Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
IALS promotes, facilitates and disseminates research in the discipline of law, for the benefit of people and institutions in the UK and abroad.
Who we are
We provide UK-wide resources and services for arts and humanities research communities, fostering innovation and research into critical societal issues.
What we do
We play a unique role in developing collaborative, innovative and distinctive research in the humanities, and in equipping researchers to navigate and contribute to the UK’s research and innovation landscape.
Through our institutes and our specialist hubs for digital humanities and public engagement, we train the next generation of humanities researchers, devise innovative methods for new discoveries, connect humanities researchers and practitioners across disciplines and sectors, and provide unique humanities research infrastructure to create new knowledge and new formats for collaboration.
Working with funders and other research and innovation organisations, we help to create the infrastructure that will support a diversity of researchers at all career stages to make the most of opportunities to work across disciplines sectors and cultures.
Our Institutes
The School of Advanced Study unites eight internationally renowned institutes in the humanities:
Institute of Classical Studies
ICS is an international research centre for the languages, literature, history, art, archaeology, and philosophy of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.
Institute of Commonwealth Studies
ICwS promotes interdisciplinary and inter-regional research on the Commonwealth and its member nations.
Institute of English Studies
IES is an internationally renowned research centre specialising in the history of the book, textual scholarship, digital editing and literary history.
Institute of Historical Research
The Institute of Historical Research is the UK's national centre for history, dedicated to supporting historians of all kinds.
Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies
ILCS supports, promotes and facilitates research in the integrated study of languages, cultures, and societies.
Institute of Philosophy
The Institute of Philosophy promotes and facilitates high quality research in philosophy, making it available to the widest possible audience.
Our Research
Our research concentrates on the human dimensions to societal challenges. To confront climate change, global mobility, social injustice, human rights, poverty, and other pressing issues, we will need to understand the human world and to appreciate the critical importance of cultures, languages and identities to the contemporary world. The challenges we face as a modern society are complex; and the solutions to them will be equally complex, in need of the kinds of explanation the arts and humanities can provide.
Our Digital Humanities Research Hub supports a variety of digital approaches to the Humanities across the UK and beyond and promotes the Digital Humanities community both nationally and internationally.
Our Research Support
We provide UK-wide resources and opportunities for humanities researchers of all career stages. We facilitate training; devise innovative methods for new discoveries; connect humanities researchers and practitioners across disciplines and sectors, and provide a unique humanities research infrastructure.
Research Training
Our Doctoral Centre delivers a forward-looking and wide-ranging programme of training for the humanities researchers in the UK and abroad.
Fellowships
We run over 30 fellowship schemes across the School, and offer opportunities for researchers of all career stages.
Libraries
We are home to four specialist research libraries and our main Senate House Library is home to 50 special collections and 1800 archival collections.
Networks and Collaborations
We foster strong research networks within and across disciplines in order to provide opportunities to develop new research initiatives.
Our Public Engagement
Engaging the public in the latest developments in research is important to discoveries for the future that recognise the importance of the humanities and are align with society’s values. The University is committed to working with wider society to make sure people feel confident to engage with and contribute to research and innovation. As part of that drive, we are home to the UK’s only national Festival of Humanities Research, the Being Human Festival, currently operating in 51 British towns and cities but increasingly being adopted as an international model.
Find out more about our Public Engagement.
