taylor
Benedict Sean Taylor (born 18 April 1960) is a British actor.
Taylor was born in Hampstead, London, the eldest of six children of father, Richard, a documentary film maker, and Allegra, a writer. Taylor lived in Nigeria until 1965 and then wa ...
,
Shirley Thompson,
Errollyn Wallen
Errollyn Wallen (born April 10, 1958) is a Belize-born British composer.
Life
Errollyn Wallen moved to London with her family when she was two. While her parents moved to New York, she and her three siblings (one of whom is the trumpeter Byr ...
,
Alastair White
Alastair White (born 1988) is a Scottish-New Zealand composer and writer. His work is characterised by a lyrical complexity which draws influence from technology, science, politics and materialist philosophy.
Operas
The fashion-opera cycle ...
and
Roger Williams
Roger Williams (21 September 1603between 27 January and 15 March 1683) was an English-born New England Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation ...
.
Other alumni include TV presenter
Dave Myers David or Dave Myers may refer to:
* David Myers (Indiana judge) (1859–1955), Associate Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court
* Dave Myers (American football) (1906–1997), American football player for Staten Island Stapletons and Brooklyn Dodges ...
, DJ and producer
SHERELLE, Bollywood actor
Kalki Koechlin
Kalki Koechlin (; born 10 January 1984) is a French actress and writer who works in Hindi films. Known for her unconventional body of work, she is the recipient of such accolades as a National Film Award, a Filmfare Award, and two Screen Awar ...
, artist and pioneer
Beatie Wolfe
Beatie Wolfe is an Anglo-American award-winning, multimedia artist and musician described as a "musical weirdo and visionary" known for seeing music differently and creating new formats for music and art in the digital era. These projects inclu ...
, graphic novelist
Malik Sajad
Malik Sajad is a graphic novelist based in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.
His debut graphic novel, ''Munnu - A Boy from Kashmir'' was released with critical acclaim and won the ''Verve Story Teller of The Year'' award. The debut novel was made a ...
, BBC weather presenter
Wendy Hurrell
Wendy is a given name now generally given to girls in English-speaking countries.
In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century. Its popularity ...
, film director and editor in chief of Kurdish Question
Mehmet Aksoy, lead singer of
Placebo
A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures.
In general ...
Brian Molko
Brian Molko (born 10 December 1972) is a Belgian-born Scottish-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and lyricist of the band Placebo. He is known in particular for his distinctive nasal, high-pitche ...
(drama graduate), founding members of the British rock band
Blur Alex James (French graduate) and
Graham Coxon
Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Cox ...
(fine arts graduate), Kathak dancer
Nighat Chaudhry
Nighat Chaudhry (Urdu: نگہت چودھری) is born on 24 February, in Lahore, Pakistan and moved to London when she was one year old. She is a trained Kathak, Sufi & Mystique Kathak classical dancer. She started her journey from London and ...
, and politician and former deputy spokesperson for the
Taipei City Government
The Taipei City Government (TCG) is the municipal government of Taipei.
History
The Taihoku City Government was founded on 10 October 1920 in Taihoku Prefecture during Japanese colonial rule. The original city hall was located at the site of ...
Huang Ching-yin
Huang Ching-yin (; born 10 June 1992), nicknamed Hsueh-chieh, is a councilor representing Taipei City Constituency I on the Taipei City Council. A native of Taipei and a member of the Taiwan People's Party, Huang was formerly a reporter for onli ...
.
See also
*
Armorial of UK universities
The armorial of British universities is the collection of coats of arms of universities in the United Kingdom. Modern arms of universities began appearing in England around the middle of the 15th century, with Oxford's being possibly the oldest ...
*
E-scape E-scape was a project run by the Technology Education Research Unit (TERU) at Goldsmiths University of London, England that developed an approach to the authentic assessment of creativity and collaboration based on open-ended but structured activiti ...
*
Forensic Architecture
Forensic Architecture is a multidisciplinary research group based at Goldsmiths, University of London that uses architectural techniques and technologies to investigate cases of state violence and violations of human rights around the world. The ...
*
Goldsmiths CCA
Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, known as Goldsmiths CCA, is a contemporary art gallery in New Cross, London within the campus of Goldsmiths, University of London.
The gallery is located in the former boiler house and public laundry of Laur ...
*
List of Goldsmiths College people
This is a list of Goldsmiths College people, including office holders, current and former academics, and alumni of the Goldsmiths, University of London.
An alumnus is a former student or pupil of a school, college, or university. Commonly, but no ...
*
List of universities in the UK
References
External links
*
The official Goldsmiths Students' Union websiteGoldsmiths, University of London lists of studentsGoldsmiths, University of London military personnel,1914–1918
{{authority control
Education in the London Borough of Lewisham
Educational institutions established in 1891
Grade II listed educational buildings
Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Lewisham
1891 establishments in England
New Cross
Organisations based in the London Borough of Lewisham
1891 in London
Universities UK
University of London