Birkbeck Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Monday can't come soon enough! We can't wait to welcome all of our new and returning students for our Official Birkbeck Welcome.

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/news/birkbeck-set-to-welcome-students-with-two-weeks-of-exciting-events-and-activities

Birkbeck set to welcome students with two weeks of exciting events and activities The Official Birkbeck Welcome is an ideal way for new students to get to know Birkbeck, while returning students can reconnect with the community.

Welcome to Birkbeck's School of Historical Studies!

If you're interested in studying:

🎨 Art History
🦴 Archaeology
📚 Classics
📜 History
🖼️ Museums and Heritage
💡 Philosophy

Then this is the school for you!

We are one of the very few universities in the UK to investigate every period from to the early twenty-first century.

Key areas of interest across our subject areas include , race and inequality, mobility and migration, and , history and ideas of science, sexuality and gender, and more.

Our world-class is also supported by institutes such as the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and the Raphael Samuel History Centre, and in collaboration with other organisations such as the Institute of Classical Studies and the Institute of Philosophy.

Interested in understanding what you could learn at the School of Historical Studies?

Head here: www.bbk.ac.uk/school/historical-studies

Why use one library...

When you could use three?!

Here at Birkbeck, you can access many different libraries, including:

📚 Our Library - this is the place where you can access all the resources, facilities and services you need to make the most of your time at Birkbeck. Study here, access guidance and support and use our archives.

(If you haven't already, check out our comprehensive academic subject guides. They can help you make the most of your time and find the best resources in your subject area.)

📚 Senate House Library - all Birkbeck staff and the students, can use Senate House Library, the central library of the University of London. You can borrow books and access their online resources for free.

📚 Other libraries - The University of London Access Agreement allows Birkbeck students to access other University of London libraries for reference. This includes the LSE, UCL and SOAS libraries!

Have you visited all of these libraries?

"I'm 53 and embarking on a career change to become a human rights lawyer" 🎉

Rahat Ismail recently graduated, achieving a First Class Honours for a Bachelor of Arts in Global Politics and International Relations, while working full-time.

She explains how Birkbeck has given her friends for life, and allowed her to embark on a Master's in Law this year:

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/news/im-53-and-embarking-on-a-career-change-to-become-a-human-rights-lawyer

We are very excited to announce the launch of a range of new, innovative undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

This includes the new MA AI, Ethics and Society, which combines insights from , and to explore the implications of .

The new BA Environment, Culture and Communication degree blends with cultural and creative approaches to advocacy.

Read more about our new courses here:

Birkbeck launches innovative new courses in artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, and the environment The courses are designed to provide the knowledge, skills, and practical experience necessary to succeed in fast-evolving industries.

When you join the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, you gain access to all sorts of creative spaces, such as:

🖼️ Peltz Gallery - Our exhibition space shows work by both emerging and established artists from the UK and internationally. The gallery brings together under-explored subjects to public view.

🎭 Theatre and Performance Space - We have our own dedicated theatre space. It allows theatre students to enjoy practical classes and to mount pieces of performance as part of their studies.

📽️ Gordon Square Cinema - We host regular free film screenings and the cinema is an important resource for the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image.

📚 Keynes Library - we have a beautifully refurbished room in the Gordon Square Building that commemorates one of the building's most famous residents - the celebrated economist, John Maynard Keynes.

Have you been to any of these spaces?

Senior Research Fellow, Dr Ruth Beecher, has been awarded a prestigious Career Development Award by the Wellcome Trust.

The £1.4 million grant will fund an interdisciplinary research project entitled Child Sexual Abuse and Recovery: Historicising Survivor and Practitioner Experiences (1950-2022).

Dr Beecher's study is co-produced with survivor and practitioner partners including Survivors Voices, Survivors In Transition, The Flying Child, and Association of Child Protection Professionals.

It will examine the wider social, cultural, and medical history of child sexual abuse recovery. The project prioritises the voices and experiences of survivors, aiming to understand the multitude of ways that they achieve emotional and physical equilibrium.

Read more about it here:

Birkbeck academic awarded £1.4 million for study on child sexual abuse recovery The study will produce the first social, cultural and medical history into recovery from childhood sexual abuse in the second half of twentieth century Britain and Ireland.

Immerse yourself in a virtual environment to see the impacts of firsthand and learn how different communities are responding to it at our Climate Resilience Reimagined interactive VR workshop next week! 🌎

Find out more & sign up: https://ow.ly/ERcf50Sn30w

As the date of the election draws near, this in-conversation event examines where we are on the eve of a potentially watershed election. What do the polls tell us at this point (and how accurate are they?)? How have the campaigns by the different parties gone so far? Who will win and what should we look out for on election night itself?

Join us on the 1st of July online, book your place here:
https://my.bbk.ac.uk/ords/f?p=832:100:0:::100:P100_EV_ID:43290

Join us online on the 29th of February at 6pm for a captivating exploration of art and strategy of winning an election. 🗳
An insightful conversation with the accomplished Claire Ainsley.
Don't miss out and book your place: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/booking/event/41253

Empowering Futures: Birkbeck extends a warm welcome to aspiring change-makers in environment and sustainability. Thanks to the generous support from Legal & General, we're delighted to announce five £5,000 bursaries, creating pathways for diverse minds to shape a sustainable tomorrow.

Find out more and apply: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/student-services/financial-support/legal-and-general-future-leaders-bursary

Join us today for an online information event about our range of postgraduate social research programmes

Details/booking:
https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=40474

Unlock the Minds Behind Machines!
Join our Philosophy of AI Short Course and dive into the foundational debates shaping the future of artificial intelligence. Explore ethics, consciousness, and the very essence of intelligence. Enrich your understanding of AI's philosophical landscape.

