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Congratulations on completing your studies at UCL!
The Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences is delighted to welcome you, and your guests, back to UCL for the forthcoming virtual graduation ceremonies.
Your ceremonies are taking place between Monday 16 and Friday 20 November 2020.
Professor Sasha Roseneil, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences is delighted to congratulate all graduating students.
Vice-Dean for Advancement
Dr Michael Collins congratulates graduands from the Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences in his capacity as Vice-Dean for Advancement.
Hear from your department
Take a look at some highlights from each department over the last few years.
- Anthropology
It is my enormous pleasure as Head of the Department of Anthropology at UCL to congratulate you, our graduating cohort of 2020!
For all of us educators, there really is no moment happier or more satisfying that this: to see a whole cohort of students emerge successfully out of their training with us, ready and fully equipped to go out there in the world and bring some anthropology to it. I am positively evangelical about this: anthropology is, above all, a particular form of professional empathy. It gives you the ability to engage with people on their own terms, to see things from their point of view, and to allow their point of view to have reciprocal effect on your own. I can think of no part of life that does not stand to benefit from this kind of engagement – a rigorous form of open-mindedness, if you like – particularly at this present juncture, in which global inequities and pressures to close empathy down are often so forceful. The world needs people trained in anthropology like never before, right now: it needs people like you!
So, we at UCL Anthropology are all incredibly proud to have been part of your trajectory of education, and I’m personally absolutely delighted to be able to congratulate you all on your immense achievement. I hope you feel you have benefited from our time with us, and that what you have learnt with us will contribute drastically in your future endeavours, whatever they may be. I want you to know that we will always be here to support you also in the future – you are part of the UCL Anthropology family now, and that’s for life.
Once again, my heartfelt, massive congratulations to you all – I’m so happy for each and every one of you!
Professor Martin Holbraad
- History
Congratulations to every Historian who graduates today! BA graduates, we’ve been through a lot together this past year; MA graduates, it must feel as though the world is radically different to the one in which you submitted your dissertation back in 2019. Graduation is always a special occasion, and never more than this year. I hope today is a day of real celebration for you, your family and friends: you deserve a moment in the limelight!
As Historians, we have the skills to look back at major world events and see their complex origins and consequences. Apparent moments of disaster are never just that. Looking back on Academic Year 2019/20, it’s heartening to recognise our significant successes in UCL History despite unprecedented challenges, both as individuals and as a department.
Back at the start of the year, UCL History was the first department in the university to appoint a Director of Sustainability. Dr John Sabapathy has not only our led plans to reduce its carbon footprint. He has also been at the heart of setting up a new research and teaching initiative on the Anthropocene, drawing expertise from across the social and historical sciences. You may have heard him in one of this summer’s episodes of UCL’s podcast series, Coronavirus: the Whole Story.
Your brilliant tutors won funding for a vast range of research projects, large and small, on subjects as various as Women in Rugby Union (Dr Victoria Dawson) and Windrush Cricket (Dr Michael Collins) to Essex’s medieval leper hospitals (Dr Antonio Sennis and Dr Johanna Dale) and the history of ID cards and biometrics in Kenya (Dr Keren Weitzberg).
We are particularly proud to be hosting two new, multi-year research projects funded by the European Research Council. Dr Valentina Arena’s team will study antiquarianism in the ancient Roman Republic, while Dr Benedetta Rossi’s will investigate the history of African Abolitionism.
Thanks to your nominations, in May Dr Tim Gibbs won UCLSU’s prestigious Student Choice Award for Brilliant Research-Based Education for his modules on South African history.
In June, our flagship Centre for Legacies of British Slave Ownership, under its new Director, Professor Matthew Smith, contributed to major public discussions on #blacklivesmatter in the UK. The LBS database revealed that several prominent UK companies were founded on the back of government compensation for slave-ownership in the 1830s.
We ended the year with the excellent news of well-deserved Professorships for Sophie Page and Vivienne Lo; Associate Professorships for Rebecca Jennings, Patrick Lantschner, and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite; and a Senior Teaching Fellowship for Jon Chandler, in recognition of their outstanding teaching, research and support work.
Wherever you are in the world, you can keep up with the good news from UCL History through our Twitter and Instagram accounts, and share with us your own achievements. Join the Alumni Society, stay in touch, and we will celebrate your graduation in person, just as soon as we can!
- History of Art
Many congratulations to all our graduating students. The History of Art Department is immensely proud of your achievement in completing your degrees, especially against the backdrop of such a challenging year.
This is a time of change for the Department. In the spring we took steps to expand the horizons of our teaching and research with a series of transformative new appointments, including specialists in digital culture and contemporary Black aesthetics, and in the art and architecture of medieval Africa and modern South Asia. We were also pleased to welcome staff with expertise in nineteenth-century British art and in the conservation of time-based media and performance art, as well as creating a brand new post to enhance student support.
We have also celebrated a number of successes over the last year. Highlights include our MA alumna Caitlin Powell winning the Association for Art History’s 2019 Postgraduate Dissertation Prize and the opening of an exhibition at UCL Art Museum, Witnessing Terror, organised by the Department’s Dr Richard Taws and Emeritus Professor David Bindman, in January 2020.
