Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Oxford

Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Oxford
Name	Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Oxford
Established	2000
Type	Faculty
City	Oxford
Country	England

Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Oxford is a major division of the University of Oxford responsible for teaching and research across a range of arts and humanities subjects. The faculty brings together scholars and students who work on topics spanning from classical antiquity to contemporary culture, and it is embedded within institutional networks that include colleges, museums, and funding councils.

History

The faculty was created in 2000 through a reorganisation that drew on legacies from the University of Oxford, the Bodleian Library, the Ashmolean Museum, the Ruskin School of Art, the Taylor Institution, and the legacy of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages. Its antecedents include the School of Law (as part of broader institutional realignments), the establishment of chairs such as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon and the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy, and the nineteenth-century reforms associated with figures linked to the Oxford Movement and the Clarendon Press. Institutional developments were influenced by national policy frameworks including the Research Excellence Framework and funding bodies such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust. Major physical and curricular expansions accompanied collaborations with the Bodleian Libraries and the Museum of Natural History during anniversaries such as the University of Oxford's 900th anniversary.

Organisation and Governance

Governance is administered through faculty boards, committees, and elected chairs connecting to the Congregation of the University of Oxford, the Hebdomadal Council (historical), and college-based governing bodies like those at Magdalen College, Oxford, All Souls College, Oxford, Exeter College, Oxford, and Wadham College, Oxford. The faculty office liaises with national funding agencies including the Economic and Social Research Council and international partners such as the European Research Council. Leadership roles include the Faculty Board Chair, heads of departments, and directors of centres who coordinate interactions with publishers such as Oxford University Press and cultural institutions including the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

Departments and Centres

The faculty comprises departments and centres with disciplinary and interdisciplinary profiles: the Faculty of English Language and Literature (with ties to the Bodleian Library and the Oxford University Press), the Faculty of History (close to the History Faculty Library and scholars of the English Civil War), the Faculty of Classics (with links to the British School at Athens), the Faculty of Modern Languages (including connections to the Institut Français and the Goethe-Institut), the Faculty of Philosophy (associated with the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics), the Faculty of Oriental Studies (linked to the School of Oriental and African Studies historically), the Ruskin School of Art, and research centres such as the Oxford Centre for the Humanities and the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities. Centres for area studies engage with entities like the Rothermere American Institute, the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.

Academic Programs and Research

The faculty offers undergraduate and graduate programs including Bachelor of Arts degrees associated with colleges such as Christ Church, Oxford and postgraduate degrees such as the Master of Studies and DPhil overseen by the Graduate Admissions Office. Research themes encompass work on texts like Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, Don Quixote, and Hamlet; historical studies ranging from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the Victorian era and the Cold War; philosophical work engaging debates traced to figures like Aristotle, Plato, Immanuel Kant, and Ludwig Wittgenstein; and languages from Latin and Ancient Greek to Mandarin Chinese and Modern Hebrew. Major funded projects have been supported by the Wellcome Trust, the European Research Council, and the John Fell Fund, producing outputs published by Oxford University Press, the Cambridge University Press, and journals such as the Journal of the History of Ideas.

Facilities and Resources

Faculty members and students use shared resources including the Bodleian Library, the Taylor Institution Library, the Ashmolean Museum, the Said Business School lecture theatres (shared), and college libraries such as those at Balliol College, Oxford and St John's College, Oxford. Research infrastructure includes specialist archives like the English Faculty Library holdings, manuscript collections related to the Domesday Book, medieval codices connected to the Bodleian Libraries' Special Collections, digitisation partnerships with the British Library, and performance spaces affiliated with the Oxford Playhouse and the Sheldonian Theatre. Computing and digital humanities services coordinate with the Oxford e-Research Centre and initiatives funded by the Digital Humanities Hub.

Admissions and Student Life

Admissions processes are managed jointly with college admissions tutors and central services including the Admissions and Outreach Office and the Undergraduate Admissions Sub-Committee. Entry routes involve interviews at colleges like Keble College, Oxford and Lincoln College, Oxford, written work assessments, and standardized testing such as the Thinking Skills Assessment (where applicable). Student life intersects with societies and clubs such as the Oxford Union, the Oxford University Dramatic Society, the Oxford Literary Festival, and college-based groups; postgraduate communities gather in centres like the Middle Common Room and the Graduate Common Room at colleges including Merton College, Oxford and Queen's College, Oxford.

Notable Faculty and Alumni

Notable figures associated with the faculty and its antecedent departments include scholars and public intellectuals linked to roles at institutions such as All Souls College, Oxford and Wellington College; literary figures who intersect with bodies like the Royal Society of Literature and the British Academy; historians connected to studies of the English Reformation and the Napoleonic Wars; philosophers associated with debates around utilitarianism and figures tied to the Oxford Movement; and alumni who became prominent at the United Nations, in the House of Commons, and the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Examples span holders of named chairs, winners of awards like the Pulitzer Prize and the Booker Prize, and recipients of honours from the Order of the British Empire and fellowships of the British Academy.

Category:University of Oxford