PhD

Tackle complex questions that don’t fit in a single box.

From the climate crisis and issues of social justice to the disruptive rise of AI, today’s challenges rarely respect disciplinary boundaries. Our PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities is designed for researchers committed to advancing innovative methods and generating insights that extend across – and beyond – the humanities, producing scholarship with meaningful impact both within the academy and in the wider world.

Working with supervisors whose expertise spans fields such as cultural studies, linguistics, history, literature, media, education, critical theory, human geography and political economy, you’ll develop a rigorous, creative project that connects a multitude of ideas, communities and stakeholders.

Why choose this PhD

• Interdisciplinary by design: Craft a project that integrates multiple humanities disciplines and, where valuable, methods from social sciences, education or STEM.

• Outstanding environment: Arts & Humanities at King’s is recognised for research excellence (Top 5 in the UK and 17^th in the World, QS World University Rankings 2025). You will have access to research institutes and collaborative networks across the faculty, expanding your interdisciplinary reach and generating unique opportunities for public engagement.

• Applied and outward-facing: We emphasise collaborative, impact-driven research and public engagement, preparing you for careers inside and beyond academia.

• Rich research community: Join seminars, themed reading groups on interdisciplinarity, an annual Research Lecture and a vibrant departmental seminar series bringing together scholars, public intellectuals and activists.

• Careers: Our department’s ethos is to support work that drives social change. You’ll gain highly transferable skills in cross-cultural analysis, critical synthesis, creative problem-solving and methodological pluralism – skills valued by employers across policy, culture, education, technology, NGOs and the creative industries. 

Current doctoral projects supervised by the Interdisciplinary Humanities staff include contemporary women's cultural production from post-conflict Northern Ireland; understanding and addressing the influence of colonialism on obstetrics and gynaecology; the interactional construction of patient-centredness in interpreter-mediated medical consultations; local audiences negotiating a global brand; hybridity and uncertainty in contemporary Hollywood stop-motion; and changing representations of Winston Churchill from his death to the present day.