The Sainsbury Research Unit (SRU), based in the Sainsbury Centre at UEA, is a centre for the study of the arts and material culture of Africa, the Pacific region and the Americas.
It has six permanent academic faculty supported by library and administrative staff. Visiting fellows, research associates and postdoctoral researchers working on special projects also contribute to the academic life of the SRU.
It has its own teaching and study facilities and a specialist research library known as the Robert Sainsbury Library, all on hand in the Sainsbury Centre.
Our courses
The SRU offers MA and PhD degrees, with generous scholarships and funding support for students. MRes and MPhil options are available.
It also offers visiting fellowships for postdoctoral scholars and hosts regular conferences, symposia and other academic meetings.
The MA and PhD programmes are intended for those interested in careers in higher education, museums and galleries, publishing, journalism and development.
Our research and teaching
Combining anthropological, art-historical, archaeological and museological approaches, SRU research and teaching are focused on the distinctive cultures of the three regions.
It has a particular focus on how artworks and objects are made, used and circulated – in effect, how they matter to people, both in their original contexts and in the contexts of museums and exhibitions.
As part of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at UEA the SRU contributes to a substantial and lively scholarly community in the Sainsbury Centre.
Our people
Events and News
Museums have never been just reflections of the people and societies materialised within them but also institutional drivers of cultural action, political perspective and social change. In 2023 the Sainsbury Centre relaunched with a new concept, Living Art Sharing Stories, which rethinks what the museum can be today. The Centre understands its collections as living entities that can help us address fundamental societal challenges. The exhibition programme therefore explores Big Questions related to climate change, truth, war and other global issues.
The 2024 meeting of MEG in the Sainsbury Centre at UEA (Thurs-Fri, 25-26 April) marks 50 years of MEG meetings, and aims to highlight the important role museums can play in addressing challenges in collegial and collaborative ways. Museums holding ‘ethnographic’ or ‘World Cultures’ collections find themselves at the forefront of new debates and controversies, but also new opportunities.
Last booking date for this event is 19 April 2024. View the Programme of Events here.