Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences are seeking applications from candidates whose research profile is aligned to our current areas of research strength, in particular Creative Industries, Policy Engaged Research and Internationalisation. Read more about the Faculty and our research below.
The Faculty is a busy, multidisciplinary community of learners, dedicated to using the wide range of subjects to make a difference in lives locally, nationally and internationally.
The Faculty is home to some 10,500 students and 800 academic and support staff who pursue a wide range of activities, including world-leading research and life-changing teaching, across our five Schools – the School of Arts, English and Languages, the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, the School of Law, the Management School and the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work.
We are located across an attractive and well-connected estate with world class facilities. These include a new Law School, which opened in summer 2016; a state of the art building at Riddel Hall which is home to the Management School, and includes a unique trading room; our Sonic Arts Research Laboratory; and, the Brian Friel Theatre, a purpose-built black-box theatre, all of which support excellence in creative practice, research and learning.
We are proud of the work of our students and staff. The Faculty’s commitment to excellent teaching is reflected in consistently strong NSS results– for example, in NSS 2018, 15 of 21 subjects reported met or exceed the institution’s overall satisfaction rate of 83%. Of course, a commitment to an outstanding student experience also demands continual improvements, and colleagues are developing new and exciting undergraduate and postgraduate programmes that will offer students greater flexibility, improved employability prospects and better access to research innovation. For example, a new suite of programmes in the creative arts commenced in 2017 and a new multidisciplinary liberal arts degree was launched in September 2018. The Faculty is home to a Nuffield-funded Q-Step initiative, growing teaching excellence in quantitative methods.
Research in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences is integral to the University’s overall vision and mission to deliver work with reach and significance. Of the 12 AHSS-based Units of Assessment submitted to REF 2014, 10 were ranked in the top quartile for research intensity for their field, with 92% of the Faculty submission rated as world leading or internationally excellent. In 2016-17, Queen’s was the number one AHRC-funded university, receiving £4.11m across 12 awards with an overall success rate of 40%. Alongside a commitment to disciplinary excellence, the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and the Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation are central to plans for large-scale, interdisciplinary research that tackles global societal challenges. The research activities of around half of the Faculty’s academics are aligned to these initiatives that will play a vital role in addressing some of the most challenging issues facing the world today.
Growing the new generation of researchers, along with Newcastle University, Durham University and others, we are partners in the AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership and the ESRC NINE (Northern Ireland and Northern England) Doctoral Training Partnership.
The Faculty has a range of recruitment partnerships and articulation arrangements with leading universities and colleges in China, India and South-East Asia. It has an extensive network of student exchanges and study abroad schemes with particular strength in the US. It also has research collaborations with universities across the world including the University of Sao Paulo and the University of Notre Dame.
In 2016-17, a £3.1m investment in staff has been focused on enhancing leadership and growing capacity in some of our key subjects to achieve our 2020 goals of: increasing research income; increasing postgraduate student numbers; and, increasing international student numbers.
Committed to being a great place to work and learn, the Faculty holds five Athena SWAN Bronze Awards, a standout achievement for these disciplines and one that contributes significantly to a wider institutional commitment to equality and diversity.
Professor Adrienne Scullion
Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor
Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Professor Lee Magowan
email: l.mcgowan@qub.ac.uk