School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences (UWE)

The School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences was a member of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of the West of England, Bristol. The school was formed in 2003/4 by the merger of three small faculties, Humanities, Languages and Area Studies, and Economics and Social Sciences. The school was located at two campuses at Frenchay and St Matthias.

Since 2010, the majority of the school has become part of the newly established faculty of Creative Arts, Humanities and Education, with the fields of Sociology and Criminology moving into the faculty of Health and Life Sciences.

Led by Professor Peter Rawlings, the department iss based at St Matthias and has approximately 285 half award and 213 single honours students, and 17 MA students. The teaching staff of 20 include Professor William Greenslade, Professor Robin Jarvis, Dr Britta Martens, Dr Melanie Ord and Dr Charles Butler.

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, 85% of the Department’s research was highly rated. Research areas covered include Gothic Studies, Trans-Atlantic Studies, Children’s Literature, Nineteenth Century Fiction and Poetry, Holocaust Fiction, Autobiography, Women’s Writing and Contemporary American and British Fiction.

The History Field was led by Dr Raingard Esser and its teaching staff includes: Professor June Hannam, Professor Diana Jeater, Professor Glyn Stone, Dr Madge Dresser, Dr Raingard Esser, Dr Kent Fedorovich, Dr Peter Fleming, Dr John Fisher, Dr Alastair Kocho-Williams, Dr James Lee, Dr Moira Martin, Dr Philip Ollerenshaw, Dr Effie Pedaliu, Dr Steve Poole, Dr Michael Richards, Dr Martin Simpson, Dr Peter Wardley and Dr Michael Woodiwiss. History is taught at St Matthias campus. Research areas covered by departmental staff include British, Irish, European, Russian and African history, Economic, Business and Labour History and Regional History. Women's history, international, imperial and diplomatic, social and cultural history, religious history and the history of crime are also specialities. Two MA programmes are available, MA History and MA Regional Histories.

The History Field is also home to a Regional History Centre and is an active partner of the Victoria County History for Wiltshire and Bristol, and The West of England & South Wales Women's History Network