Our research

East 15 research takes many forms including practice as research, practice-based, and text-based enquiry, and we encourage the exploration of new and progressive research methodologies.

In addition to individual areas of expertise, our research team shares specialist knowledge in actor-training, theatre-directing, immersive and participatory theatre, embodiment, and intercultural practices.

Research in the Department of Economics is ranked 4th in UK for research power in economics and econometrics (Times Higher Education research power measure, REF 2021).

Our Department houses two research centres and four broad research clusters. The Department also benefits from close working relationships with a number of leading research facilities, archives and institutes, including ESSEXLab, the UK Data Archive and the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

We undertake theoretical and applied research to investigate key issues and contemporary challenges within businesses, the public sector, not-for-profits and the wider world.

We engage in diverse areas of research, such as emerging markets, firm financing, corporate governance, financial econometrics and gender studies. Our research agenda has an emphasis on sustainability practices, corporate responsibility and key technologies.

The School is also home to:

• Centre for Accountability and Global Development (CAGD)
• Centre for Research on Entrepreneurship Innovation Management and Internationalisation (REIMI)
• Centre for Work, Organization and Society (CWOS)
• Essex Accounting Centre (EAC)
• Essex Centre for Macro and Financial Econometrics (ECMFE)
• Essex Finance Centre (EFiC)
• Centre for Commons Organising, Values Equalities and Resilience (COVER) 

At Edge Hotel School our interdisciplinary research into tourism, hospitality, and events challenges the status quo. Our work is cutting edge, takes risks, and bridges theory and practice.

We aim for research that has global and societal impact through informing positive changes by industry, governments, and society, both in the UK and internationally.

Essex Law School research has a global reputation, particularly in the areas of human rights law and practice, business law, public law, criminal justice, health law, law and technology and social-legal studies.

Essex Law School was ranked 3rd in UK for research power in law (Times Higher Education research power measure, REF2021).

Essex Law School is also home to the Human Rights Centre.

Over the past 45 years our Department of Government have built a solid reputation as one of the best political science departments in the UK. Currently ranked 2nd in UK for research outputs in politics and international studies (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

The research in our department houses research centres and five research divisions:

• Centre for Ideology and Discourse Analysis
• Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence
• Michael Nicholson Centre for Conflict and Cooperation 

Our school is home to a thriving research community whose work is at the heart of our research-led teaching and scholarship.

Our researchers in film studies, languages, linguistics, literature, and journalism regularly publish their work in leading journals and monograph series. Our acclaimed practitioner-researchers in theatre, filmmaking, and creative writing have produced award-winning poetry, fiction, drama, screenplays, and films.

Our school is also home to the following centres:

• Centre for Creative Writing
• Centre for Film and Screen Media
• Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Literary Studies
• Centre for Language across the Lifespan
• Centre for Theatre Research

Philosophers, historians, and art historians at Essex have long been internationally renowned for first-rate research that challenges traditional academic boundaries and canons.

Throughout our research, we emphasise issues of power, autonomy, agency, dissent, and the contestation of the public realm. Our transdisciplinary approach facilitates critical engagement, enabling us to deliver research that is impactful, relevant, and empowering.

Our school also houses:

• Centre for Public History
• Centre for Curatorial Studies
• Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Our research is recognised internationally for its work in the role of the unconscious mind in mental health, culture and society.

We belong to a thriving research community at the University of Essex, where 90.4% of our research impact is world-leading or internationally excellent (Grade Point Average, Research Excellence Framework REF 2021).

Our Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies also houses:

• Centre for Myth Studies
• Centre for Trauma, Asylum and Refugee Studies
• Centre for Childhood Studies

ISER is funded and commissioned to undertake innovative and influential social and economic research, which looks at how people’s lives are changing over time.

Important findings from this research are published in leading journals, as working papers and reports and are shared at major conferences and events around the world.

We are ranked 2nd in UK for research power in sociology (Times Higher Education research power measure, Research Excellence Framework REF 2021).

Our research helps to shape society today; our work has helped to inform the UN, government departments, think tanks and public bodies around the world on issues as diverse as the rights of indigenous peoples, the regulation of the building industry, and organised crime and terrorism.

Our Department of Sociology and Criminology also houses:

• Centre for Criminology
• Centre for Global South Studies
• Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship
• Centre for Migration Studies
• Centre for Research in Economic Sociology and Innovation

Based at the University of Essex, the UK Data Archive is the lead partner of the UK Data Service, providing researchers with support, training and access to the UK’s largest collection of social, economic and population data.