How you are taught

Zoe's academic interests lie primarily in the realm of labour law, tort law, legal methodology, social ontology, and law and economics.  Zoe describes herself as a ‘critical’ legal scholar, embedding her work in a structural analysis of law’s relationship with capitalism. The issues she explores include the relationship between law and capitalism, and the role of legal concepts in shaping the latter’s development; questions of legal form, and their relationship with political strategy; the relationship between law, gender, and race; and, more generally, the role of law in the perpetuation, and legitimisation, of inequality within the framework of capitalist societies. 

A lot of her work focuses on UK labour law history, with particular emphasis on the history of wage and working time development; the history of industrial relations and legal frameworks governing trade unions and industrial action; and the law’s role in shaping the so-called ‘future of work’. Zoe  was awarded the Yorke Prize for her PhD thesis, "A Social Ontology of the Wage", and her first book, "Labour and the Wage: A Critical Perspective", was published by Oxford University Press in 2020.  It won the Yorke Prize, in 2020, and has since been shortlisted for both the SLSA Early Career Academic Book Prize, and the SLSA Hart Book Prize. Zoe’s second monograph, "The Legal Concept of Work" was published in November 2022. She is now in the planning stages of a third book, exploring the relationship between law and power. 

Dr Ronojoy Adhikari's research interests include the statistical physics of soft materials and the application of mathematics, specifically probability theory, to problems in the natural and social sciences.

Dr Sebastian Ahnert's reserach interests include:

• The study of structural and functional complexity in biology from the perspective of algorithmic information theory, as well as interdisciplinary applications of algorithmic information theory more generally.
• Network analysis, in areas of both method development and in interdisciplinary applications of network analysis to biology, the humanities, and social sciences.

Dr Nick Atkins works on the flow and heat transfer within the internal or secondary air systems of both aero propulsion and energy based gas turbines.

Umang is an Assistant Professor at the Cambridge Institute for Technology and Humanity (ITH) and its Centre for Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence (CHIA). His research focuses on building trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) systems for high-stakes deployment. He develops algorithms and tools that support effective human-AI interaction and manage the partnership between people and AI systems. Drawing on machine learning, cognitive science, philosophy, and law, Umang studies when and how AI systems can be trusted, integrated into human decision-making, and evaluated in ecologically valid settings. His group uses lab and field experiments to assess societal impacts of AI in various domains, with particular attention to healthcare, education, and national security, where human oversight of AI is essential.
 

Born and raised in Basking Ridge, New Jersey (USA), Umang earned his BS and MS at Carnegie Mellon University and his PhD in the Machine Learning Group at Cambridge. He was previously an Assistant Professor and Faculty Fellow at New York University’s Center for Data Science and a Senior Research Associate at The Alan Turing Institute. His work has been supported by the Responsible AI Institute, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Partnership on AI.
 

Dr Marcus Boeick is a historian specializing in Modern German and European History. 

"My research and teaching focus on the intricate relationship between the public and private spheres throughout the 20th century, particularly at the intersection of the state, economy, and society. My initial book delved into the contentious history of mass privatization of state assets in post-socialist Eastern Germany during the early 1990s. Currently, my ongoing book project presents a comprehensive and empirically grounded history of private security in 20th-century Germany and Central Europe. My approach encompasses a wide array of sources, ranging from classical references in state archives to media coverage, oral interviews, and material artefacts. I consistently strive to unearth unheard voices "from below" and offer novel perspectives from overlooked areas. Concurrently, I contextualize Germany within its transnational connections and broader global frameworks. I place significant value on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration across a diverse spectrum of fields. Born in East Germany shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, I completed my studies at Ruhr-University Bochum, situated in the former West German "rust belt" region. Over recent years, I held a Postdoc Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies at University College London and a Guest Professorship at the Imre-Kertész-Kolleg at Jena University. In the past year, I have been awarded a John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard."

