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About us

Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck was formed in 2000 to investigate a wide range of issues of contemporary personal, social and political concern. We have continued to work at the interface of theory and practice. Our department is characterised by:

Academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds

  • Our academics have specialisms in a range of disciplinary areas, including:
    • anthropology
    • postcolonial studies
    • cultural studies
    • gender, queer and sexuality studies
    • feminism
    • literature
    • psychology
    • psychoanalytic studies
    • sociology
    • social theory

Staff research

  • Our staff members are currently involved in researching a wide range of psychosocial phenomena, and contributing to debates in a number of disciplinary domains. For example:
    • violence, state violence and conflict
    • intimacy, kinship, care and personal life
    • human rights, social responsibility and helping behaviour
    • public cultures, social movements, citizenship and social identities
    • postcolonial urban cultures and histories of ‘race’ and racism
    • gender, sexuality and feminist histories and theories
    • theories of emotional development, psychic change and ageing
  • Methodologically, the commitment is to the major importance of theoretical work, and empirical work in the qualitative traditions that have emerged in the wake of poststructuralism, including the development of new and innovative psychosocial methods.

Clinicians with a wide range of expertise

  • Our clinical teaching staff have expertise in:
    • child psychotherapy
    • cognitive behavioral therapy
    • counselling
    • group analysis
    • psychoanalysis
    • psychoanalytic psychotherapy

Strong links with a number of leading psychotherapy institutes

  • Several of our programmes are taught collaboratively with major psychotherapy training institutions:
    • The British Association of Psychotherapists
    • The Institute of Group Analysis
    • The Institute of Psychoanalysis

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