Welcome to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences

The School of the Humanities and Social Sciences covers a wide range of disciplines with differing methodologies, from highly quantitative analysis of ‘big data’ to ethnography and the analysis of the material culture and thought of past societies.  The geographical range is equally broad, with specialist centres in Latin America, Africa and South Asia, as well as Development Studies and the specialists within each Department or Faculty. 

Each Department and Faculty has its own well developed research profile, but increasingly we are cooperating across disciplinary boundaries within the School and with colleagues in other Schools.  We are fortunate in the provision of research funds within the School from the Philomathia Foundation, which is sponsoring a number of projects (https://www.ahssresearch.group.cam.ac.uk/res-fund-opps); and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) acts as a catalyst and facilitator.  The School is participating in university-wide Strategic Research Initiatives such as public health, global food security, energy and conservation which brings the insights of social sciences to bear on some of the major issues facing the world today.

Cambridge is one of the world’s leading centres for science, technology and medicine, and the social sciences are playing an increasingly important role in understanding the social, political and economic contexts - not least through the recently launched MPhil in Public Policy.  The School is, in terms of student numbers, the largest of the six Schools in the university, with approximately 2700 undergraduates, and 1200 taught and 1400 research postgraduate students.