The Centre of the Body at Goldsmiths was set up in 2012 in order to bring together scholars and practitioners from the humanities, social sciences and the arts who are working on and with the body.

Studying the body beyond its scientific sphere has gained great prominence in the last few decades. It has been increasingly established that disciplines such as the arts, history of medicine, medical anthropology and philosophy of medicine provide aspects of enquiry and interpretation which are valuable not only within and across these disciplines, but are also applicable for health professionals. Meanwhile the study of the body in its cultural meanings overarches many arts forms and humanities studies, whilst ways in which artists and scientists have begun to work together on issues of the body suggests the dawning of a new interdisciplinarity that focuses on the body itself.