School of Advanced Study

The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies aims to promote, facilitate and disseminate advanced study and research in the field of law – both in the UK and internationally. 

The Institute’s library is one of the world’s great legal research libraries and is widely regarded as the UK’s national law library, attracting practising lawyers as well as UK and international researchers. It has over 300,000 volumes, the majority of which are housed at the Institute site in Bloomsbury, and includes the UK’s most extensive collection on foreign and international law. 

The Institute of Classical Studies is a national and international research centre for the study of the languages, literature, history, art, archaeology and philosophy of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. It is also home to one of the world’s leading research libraries, developed in collaboration with the Societies for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and Roman Studies. 

The Institute runs an extensive events programme throughout the year, including, guest lectures and conferences with distinguished speakers from the UK and around the world. It also facilitates a series of Research Projects and provides valuable research training for postgraduate students. 

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies sits at the crossroads of research, policy, human rights practice and international relations. Its vision is that people around the world, including throughout the modern Commonwealth, live in societies grounded in democracy, human rights and the rule of law. 

The Institute contributes towards this vision by bringing people together to develop effective, evidence-based policy solutions to the challenges facing the Commonwealth; supporting the Commonwealth’s global network of civil society; engaging with Commonwealth stakeholders, including its member countries; and offering ground-breaking Masters courses in human rights.

The Institute’s Library is an international resource holding more than 190,000 volumes, with particularly impressive Caribbean, Southern African and Australian holdings and over 200 archival collections. 

The Institute of English Studies is an internationally renowned research centre specialising in the history of the book, manuscript and print studies, and textual scholarship. It hosts major collaborative research projects, provides essential research training in book history and palaeography, and facilitates scholarly communities in all areas of English studies.

Its mission is to promote research in English Studies to academic communities nationally and internationally, working in collaboration with other academic and cultural institutions and supporting the research of scholars at all stages of their career. 

The Institute of Historical Research is dedicated to training the next generation of historians, and to producing and facilitating ambitious, innovative historical research. It offers a wide range of services that promote and facilitate excellence in historical research, while its own academic staff and research centres produce internationally regarded scholarship.

The Institute helps foster public understanding of history and its social, cultural, and economic importance, advocating for the long-term future of the discipline. It engages directly with policy makers through the History and Policy Network.

The Wohl Library houses a reference collection of over 200,000 books and journals and the Institute is also a leading centre for the creation of digital resources for historians. 

The Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies supports research in the integrated study of languages, cultures, and societies. 

Though its strengths are primarily within the fields of French and Francophone, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American/Caribbean studies, it also supports the transnational study of languages and cultures and collaborates with organisations that focus on cultural and linguistic experience in other global contexts. 

Working closely with other organisations in the field, the Institute is committed to creating a culture that nurtures Early Career researchers and providing cutting-edge training for the wider research community. 

The Institute of Philosophy is a world-class research institute that aims to promote and facilitate high-quality research in philosophy. The Institute is committed to demonstrating the value of Philosophy research by making it available to the widest possible audience both inside and outside the UK's academic community.

It offers a range of events, including lectures, seminars, and conferences that are open to both academics and non-academics. It also hosts visiting and postdoctoral research fellows from all over the world and provides support for researchers at all stages of their career, including digital resources and information for graduate students. 

The Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for studying the interaction of ideas, images and society. It is dedicated to the survival and transmission of culture across time and space, with a special emphasis on the afterlife of antiquity. 

The Institute hosts research projects and offers a range of public programmes. At the heart of the Warburg Institute’s interdisciplinary research is its open-stack library of more than 380,000 rare and modern volumes, as well as a Photographic Collection with more than 400,000 images and one of the most complete archives of any research centre in the humanities. 

The Digital Humanities Research Hub supports a variety of digital approaches to the Humanities within the University of London, across the UK and internationally. The multi-disciplinary team in the Hub includes academics with strong connections to subject areas including Classics, English, History and Modern Languages and Cultures, as well as practitioners and researchers from technical backgrounds. 

The Hub promotes the use of digital techniques in humanities scholarship;, provides infrastructure and support for the digital humanities community;, offers training and teaching in digital methods, approaches and tools;, and carries out its own interdisciplinary research and supervision. 

The Environmental Humanities Research Hub promotes and facilitates research in the transdisciplinary field of environmental humanities. It supports the work of national research centres while advancing global connections and promoting transnational and multilingual environmental scholarship and knowledge exchange. The hub offers research training and supports the dissemination of research that can shape policies and inspire public engagement. It also hosts a series of events, providing a dedicated platform for scholars and researchers to come together, share their work, and explore innovative perspectives within the field. 

The Refugee Law Initiative (RLI) is the only academic centre in the UK to concentrate specifically on international refugee law. As a national focal point for leading and promoting research in this field, the RLI works to integrate the shared interests of refugee law scholars and practitioners, encourage collaboration between academics and non-academics, and influence policy at national and international levels. It manages the Refugee Law Clinic, which provides some of the most disadvantaged communities in London with access to fair and equal legal representation.

The Human Rights Consortium was established to facilitate and promote research in human rights in the UK and internationally by organising and supporting academic, policy, and practice-oriented events on human rights; disseminating research on human rights; fostering national and international networks of human rights academics; offering training to research students working on human rights; enhancing the teaching and learning environment for graduate students; and raising funds in support of human rights research and research support. 

The Centre for the Politics of Feelingsis devoted to the interdisciplinary study of how emotions and feelings can be active causes, but also targets of, political behaviour in diverse socio-political contexts. Established in 2021, the Centre aims to be a world-leading hub for the continuing understanding of how reason and social passions define our political engagement with the social world. 

The Centre for the History of People, Place and Community fosters engaged and innovative research into placed histories across all regions and periods, from the rural to the urban and the parish to the metropolis, with an emphasis on the localised, the micro-historical, and the site-specific.

The Centre collaborates with researchers to develop imaginative new approaches to making history, and to identify opportunities for history to make a difference in the real world today. 

The Information Law and Policy Centre undertakes, promotes and facilitates cross-disciplinary scholarship and research in the area of information law and policy. The centre works across the UK and internationally, collaborating with a variety of organisations within the public and private sectors, and civil society. 

The Sir William Dale Centre for Legislative Studies specialises in teaching and research in the field of legislative drafting and law reform.

The Centre plays an immensely important role in the development of legislative drafting as an academic discipline worthy of specialised study. It seeks to spread the Sir William Dale ideas for simple, precise and accurate legislative texts, which are accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike in all jurisdictions.