Study Environment

The School is located on the Waterloo Campus right in the heart of London, next to London's South Bank Centre which includes the British Film Institute (BFI), Hayward Gallery, and the National Theatre. The Waterloo campus is home to the Franklin Wilkins library, with the Strand campus and the Maughan Library only a short walk away across the river.

The School offers a supportive, lively and outward-looking intellectual environment. There are plenty of opportunities for informal interaction and designated study rooms for doctoral students. As part of the Faculty of Public Policy and Social Sciences, students also have the opportunity to build ties across the social sciences and humanities, as well as active cross-institutional links.

Postgraduate training

Our extensive research training for MPhil/PhD students consists of an initial foundation training programme which covers different approaches, assumptions and philosophies and introduces a range of tools, techniques and methods used in empirical work.

You will be allocated two supervisors who will work with you throughout your studies. The LDC prides itself in a supportive and vibrant research culture which always includes, and is often led by, PhD students.
Regular events include:
- The LDC Doctoral Lab, in which research students present and debate their work with staff and peers;
- The Language and Popular Culture Lab, where Undergraduate, Postgraduate and PhD students select artistic and media events for linguistic analysis;
- The Micro Discourse Analysis data sessions, where staff and PhD students working on interactional data bring data extracts for joint analysis;
- The Communication Lab, where staff and students working on communication research present and discuss their work;
- The Media and Culture workshops organized by King’s students as part the LISS DTP.

In addition, there are regular seminar series in Corpus Linguistics, ‘Language, Mind & Society’, and the Language Teaching Forum. LDC also organizes a range of regular collaborative research events with other institutions, such as the Cross-London Sociolinguistics Seminar.

Students are encouraged to participate in the training provided by the College's Centre for Doctoral Studies and the London Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Training Partnership (LISS-DTP) supported by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council.