Find out more here: https://ow.ly/yffy50QcSTf

Join us today virtually for the next Criminology Series where we provide a platform for critical, path-breaking interdisciplinary research on crime, criminal justice, and related themes by scholars within and beyond Birkbeck.

⭐️This month’s series is focused on The Post Office Scandal: Professional Pathologies and Legality Illusions and Professor Richard Moorhead, University of Exeter will be the speaker at the event.

Book your place and don’t miss out on how organisational culture and the construction of crime, can be instantiated by the professional logics that construct, encourage and shield abuse, irresponsibility, and dishonesty

Book your place here: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=39651

Join us for the upcoming information session for our Postgraduate Social Research programmes!

⭐You will have a chance to ask any questions about these iconic programmes to find out which Social Research programme is ideal for you.

Book your place via the link below: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=40474

Join us Birkbeck, University of London tomorrow to hear from Nissa Finney, Professor of Human Geography at the University of St Andrews on ‘Contemporary Jewish identities and experiences of racism’. What can ‘big data’ tell us about Jewish experiences of discrimination and how are they distinctive? Full details and to book: https://bit.ly/47B22wW

📢Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life quick updates!

1/2 Book launch 📚Dermot Hodson Circle of Stars - A History of the EU and the People Who Made It
Yale University Press, London

In this event, Professor Dermot Hodson will talk about his new book on the history of the European Union since 1992. He will be joined in conversation by Dr Ben Worthy (Director of Birkbeck’s Centre for British Political Life).

🗓️Book your place for the 12th of December, this event will take place in 📍Bloomsbury (room TBC)👇👇👇

https://www.csbppl.com/book-event-circle-of-stars-a-history-of-the-eu-and-the-people-who-made-it/

A Library without Books Is like a Fish without Water: join us on Tuesday 28th November for the final talk in our series! Professor Joanna Bourke will be joined in conversation by Philippa Dolphin, Birkbeck’s Librarian from 1994–2004.
BOOK NOW https://tinyurl.com/FishLibrary

Join us for a public lecture by Chilean scholar Francisca Pérez Pallares on the everyday lives and homemaking practices of Haitian migrants in Santiago, Chile. 14 November 2023, 6 pm Free and open to all! Book your place here: https://cis.bbk.ac.uk/apex/a01u/f?p=832:100:0:::100:P100_EV_ID:39912

Join us on Friday for:

An Open Mind (Peter Nestler, 2022) with Q&A

A fascinating documentary film about artists from the Sinti and Roma minority, whose works address the painful experience of persecution in the 20th century.

Full details: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=39470

New exhibition at our Peltz Gallery, 43 Gordon Sq! 🎨⭐️

Running 12 Oct-7 Dec, Birkbeck Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies presents photos & videos of Janet Toro's 1999 performances 'The Body of Memory', in memory of 's 1973 coup d'etat. Details + signup for opening event on 12 Oct: http://www7.bbk.ac.uk/cilavs/2023/10/10/exhibition-the-body-of-memory-el-cuerpo-de-la-memoria-by-artist-janet-toro-12-oct-2023-7-dec-2023/

Welcome everyone!
There have been some exciting changes this year, this was formerly the Birkbeck School of Arts and is now the new Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Facebook. We will be posting the latest events and programme updates. 🎭🏛️🌏💬

It's not too late to visit our free public exhibition 'From Signal to Decay: Volume 3' at Peltz Gallery Running until 7 July, find out more :

New art exhibition opens, exploring the intersection of art, music, composition and sound design Running from now until 7 July 2023, Birkbeck's Peltz Gallery presents From Signal to Decay: Volume 3. The free public exhibition is an ongoing and iterative research project into artist, musician, composer, sound designer and recordist Trevor Mathison's rich and varied body of work.

Love Art History? Join one of our taster sessions in June

This month, join one of our tasters sessions for Art History lovers. Hosted by our Art History academics, these events will allow you to dip your toe at Birkbeck. They'll explain what you can expect to study when you enrol with us in the 2023/24 academic year. They will also be available to answer any questions you might have about studying at Birkbeck.

So pick the course that is the right level or interest for you and book your place!

https://bit.ly/HistoryofArtInfoEvenings

Join us for a triple bill of research-led films from the Derek Jarman Lab: The Plastic Phoenix (about the now-defunct Bakelite Museum), Aerial Bodies (about female barrage balloon operators) and Submerged Reliquary of a Kentish Saint (about Derek Jarman’s archive). Book your place: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=36612

Arts Week 2023 has started! Have a look at our fabulous programme of events this week, and get booking! https://bit.ly/BBKAW23 - See you there!

'Wanghong Urbanism: Towards a New Urban-Digital Spectacle'

Join us for this free talk, where experts in urban planning and digital culture ask: what happens when places achieve celebrity status online? On Thursday 27 April, as part of Birkbeck Arts Week. Book now: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=36488

Wanghong Urbanism: Towards a New Urban-Digital Spectacle Experts in urban planning and digital culture ask: what happens when places achieve celebrity status online?

Birkbeck Arts Week starts next week! So many highlights, including a panel with three Birkbeck researchers on the topic of fertility, reproduction, policy, possibility and the future. Book now: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=36480

Reproduction NOW A panel exploring fertility and reproduction. It is time to take stock. Have promises been delivered?

Arts Week 24-28 April 2023
Arts Week returns with discussions, workshops, tours, performances and readings. Events include a walking tour of the lost world of Westminster, a conversation on the contemporary experience of crossing borders, and a talk on what happens when places achieve celebrity status online. Find out more: https://bit.ly/BBKAW23

We offer a number of and to Master's students who are applying to study for a postgraduate degree in our School of Arts! 🎉 Find out more 👉 https://bit.ly/3ttM2Z7

Most have deadlines of 9th September 🥳