The King's College London Faculty of Arts & Humanities is one of the nine academic Faculties of Study of

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. It is situated on the Strand in the heart of central

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 ...

, in the vicinity of many renowned cultural institutions with which the Faculty has close links including the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in ...

, the National Portrait Gallery and the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. , the

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

comparison of world-class universities ranked it amongst the top twenty arts and humanities faculties in the world. The Faculty of Arts & Humanities offers study at undergraduate and graduate level in a wide range of subject areas. Many of the departments and programmes offer joint undergraduate degrees, including some with the Departments of Geography and

War Studies War studies, sometimes called polemology, is the multi-disciplinary study of war. It pertains to the military, diplomatic, philosophical, social, political, psychological or economic dimensions of human conflict. The word ''polemology'' derives ...

, in the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy and with Mathematics in the Faculty of Natural & Mathematical Sciences. As a member of the

Russell Group The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public university, public research university, research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its memb ...

and the

Golden triangle Golden Triangle may refer to: Places Asia * Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia), named for its opium production * Golden Triangle (Yangtze), China, named for its rapid economic development * Golden Triangle (India), comprising the popular tourist ...

, the Faculty receives a high number of applications. A highlight of the academic calendar is the Faculty's Arts & Humanities Festival when, as one of Britain's pre-eminent centres of research in the Arts and Humanities, the Faculty opens its doors for a fortnight of debate and exploration about a topic and its reverberation in a range of cultural forms, from fiction and theatre to art. The Festival includes a series of lectures by King's academics, exhibitions, round-table discussions and workshops. The Faculty is a member of The Council of University Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH UK), and of

London Citizens Citizens UK is a grassroots alliance of many local communities working together. Citizens UK has 17 chapters across the UK made up of local institutions, including schools, universities, churches, mosques, synagogues, parent groups, health trus ...

. The current Executive Dean of Faculty is Professor Marion Thain, who took over from Professor Russell Goulbourne in December 2018.

History

Departments like English and German are among England's oldest and were founded in the 19th century. King's College London's Faculty of Arts merged with the Faculties of Music and Theology as the School of Humanities in the late 1980s and took on the name of the School of Arts & Humanities in 2009. The original Arts departments such as War Studies and Geography formed part of the School of Social Science & Public Policy in 2001, while the Arts & Humanities expanded from its 'classical' humanities roots. Over the past few years, the School has established interdisciplinary programmes such as Comparative Literature and a new BA in Liberal Arts launched in 2012. It has led new developments in teaching and research, for instance through the Department of Digital Humanities, Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries, and the Modern Language Centre. The School of Arts & Humanities became the Faculty of Arts & Humanities in 2014.

Departments

The following departments and centres can be found in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities: *

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

* Culture, Media & Creative Industries *

Digital Humanities Digital humanities (DH) is an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or Information technology, digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanitie ...

* English * Film Studies * History * Languages, Literatures and Cultures * Liberal Arts * King's Digital Lab * Music *

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

* Theology & Religious Studies Auto-icon of Virginia Woolf at King's College London

Research Centres include: * Centre for Hellenic Studies (incorporating Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies) * Camões Centre for Portuguese Language & Culture * Centre for Enlightenment Studies @ King's * Centre for Hellenic Studies * Centre for the Humanities & Health * Centre for Late Antique & Medieval Studies * Centre for Language Acts and World Making * Centre for Life Writing * Centre for Modern Literature and Culture * Centre for Philosophy and Visual Culture * Shakespeare Centre London * Queer@King’s * Centre for Language, Discourse and Communication (with the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy)

Notable people

Current academic staff

Roderick Beaton Roderick Macleod Beaton, FBA, FKC (born 1951) is a retired academic. He was Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King's College London from 1988 to 2018. Education Born in 1951, Beaton was educa ...

Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language & Literature The Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature is a chair in the Classics Department at King's College London. It was established in 1918 to serve as a focal point in the United Kingdom and beyond for the study ...

* George Benjamin, Henry Purcell Professor of Composition * Francisco Bethencourt, Charles Boxer Professor * Catherine Boyle, Professor of Latin American Cultural Studies *

David Carpenter David Joseph Carpenter (born May 6, 1930), a.k.a. The Trailside Killer, is an American serial killer and serial rapist known for stalking and murdering a variety of individuals on hiking trails in state parks near San Francisco, California. He ...

, Professor of Medieval History *

Richard Drayton Richard Drayton FRHistS (born 1964) is a Guyana-born historian and Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King's College London. Biography Richard Drayton was born in Guyana in 1964, to parents Kathleen (nee McCracken; 1930–2009) and Harold D ...

