University of Winchester welcomes Michael as new Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences

The University of Winchester’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences has welcomed a new dean – Professor Michael Bradshaw.

Michael joined the University in April from the University of Worcester where he had been the head of the School of Humanities since 2017. Prior to that he was the Head of the Department of English, History & Creative Writing at Edge Hill University in Lancashire for eight years.

He has also worked at Manchester Metropolitan University, Japan Women’s University, the University of Tokyo, Bristol University, and the University of the West of England.

As Dean, Michael will have overall responsibility for academic planning and development, supporting the Heads of Department as well as teaching and undertaking his own research.

Michael, who has degrees from Cambridge and Bristol, is a specialist in poetry and drama of the British Romantic period, and has published widely on authors such as Thomas Lovell Beddoes, John Clare, Thomas Hood, John Keats, and the Shelleys. His recent and ongoing work focuses mainly on Critical Disability Studies.

Michael said he is impressed by his new faculty’s commitment to excellent teaching and student support, and its diverse and ambitious research culture.

“It’s really exciting to be part of a faculty which includes such a range of subjects, from Psychology and Geography, to Philosophy and Creative Writing,” he said. “I’m looking forward to learning more about all the subjects my new colleagues practise, starting with the technical disciplines which are new to me, such as Psychology and Archaeology.’

He also said it was a longer-term aim to develop the faculty from being essentially multi-disciplinary to being more inter-disciplinary, exploring opportunities to collaborate cross traditional discipline boundaries.

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences offers undergraduate and postgraduate study inAnimal Welfare and Society,Anthropology, Archaeology, Classical Studies, Creative Writing, English language and literature, Geography, History, Philosophy, Politics and International Relations, Psychology, Religion, and Sociology.