Humanities and social sciences

Humanities and social sciences

  • Faculty of Law at night
    The Faculty of Law building at night

The School of the Humanities and Social Sciences is concerned with human behaviour, its history and continuing development through the study of archaeology, anthropology, politics and international studies, sociology, economics, history, the philosophy of science, law, criminology and land economy. Notable alumni include John Maynard Keynes, Eric Hobsbawm, Simon Schama and Siegfried Sassoon.

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Opportunities in 'Humanities and social sciences'

Centre for African Studies logo

African studies

The University of Cambridge has long been one of the world's leading centres for study of Africa. Vibrant teaching and research programmes focused on Africa exist across the University, including those in the natural and biomedical sciences, archaeology, social sciences and humanities.
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Archaeology

The Department of Archaeology at Cambridge is one of the oldest in the world and also one of the youngest, largest and most vibrant in its current expanded form. It brings together an extraordinary community of people committed to advancing and transforming our understanding of the past through innovative research and teaching.
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Cambridge Language Sciences (CLS)

From the development of search engines and virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, to text mining, educational technologies, and dementia research, applied research in language sciences has a growing impact on our everyday lives. Technological advances in brain imaging, and the rapid progress of research in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, make Language Sciences an exciting area for future research.
Institute of Criminology, Sidgwick Site

Criminology

The Institute of Criminology, founded by Sir Leon Radzinowicz in 1959, has exerted a strong influence on the development of the discipline.of interpersonal violence.
Fieldwork photograph of children in Africa by Tammy Chen

Development Studies

The tradition of research and teaching on development at Cambridge goes back at least to the 1930s, when some of those who were later to be the founding fathers in the field studied here as postgraduate students under John Maynard Keynes.
Faculty of Economics building, Sidgwick Site

Economics

The Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge is one of the longest standing as well as being one of the leading economics faculties in Europe. The Faculty has a global reputation for outstanding academic achievement and world-class original research.
Faculty of Education

Education

Cambridge's Faculty of Education is a significant contributor to the improvement of educational policy and practice in partnership with schools, colleges and other educational agencies both in the UK and internationally. The Faculty is one of the largest groups of educational researchers and teacher educators in the UK.
Law Faculty building at sunset

Faculty of Law

The Faculty of Law hosts specialists in almost every aspect of English law and its history, the laws of other countries (especially European), European Community law, public and private international law, Roman law, legal philosophy, and criminology. At any one time around 6% of Cambridge undergraduates are reading law.
Families walking

Family research

The Centre for Family Research undertakes transdisciplinary research that increases understanding of children, parents and family relationships. Our research has dealt with topics including pregnancy, childhood, partnerships, parenthood and later life. Most of our members are psychologists, but our team also includes sociologists, anthropologists, biologists and bioethicists.
Vigeland sculpture

Gender studies

The University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies is a multidisciplinary centre. We work together with more than 20 departments within the University and an international network of gender scholars beyond. Together this world-class collection of experts enables the Centre to facilitate outstanding teaching and research on gender analysis of human society.
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History

King George I established the Regius Professorship of Modern History in 1724. Today, the Faculty of History is one of the largest history departments in the world.
An orrery in the Whipple Museum's collection

History and philosophy of science

The largest university department of its kind in the UK, the Department of History and Philosophy of Science has an outstanding international reputation for teaching and research.
Apartment building

Land economy

The Department of Land Economy addresses contemporary problems and conducts fundamental analysis relating to the role and use of land, real estate and environment within an economy.
Rory, Bolivia

Latin American studies

The Centre of Latin American Studies was founded in 1966 to promote research and teaching on Latin America in the University.
Participants at the 'Cambridge in Qatar: perspectives on Middle East Studies' conference

Politics and international studies

The Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) provides an institutional focus at Cambridge for teaching and research on politics in all its dimensions; international and comparative, theoretical and empirical, abstract and practical.
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Social Anthropology

The Department of Social Anthropology includes the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
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Sociology

Cambridge is one of the world’s leading centres for teaching and research in sociology.

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Schools, departments and faculties

The University of Cambridge consists of over 100 departments, faculties, schools and institutes which house research and teaching communities. In addition, strategic research initiatives and networks build on areas of existing research strength by bringing together a critical mass of expertise from across the academic community.