, Rhodes Professor of Imperial History *

Richard Dyer Richard Dyer (born 1945) is an English academic who held a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at King's College London. Specialising in cinema (particularly Italian cinema), queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment ...

, Professor of Film Studies *

Simon Gaunt Simon Gaunt (1959-2021) was a professor of French literature at King's College London, where he was Head of the French Department and Head of the School of Humanities. He was past president of the Society for French Studies (2006-8), a Fellow ...

, Professor of French Literature *

Paul Gilroy Paul Gilroy (born 16 February 1956) is an English sociologist and cultural studies scholar who is the founding Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Race and Racism at University College, London (UCL). Gilroy is the 2019 ...

, Professor of American & English Literature *

Edith Hall Edith Hall, (born 1959) is a British scholar of classics, specialising in ancient Greek literature and cultural history, and professor in the Department of Classics and Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's College, London. She is a Fellow o ...

, Professor of Classics *

Brian Hurwitz Brian Hurwitz BA, MB BS, MA, MSc, MD, FRCP, FRCGP (born 12 December 1951) is a British clinician and academic and Professor of Medicine and the Arts at King's College London. He is the director of the Centre of the Humanities and Health at King's C ...

, D'Oyly Carte Professor of Medicine & the Arts * Paul Joyce, Samuel Davidson Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible *

Roger Parker Roger Parker (born London United Kingdom, 2 August 1951) is an English musicologist and, since January 2007, has been Thurston Dart Professor of Music at King's College London. His work has centred on opera. Between 2006 and 2010, while Profess ...

, Thurston Dart Professor of Music * Martin Stokes, King Edward Professor of Music *

Joan E. Taylor Joan E. Taylor is a New Zealand writer and historian of Jesus, the Bible, early Christianity, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Second Temple Judaism, with special expertise in archaeology, and women's and gender studies. Taylor is the Professor of Chr ...

, Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism * Patrick Wright, Professor of Literature and Visual & Material Culture

Former academic staff

Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include ''Th ...

, British contemporary composer *

Averil Cameron Dame Averil Millicent Cameron ( Sutton; born 8 February 1940), often cited as A. M. Cameron, is a British historian. She was Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History at the University of Oxford, and the Warden of Keble College, Oxford ...

, Warden of

Keble College, Oxford Keble College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to th ...

, Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History in the University of Oxford, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

* A. G. Dickens (1910-2001), historian, former Director of the

Institute of Historical Research The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) is a British educational organisation providing resources and training for historical researchers. It is part of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London and is located at Senate Hous ...

John Eliot Gardiner Sir John Eliot Gardiner (born 20 April 1943) is an English conductor, particularly known for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Life and career Born in Fontmell Magna, Dorset, son of Rolf Gardiner and Marabel Hodgkin, Ga ...

, English conductor * John Elliott, historian * F. J. C. Hearnshaw (1869-1946), historian *

Judith Herrin Judith Herrin (; born 1942) is a British archaeologist, byzantinist, and historian of Late Antiquity. She was a Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies and Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow at King's College London (now emeri ...

, Emeritus Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies *

Efraim Karsh Efraim Karsh ( he, אפרים קארש; born 1953) is an Israeli–British historian who is the founding director and emeritus professor of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies at King's College London. Since 2013, he has served as professor of p ...

, Founding Director and Emeritus Professor of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies *

Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...

, Peruvian writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate *

P. J. Marshall Peter James Marshall (born 1933 in Calcutta) is a British historian known for his work on the British Empire, particularly the activities of British East India Company servants in 18th-century Bengal, and also the history of British involvemen ...

, Emeritus Rhodes Professor of Imperial History, President of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

from 1997-2001 *

Janet Nelson Dame Janet Laughland Nelson (born 1942), also known as Jinty Nelson, is a British historian. She is Emerita Professor of Medieval History at King's College London. Early life Born on 28 March 1942 in Blackpool, Nelson was educated at Keswic ...

, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, President of the Royal Historical Society from 2001 to 2005 * Richard Overy, historian *

Curtis Price Sir Curtis Alexander Price, KBE (born 1945, in Springfield, Missouri, USA) was the Warden of New College, Oxford, between October 2009 and September 2016. He was previously principal of the Royal Academy of Music from 1995 to 2008 and Professo ...

, Warden of

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

David Profumo David John Profumo, FRSL (born 20 October 1955), is an English novelist. Profumo was born in London, the son of former British government minister John Profumo, and his wife, actress Valerie Hobson. The Profumo family is of Italian origin. Bio ...

