Human Rights PhD

The School of Advanced Study is the UK's national research hub in the humanities and offers a world-class research environment to our postgraduate students.

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies offers doctoral research supervision in the following broad areas:

Human rights
Indigenous peoples
Ecocide
Genocide studies
The foreign and defence policies of Commonwealth countries
The politics, governance and development of South Asia
African politics, governance and development
Ethnicity: conflict and accommodation in plural societies
The Mediterranean and the colonial powers
Protection of refugees
Minority and Indigenous rights protection
Dynamics of armed conflict and forced displacement
Twentieth-century British and Commonwealth History
Globalisation, security and conflict
The Commonwealth as an international organisation
British Imperial history, including decolonization
European colonialism in comparative perspective
Post-colonial legacies in the Commonwealth and beyond
Non-governmental public actors, civil society and development
Local government and decentralisation
British and Commonwealth intelligence communities

Doctoral research supervision at the Institute of Modern Languages Research is available in topics including Exile Writing, Gender and Sexuality and Memory Studies, and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies offers doctoral research supervision in the area of human rights law.

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies has been supervising interdisciplinary doctoral degrees for over half a century. The focus of research degrees has increasingly been on the social sciences, particularly on the subjects of human rights, globalization and development, politics, and Commonwealth history.

Students pursue their academic interests in the friendly and supportive environment of the Institute; their research is enhanced by the outstanding libraries of the University of London, including the Institute’s own prestigious collection.

The School of Advanced Study runs an extensive research training programme, open to all postgraduate students, as well as an active public engagement calendar. The School is part of the AHRC-funded London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP), through which we are able to offer a number of studentships in humanities disciplines, as well as the range of studentships and bursaries available through our institutes.

Applicants for research programmes (MPhil/PhD) are normally required to hold a master’s degree. Applications may also be considered from candidates who do not meet the formal academic requirements, but who offer alternative qualifications and/or relevant experience.