About us
Our vision
The Arts and Humanities encourage us to reflect on what it means to be human, helping us to become active citizens in our communities. We reflect critically on all aspects of human society and culture, past, present, and future, and on the process of reflection itself. We investigate cultures near and far, their ideas, languages, texts and artefacts. Working individually and collaboratively, we continue to develop innovative methods of enquiry within and acrooss discipline.
About the faculty
Created when the University restructured in 2008, we are one of five faculties within the University of Sheffield.
Our departments (Archaeology, Biblical Studies, History, Philosophy, Music, School of English and School of Modern Languages and Linguistics) support some 350 academic/non-academic staff and 4,000 students.
In 2009, six of our departments relocated to new or refurbished buildings forming a close-knit Arts and Humanities group around the Humanities Research Institute, in the city centre and right at the heart of the University campus.
This high level of investment in our faculty attests to the profile and esteem enjoyed by the Arts and Humanities in the University, and could not better illustrate the centrality of our disciplines to scholarship and engagement.
Our standing can be measured in many ways:
- nine of our ten RAE2008 units of assessment had 50% or more of their research rated as world-leading and world-class, and six of them are in the first quartile for their discipline
- four of our emeritus professors are Fellows of the British Academy
- nine staff are editors of prestigious journals in their field
- fifteen staff are members of the AHRC's Peer Review College
- we were awarded almost £1.8 million in research income 2007-2008
- we award on average 50 PhDs each year
- we publish on average 45 books and 200 journal articles or book chapters each year
- We attract excellent students and in 2008 six of our departments were in the top quartile for student satisfaction as measured by the NSS
We are proud of our knowledge transfer activities, and the impact of our research in the wider society. Examples include the Arts Council-funded Music in the Round, and the AHRC-funded Mitchell and Kenyon Collection.
The Arts and Humanities have made a vital contribution to our University's position in the top ten universities of the UK, and as 77th in world rankings (The Times Higher Education - QS World University Rankings).
The new faculty's aim is to combine the best in individual scholarship with collaborative interdisciplinary work so as to create new perspectives - creative, material, historical, linguistic, literary, or philosophical - as we interrogate the world around us.