Our research groups

A(³)RO

Addressing global challenges through advanced and applied architecture-led interdisciplinary research.

Art

Bringing together internationally-recognised artists, curators and writers to actively develop new forms of contemporary visual art research.

Built Heritage

Reimagining heritage through creativity, collaboration and care.

Centre for Digital Modelling and Analysis for Cultural Heritage (D-MACH) 

Provides a one-stop facility for 3D modelling, imaging and X-Ray analysis.

Centre for Fiction

Combining world-leading expertise across critical and creative approaches to fiction, fostering collaboration between creative writers and critics, and supporting practitioners.

Centre for Migration and Postcolonial Studies (MAPS)

Generating innovative critical interventions in literary and cultural studies, refugee and diaspora studies, and other specialist topic areas relating to the Global South.

Centre for Place Writing

Delivering impactful creative-critical literary research on place and its meanings.

Contemporary Intimacies, Sexualities & Genders Research Group

Advancing critical, cutting-edge, and methodologically innovative research on contemporary intimacies, genders and sexualities.

The Dark Arts Research Kollective (D∀RK)

Investigating occulture, the paranormal, magic, esoterism and counterculture through art and creative practices.

Design Factory Manchester

Designing for locally-based sustainable development in communities within and beyond the city.

Design for Health and Wellbeing Research Group (DoWell)

Pioneering the use of collaborative creative processes from craft and design to support health and improve products. 

Digital Society Research Group

Developing multidisciplinary research into the transformational impact that digital technologies are having on people and society.

Drugs Policy and Social Change

Addressing novel and emerging challenges in research design, knowledge translation and policy impact.

Embodied Experiences

Exploring concepts emerging from expanded practices and process-based technologies that set up situations for an embodied active audience.

F/fashion Narratives

Considering fashion’s role in the lifecycle of stories that people and communities share to galvanise their self and social identities.

Fashion Technologies

Exploring the role of systems, tools and interfaces in fashion design and production through practice-focused research.

Histories and Cultures of Conflict (HACC)

Examining how war and conflict have shaped, and continue to shape, societies and cultures, through the application of innovative and path-breaking methodologies to new and established areas.

Histories of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Identity Research Group (RGSI)

Exploring the historical and philosophical context of what we now call ‘race’, ‘gender’, ‘sexuality’ and ‘disability’, ideas which have helped shape modern society.

The Long Nineteenth-Century Network

Bringing together academics and students specialising in history, literature and the arts to help us understand our present and future in Manchester and beyond.

The Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies

Promoting the study of the Gothic both nationally and internationally, including prestigious collaborations and regular public engagement activities.

Manchester Centre for Research in Linguistics

Advancing research through a focus on the role of language in creating socially-just communities.

Manchester Centre for Youth Studies (MCYS)

Promoting innovative youth-informed research with marginalised groups of young people.

Manchester Game Centre

Interrogating the relationship between games and society, and emphasising games as a medium to generate social change.

Manchester Poetry Research Group

Consider the role of contemporary poetry within wider society and culture.

Material Cultures of the Past

Bringing together historians and archaeologists, who are internationally-recognised for their research and practice in cultures and material cultures of the past – from the prehistoric to the modern world.

Media and Digital Culture

Exploring the relationship between digital culture and society, and investigating how technology is developed within and in response to our societies.

Migration and Interdisciplinary Global Studies

Examining migration-related issues through a cross-disciplinary research network.

Music and Sonic Studies

Exploring how music and sound shape our identities, communities, spaces and understandings of the world, and how they can be used to communicate and inspire social change.

Performance Research Group

Nourishing world-leading, industry-focused and interdisciplinary research in the field of performance. 

Policy Evaluation Research Unit (PERU)

Making a real-world difference by using innovative methods in applied policy research and evaluation. Our activity is co-produced with policy-makers, services and service users. 

Politics Research Group

Producing world-leading research in political cooperation and resistance in local, national, and international contexts.

Popular Screen Cultures Network

Consolidating, nurturing and showcasing existing world-leading research into a diverse range of screen studies areas.

Q-Step Centre

Focusing on innovative, evidence-based pedagogic research, with a specialisation in teaching quantitative methods, data and statistical literacy.

Speculative Technologies

Using speculative research methodologies to define, examine and imagine the uses and ethical considerations of emerging technologies.

Sustainable Approaches in Fashion Entrepreneurship (SAFE) Futures

Pioneering sustainable business practices, including circular economy solutions in the fashion industry, through interdisciplinary collaboration, cutting-edge research, and impactful industry partnerships.

Sustainable Urban Futures

Developing and conducting transdisciplinary, collaborative research that enables to deliver sustainable, smart, and liveable future cities.

Transformative Practices

Exploring how material, design and craft processes are used to critically examine political, social and cultural issues, and to engage with diverse cultures and their heritages.

Visual Culture

Embodying and critically reflecting on visual and material culture, with a particular focus on modern and contemporary art and photographic practice.