Two recent graduates of our MA programme also worked with UCL Innovation and Enterprise to develop innovative start-up projects. Last summer, Kaitlin Fritz secured a place in the Sky Women in Tech Scholars scheme to develop her virtual reality app Musemio, which allows children to explore arts, culture and history. Meanwhile, Sneha Shah, founder of the art on subscription service Curaty, was selected as people’s choice winner at the semi-final of the 2019 Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards.
We hope you’ll keep in touch with the Department and share news of your own successes in years to come. Very best of luck for the future and again, congratulations!
Bob Mills, Head of Department
- Institute of the Americas
It is a huge pleasure to congratulate our graduating class of 2020. All of us at the Institute of the Americas are proud to have played a role in guiding your studies, supervising and then reading your own research, and watching you go on to exciting futures. Our community is a place where cutting edge ideas are formed and shared, and it is wonderful to be able to celebrate your part in making the UCL Institute of the Americas the place it has become to work and study.
While the current public health crisis does not allow us to celebrate your achievements in the way we would wish, and we look forward to a time when we can offer the chance to meet again in person to share memories of your time at UCL, we can still reflect on the brilliant community of researchers of which you are a part. This year has seen some amazing research successes for the Institute, including the award of major research grants to fund new research on the British Monarchy and the Caribbean and Anthropologies or Extortion. We have welcomed a new professorial colleague, Gareth Davies, to strengthen our team of US political historians. We really hope you will keep in touch with us and return to attend our events and symposia, as well as keep us updated on where you go next in your lives.
Congratulations again – we are proud of you and are privileged to have worked with you!
Jonathan Bell, Head of Department
- Institute of Archaeology
I hope wherever you are in the world you and your family are safe and well. We are sorry that we cannot celebrate your achievements in person but on behalf of everyone at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, I would like to congratulate you all. What an exceptional year 2020 has been - we are very proud of the way you all stood up to the challenges that this year has presented. Your resilience and ability to adapt so successfully into different ways of working will stand you in good stead for the future.
One of our most important highlights of this year was announcing our new partnership with Butser Ancient Farm (Hampshire, UK) and launching our re-branded ‘Archaeology and Technology in Society’ course, which will use the abbreviation Archaeo-Tech as a new short-hand for this much loved and inclusive part of our teaching. Many of you will no doubt have fond memories of your own experience back in the first weeks of your undergraduate journey. While we were not able to enjoy Butser in person this year, colleagues presented a virtual course (filmed on site) for our new students.
Another institutional highlight was that all of our undergraduate degrees have been accredited by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA) and Universities Archaeology UK (UAUK). We were one of seven universities to be included in the first cohort of archaeology departments to be awarded CIfA accreditation. This brings archaeology into line with sectors such as engineering, planning and architecture, where choosing an accredited degree is a well-established entry route leading to professional status.
We are also thrilled that, due to generous donors, the UCL Institute of Archaeology has two new, fees-paid Masters scholarships to offer; a Scholarship for International Masters Students and a Heritage and Museums Opportunity Scholarship.
Please do stay in touch and remember that you will always be part of the UCL Institute of Archaeology extended family. You can find an annual update on all of our activities via our in-house journal Archaeology International.
Sue Hamilton, Director
- Political Science
On behalf of the Department of Political Science, I want to congratulate our students on this outstanding achievement. You have shown great resilience and we are incredibly impressed with how you have navigated the challenges in front of you. Your graduation from UCL is a significant achievement and you should feel immense pride in what you have accomplished.
It has been a pleasure to have you as a part of our academic community. The diversity of our students and staff is something that we are incredibly proud of and an important element of what makes studying politics at UCL so valuable and vibrant. I am sure you have many fond memories of your peers, classes and tutors to take with you. There has never been a better or more important time for the rigorous study of politics. We are thrilled that you will be taking what you’ve learned into work or further education. I hope the SPP motto of asking important questions, evaluating the evidence, and sharing knowledge for the public good stays with you. Please do come back and visit us, especially at our new building at Gordon Square which will enable the Department to expand its world leading research and education programmes.
We are delighted to celebrate this graduation with you and we wish you all the best for the future. Whether you are continuing your studies or entering the world of work, we have no doubt in your abilities and hope that you will stay in touch with us through our alumni community, events, and social media.
Professor Jennifer Hudson, Head of Department, Political Science
- Geography
The Department of Geography couldn't be prouder of its graduands this year. You have achieved much, and in adverse circumstances. Today you graduate and join the wider community of department alumni that sprawls across the very world you've been studying these last years.
In the last year we have as a group adapted to the new world made by Covid-19, both by learning new ways of being together and by turning our scholarly attention to the geographies that compose the 'new normal' of 2020. In the face of it all you have continued UCL Geography's tradition of excellence, winning national awards with your dissertations and launching initiatives such as the Bloomsbury Geographer that highlight your creativity and scholarship.
You are a remarkable group, and we look forward to hearing of your coming achievements. Please stay in touch and let us know of them.
