School of Arts, SOAS

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School of Arts, SOAS

World-leading centre for study and research into the art, culture, music and media of Asia, Africa & the Middle East & their diasporas.

The School of Arts at SOAS, University of London is a world-leading centre for study and research into visual and sound arts, material and intangible cultures, media industries and digital cultures of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and their diasporas. It brings together scholars and students from three units at SOAS: the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, the Department of Music

and the Centre for Media Studies. It is a unique concentration of experts, with some thirty full-time academic staff members, unsurpassed in scale and reach by any other institution worldwide. Follow us on Twitter

26/04/2026

On behalf of the Global Campus of Human Rights, we are delighted to announce the launch of the first five episodes in our SOUNDS OF JUSTICE podcast series:

https://www.gchumanrights.org/gc-news/listening-for-a-change-sounds-of-justice-podcast-explores-the-connections-between-music-and-human-rights/

The series brings together musicians, ethnomusicologists, historians, neuroscientists, human rights and earth justice advocates in a conversation around why music moves us, how it has shaped rights struggles across the globe, and what might change if we center music, listening and sound in human rights activism and practice.

Episodes are available on all the major platforms (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Castbox) as well as via the Global Campus website: https://www.gchumanrights.org/

Please do share this notice with anyone who you think might be interested.

Ignacio Saiz (host)
Angela Impey and Julian Fifer (artistic advisors)

01/11/2023

Congrats to Soas SoA alumni Dr Alexandra Green (Henry Ginsburg Curator for Southeast Asia, British Museum) and (MA History of Art) on the opening of the new “Burma to Myanmar” exhibition at the British Museum which runs until 11 February. Do check it out if you are in town!

19/07/2023

Don’t miss ‘The People’s Session,’ tonight at Peckham Levels, a Sounds and Space event featuring Colombian artist María Mónica Gutiérrez, popularly known as Montanera or Mountainess!

Sounds and Space is a non-profit community initiative established by SOAS Students Sian Rees and Sophia Bourne, and dedicated to celebrating musicians from underrepresented backgrounds and communities.

Montanera's musical journey spans over a decade, during which she has released eight albums and performed at renowned venues such as the Smithsonian Museum and Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C., as well as music festivals worldwide. Her distinct voice has garnered critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone Magazine praising her as having "one of the greatest voices that have emerged from Colombia in the past years."

Link in bio for tickets.

Image: Mario Acevedo

29/06/2023

We are very excited about ‘Japanese Aesthetics of Recycling,’ a new exhibition highlighting the beauty of Japanese recycling, showcasing objects made of cotton, h**p, bast fibres, washi (handmade paper) and pottery. Opening next month at the Brunei Gallery.

Exhibiting over 100 objects from the Karun Thakar Collection - mostly dating from the Edo period (江戸時代, Edo jidai) or Tokugawa period (徳川時代, Tokugawa jidai) - the exhibition includes exquisite examples of ‘Boro’ and ‘sakiori’ textiles, washi and kin-tsugi or gin-tsugi pottery.

Image: Boro trousers, Japan. early 20th century. Karun Thakar Collection

20/06/2023

We are excited to invite our students, alumni friends and followers to this free event via

Is there anything that we may call 'truth' anymore? Does anyone actually mean what they say?

We are excited to invite you to 'Sacred Truths,' a contemporary art event that mobilises the art of Chinese calligraphy to explore current issues surrounding misinformation and trust.
Featuring artists Qu Leilei and Caroline Deane, 'Sacred Truths' will result in a large-scale, collaborative artwork; turning the audience into artists. Join us to see how calligraphic imagination finds its locus in contemporary art!
Wednesday, 19 July. 13:00 in BGLT.
The event is free and open to the public. Link in bio to register.

Images: SOAS students visiting Qu Leilei in his studio

19/06/2023

Is there anything that we may call 'truth' anymore? Does anyone actually mean what they say?

We are excited to invite you to 'Sacred Truths,' a contemporary art event that mobilises the art of Chinese calligraphy to explore current issues surrounding misinformation and trust.
Featuring artists Qu Leilei and Caroline Deane, 'Sacred Truths' will result in a large-scale, collaborative artwork; turning the audience into artists. Join us to see how calligraphic imagination finds its locus in contemporary art!
Wednesday, 19 July. 13:00 in BGLT.
The event is free and open to the public. Link in bio to register.
Images: SOAS students visiting Qu Leilei in his studio

30/05/2023

There are still places left for our Classical Indian Singing short course led by renowned singer Mehboob Nadeem!

Musical expression through the voice forms the foundation to the art of Indian Classical Music. Join sitar player and vocalist, Mehboob Nadeem for a week of focused and inspiring vocal training. This course offers introduction to Classical Indian voice culture and singing styles, as well as the melodic concept of the raag, including composition and improvisation within a given raag.

5-9 June. Link in bio for further details!

Image: Mehboob Nadeem

17/05/2023

Field trips are an important part of the curriculum at the School of Arts and we loved taking students in the History of Art and Archaeology MA module Curating the Sacred: Buddhism and Hinduism on Display, to Oxford last week. Along with Dr Stephen Murphy and Dr Crispin Branfoot, students spent the day viewing, handling and discussing selected objects at the Eastern Art Study Centre in the Ashmolean Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museums.

16/05/2023

Register now for "Rethinking the 'Miniature': Mughal, Maratha, and British Painting in the 18th Century,” an Indian Art Circle lecture by Dr Holly Shaffer, assistant professor and author of “Grafted Arts:
Art Making and Taking in the Struggle for Western India, 1760-1910.”

Tomorrow eve, 17 May at 1800. Online only.

Email to register: [email protected]

Holly Shaffer is assistant professor of History of Art and Architecture at Brown University with a focus on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British and South Asian arts and their intersections

Image: (Detail) “British Soldier in Indian Landscape, Britain and Maharashtra,” Late 18th or early 19th century. Ink and opaque watercolour on printed paper, courtesy: Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, Pune

12/05/2023

Interested in learning more about the SOAS Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art ? Register now for our Virtual Open Day on 23rd May.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art is a programme renowned for its excellence. Follow us on a journey of object-based study through lectures and contributions from a wide range of leading scholars, curators, and art market professionals. We have a formal association with the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, which allows us to offer exceptional access to the collections and curatorial expertise of both institutions. The programme will appeal to all those with a serious interest in Asian art, regardless of your personal, professional or academic background. It is also a proven pathway to further postgraduate study in Asian art and careers in museums, the commercial art world and academia.

Link in Bio to register.

Image: Elaborate headdress, 1800–1900, China. © The Teresa Coleman Collection.

09/05/2023

How far did colonialism transform north Indian music? Between the Mughal empire and the British Raj, how did the political landscape bleed into aesthetics, music, dance, and poetry?

Come find out at the book launch of “The Scattered Court: Hindustani Music in Colonial Bengal” by the School of Arts’ very own Dr Richard David Williams, Senior Lecturer in Music and South Asian Studies.

May 23rd, 5-7-pm in KLT.

Professor Williams will be joined by a panel including Katherine Schofield (KCL), Francesca Orsini (SOAS) and Samia Khatun (SOAS).

Image: The last king of Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah (1822-1887) learns sitar in the ‘Ishqnāma, Lucknow, 1849-50. Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2015

Address

Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London
WC1H0XG

Website

http://www.soas.ac.uk/soa

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