Dr Giulia Boitani is a College Teaching Officer in French and Italian at King’s, and the Director of Studies for our First Years.

"I work on medieval literature across Romance languages, particularly medieval French, Occitan and Italian.  My recent research focuses on the role of foundresses in medieval French prose romances, but I also look at medieval manuscripts and their particular idiosyncrasies (every single manuscript of any given medieval text is different!); representations of food and feeding in medieval literature; and the ways in which current critical practices – particularly eco-critical approaches - might engage with medieval thought.

I teach Introduction to French literature, film and thought (FR1) and Introduction to Italian Texts and Contexts (IT1/ITA3) in the first year; Medieval French Literature (FR3), and Translation and Oral Italian (ITB2) in the second, and medieval French and Occitan literature (FR7, FR15) in the fourth year; as well as paleography courses for our MPhil in in European, Latin American and Comparative Literatures and Cultures (ELAC)."

Dr Shannon Bonke is a renewable energy scientist researching catalysts for energy conversion and storage reactions, especially the synthesis of fuels from solar power. His research is interdisciplinary and explores catalytic mechanisms using complementary cutting-edge electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques.

Professor Richard Bourke works broadly in the history of political thought, mostly covering the enlightenment and its legacy. His interests include political ideologies, the philosophy of history, and the history of democracy. He has also published on modern Irish history. His most recent books include Empire and Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke (2015) and Hegel’s World Revolutions (2023).

Dr Mirjana Bozic studies language as a cognitive and a neural system. Her research focuses on the brain mechanisms that support language comprehension in monolingual and bilingual speakers.

Professor Angela Breitenbach focuses on Kant, Philosophy of Science, Aesthetics

Professor Jude Browne is the Head of the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) and The Jessica and Peter Frankopan Director of the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies (on leave whilst HoD). She is a winner of the University of Cambridge Pilkington Prize and the inaugural winner of the Aaron Rapport Prize for excellence in teaching at Cambridge and she is Director of Studies for Human, Social and Political Sciences (Part II).

Jude Browne's research interests are focused on the concept of political responsibility, political theories of equality, feminist theory, lay governance, public interest, structural injustice, rights, and the impact of technology on society. Her most recent book is ‘Political Responsibility and Tech Governance’ published by Cambridge University Press (2025).

Nick Bullock's research focuses on reconstruction in post WWII Europe, particularly in France and Germany.

Professor Matei Candea's research interests include freedom of speech, animals and science, Corsica, methor and theory (comparison, fieldsites, tarde)

In addition to composition, Professor Richard Causton writes and lectures on Italian contemporary music and regularly broadcasts for Italian radio.

Stephen Cherry is Dean of Chapel at King’s College Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of the College and Director of Studies in Theology. A priest in the Church of England, Stephen was previously Director of Ministry the Diocese of Durham and a Residentiary Canon of Durham Cathedral. Before that he was a parish priest in Loughborough for 12 years. Stephen has written a number of books in recent years including Unforgivable? Exploring the Limits of Forgiveness (2024) and Healing Agony: Reimagining Forgiveness (2012). He has a PhD and first degree in theology and a BSc in Psychology. He has a practical interest in inter-faith relations.

Professor Francesco Colucci studies cells and genes of the immune system in pregnancy and cancer. His research interests include immunology; immunogenetics; trophoblast research; reproductive medicine; natural killer and other lymphoid cells.

Dr Laura Davies' research focuses on British literature of the long eighteenth century with a particular interest in life writing and the textual representation of experiences and ideas that resist language or narration, including sound, time, death, spiritual visions, and dreams.
She works on well-known figures such as Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, as well as a range of non-fiction prose including philosophical, religious, and medical texts. Laura founded and leads the interdisciplinary research and public engagement project 'A Good Death?'. 

