Why research in Social Aesthetics?
- Academic excellence
- Research focus
- Research environment
- International opportunities
- How to apply
- Further information
Academic excellence
Social Aesthetics is an interdisciplinary unit. We are a group of very active and experienced researchers working internationally across the gamut of the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Our members are drawn from the many disciplines of drama and theatre studies, music, sociology, communications, performance studies, philosophy, social theory, comparative literature, cultural studies, classics, and women’s studies. A number of our researchers also have extensive interests in the field of cultural economics.
Research focus
Our work focuses on the aesthetic understandings of social phenomena and the aesthetic shaping of society.
We are concerned with the many ways which the arts and the aesthetic character of contemporary life (such as buildings, urban landscapes, natural environments, political acts, organisational processes and economic products) create and shape social behaviours at an individual and collective level.
Social Aesthetics encourages conversations between the various arts (music, visual art, design, performance), the social sciences, and applied areas of study.
International opportunities
The School of English, Communications and Performance Studies has numerous formal and informal alliances with peer institutions across the developed and developing world. Social Aesthtics has strong links with the University of Copenhagen.
Research environment
Social Aesthetics has a culture of national and international collaboration. We regularly organise workshops, symposia and conferences, and pursues a number of major research events annually. We have a very active publishing program.
Our academics offers high quality supervision to higher degree researchers. There are excellent opportunities for crossdisciplinary supervision. Free thinking and fast flowing debate is encouraged. We welcome enquiries from postgraduate researchers who are independently minded and have wide-ranging intellectual curiosities.
How to apply
Further information
School of English Communications and Performance Studies
Faculty of Arts
Faculty of Arts research degrees