Research & Expertise

King’s Arts & Humanities is a leading research force in demonstrating how the arts and humanities can answer society’s big questions.

Our faculty is distinctive in representing both longer established disciplines - such as Philosophy and Theology - and the more recently established disciplines, such as Digital Humanities and Culture, Media and Creative Industries. This rare combination affords us rich opportunities for interdisciplinarity collaboration and for social impact, as well as ground-breaking research.

We have exceptional disciplinary research strength, as has been reflected in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) submission:

98 per cent of our research environment was deemed either ‘world leading’ (4*) or ‘internationally excellent’ (3*).
95 per cent of our research impact was deemed either 4* or 3*
86 per cent of our research outputs were deemed either 4* or 3 *

Our disciplines bring methods that are informed conceptually, historically, imaginatively – and we work with a deep understanding of human culture, media and language. It is this knowledge of the past, this sophisticated conceptual thinking, this creative thinking and this innovative engagement with human culture that we bring to such great effect to address the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Making a difference

Move than ever since the pandemic, there has been a powerful need, felt by many even if difficult to name, to bring humanistic and relational values back to the heart of national and international strategy and development. Arts & Humanities at King’s aims to be the game-changing partner in answering questions that are often not recognised to be relevant to, or have a need for, Art & Humanities expertise. We're bringing to bear our world-leading expertise of arts and humanities disciplines on some of the world's most pressing challenges.