Dr James Dolan's scientific research is at the intersection of nanophotonics and soft matter physics. He investigated ways to use the (directed) self-assembly of liquid crystals and block copolymers to create two- and three-dimensional optical metasurfaces and metamaterials with dynamically reconfigurable optical properties. James' current research, however, focuses on science communication. He is interested in how scientists’ conceptions of science—what it is, how it works, and what its for—affect how and why they communicate their science. In addition, he is interested in science communication and improvised comedy (improv), exploring the use of improv both as a form of science communication training and as a novel form of public engagement.

James also serves as Financial Tutor.

Dr Mark Dyble is an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Anthropology in the Department of Archaeology where he teaches evolutionary perspectives on human biology, behaviour, and health. Much of his research focuses on the evolution of human social behaviour and is informed by ethnographic fieldwork with hunter-gatherer communities in the northern Philippines, zoological fieldwork with wild meerkats in South Africa, and by computational and mathematical modelling. His central thesis is that social behaviour in humans (or any other species) is strongly related to social organisation: the size, demographic structure, and kinship composition of social groups.

Born and raised in Essex, Mark studied at Cambridge (Clare 2008), Oxford, and University College London before spells as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Toulouse (2016–17) and as a JRF at Jesus College, Cambridge (2017–19). He was a Lecturer at University College London for four years prior to returning to Cambridge in July 2023.

Economic Theory, Market Design

Sebastian is a geneticist, and Head of the Plant-Parasite Interactions group, with an interest in the genes that control a dialogue between kingdoms of life: the two-way molecular communication between plants and their parasites. He develops understanding from the position that the two organisms are one interlinked entity, studying the biology of the entire host-parasite complex. He uses genetics to dissect the communication between the two organisms, to understand how evolution drives novel forms and functions, through a development-altering relationship, that is phylogenetically and geographically widespread.

Recent highlights from the lab exemplify the fascinating biology of the study system, the connectedness of the kingdoms, and the central thesis that the two organisms are best studied when considered as one entity. The lab showed that: i) host and parasite each contribute to the cross-kingdom synthesis of Vitamin B5, defining the hologenome theory of susceptibility-gene discovery (Siddique et al., 2022, Nature Communications); ii) the nematode has evolved a novel form of precisely guided somatic genome editing to generate thousands of new transient effector alleles (Sonawala et al., 2024, Cell Genomics); and iii) that the nematode mobilises and ingests parts of the plant genome during infection (Ko et al., 2023 Molecular Biology and Evolution).

Selected recent publications:

U. Sonawala, H. Beasley, P.J. Thorpe, K. Varypatakis, B. Senatori, J.T. Jones, L. Derevnina, and S. Eves-van den Akker* (2024). “A gene with a thousand alleles: the HYPer-variable effectors of plant-parasitic nematodes.” bioRxiv 10.1101/2023.10.16.561705 – In press Cell Genomics.

C.A.M Marshall, M.T. Wilkinson, P.M. Hadfield, S.M. Rogers, J.D. Shanklin, ...S. Eves-van den Akker. (2023). “Urban wildflower meadow planting for biodiversity, climate and society: An evaluation at King's College, Cambridge” Ecological Solutions and Evidence 4(2), e12243.

S. Siddique, Z.S. Radakovic, C. Hill., C. Pellegrin, T.J. Baum, H. Beasley, O. Chitambo , D. Chopra, E.G.J. Danchin, E. Grenier, S.S. Habash, M.S. Hasan, J. Helder, T. Hewezi, J. Holbein, M. Holterman, S. Janakowski, G.D. Koutsovoulos, O.P. Kranse, J.L. Lozano-Torres, T.R. Maier, R.E. Masonbrink, B. Mendy, E. Riemer, M. Sobczak, U. Sonawala, M.G. Sterken, P. Thorpe, J.J.M. van Steenbrugge, N. Zahid, F. Grundler, and S. Eves-van den Akker*. (2022). The genome and lifestage-specific transcriptomes of a plant-parasitic nematode and its host reveal susceptibility genes involved in trans-kingdom synthesis of vitamin B5. Nature Communications. 13, 6190.