, an English novelist, 6th Baron Profumo *

Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell, (15 April 1937 – 14 October 2004), was a British historian and politician. His parents were the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell and his third wife Patricia Russell. He was al ...

(1937-2004), 5th Earl Russell *

Richard Sorabji Sir Richard Rustom Kharsedji Sorabji, (born 8 November 1934) is a British historian of ancient Western philosophy, and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at King's College London. He has written his 'Intellectual Autobiography' in his ''Festschrift' ...

, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy *

Susan Stebbing Lizzie Susan Stebbing (2 December 1885 – 11 September 1943) was a British philosopher. She belonged to the 1930s generation of analytic philosophy, and was a founder in 1933 of the journal ''Analysis.'' Stebbing was the first woman to hold a p ...

(1885-1943), Lecturer in Philosophy

Deans of Faculty

* Barry Ife (Spanish): August 1989 - July 1997 * Linda Newson (Geography): August 1997 - July 2000 * Michael Knibb (Theology): August 2000 - July 2001 * David Ricks (CHS/CompLit): August 2001 - July 2004 * Ann Thompson (English): August 2004 - December 2007 * Jan Palmowski (German): January 2008 - December 2012 * Simon Gaunt (French): January 2013 - December 2013 * Russell Goulbourne (French): January 2014 - August 2018 * Jo Malt (French): September 2018 - December 2018 (Interim) * Marion Thain (English): December 2018 -

Notable alumni

File:Archbishop george carey1.jpg,

Lord Carey George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton (born 13 November 1935) is a retired Anglican bishop who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, having previously been the Bishop of Bath and Wells. During his time as archbishop the Ch ...

File:Alain de Botton.jpg,

Alain de Botton Alain de Botton (; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British author and philosopher. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published ''Essays in Love'' (1993) ...

File:Anne Dudley on March 30, 2014.jpg,

Anne Dudley Anne Jennifer Dudley (née Beckingham; born 7 May 1956) is an English composer, keyboardist, conductor and pop musician. She was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in the classical and pop genre ...

File:John Eliot Gardiner at rehearsal in Wroclaw cropped portrait.jpeg,

File:Greer Garson-publicity.JPG,

Greer Garson Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson (29 September 1904 – 6 April 1996) was an English-American actress and singer. She was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who became popular during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the hom ...

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W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most f ...

File:Thomas Hardy (1923 portrait).jpg,

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

File:Michael Morpurgo 20090315 Salon du livre 1.jpg,

Michael Morpurgo Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo ('' né'' Bridge; 5 October 1943) is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as ''War Horse'' (1982). His work is noted for its "magical storytell ...

File:Michael Nyman.jpg,

Michael Nyman Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...

File:John Ruskin 1863.jpg,

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

File:Sirjonathansacks.jpg,

Jonathan Sacks Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks ( he, יונתן הנרי זקס, translit=Yona'tan Henry Zaks; 8 March 19487 November 2020) was an English Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and author. Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United He ...

File:Davidtang.jpg,

David Tang Sir David Wing-cheung Tang, (; 2 August 1954 – 29 August 2017), was a Hong Kong businessman, philanthropist and socialite. He was best known for founding the Shanghai Tang fashion chain in 1994, which he sold in 1998 to Richemont. Early l ...

File:Desmond Tutu 2013-10-23 001.jpg,

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

File:George Charles Beresford - Virginia Woolf in 1902 - Restoration.jpg,

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

Summer School

The Faculty also offers well recognised Summer School courses as part of the King's College London Summer School. Courses are intensive and use the Faculty’s links with external cultural institutions and make 'London a classroom’. Courses on offer showcase work done in research centres such as Queer@Kings or the Centre for Humanities & Health.

Publications

Many academic staff at King's are editors and contributors to many standard editions such as the Arden Shakespeare series. The Faculty of Arts & Humanities houses several publication series, from monographs produced in conjunction with other publishing houses such as Ashgate to small in-house series. The current list of series includes * Modern Poetry in Translation (Second Series) * Plain Text Series * Centre for Hellenic Studies Publications * Institute of Advanced Musical Studies: Study Texts * Adam Archive Publications * Centre for Twentieth-Century Studies Publications * King’s College London Medieval Series * King’s College London Hispanic Series * Office for Humanities Communication Series * Mediterranean Studies Monographs

References

External links

King's College London Faculty of Arts & Humanities
homepage
Arts & Humanities Festival
website
King's College London Summer School
homepage
The Council of University Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
website {{Authority control

Arts and Humanities The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

Educational institutions established in 1829 1829 establishments in England