The Department of Ancient Civilizations unites teaching and research of its subjects under a single organizational umbrella. It is divided into the following subjects: Ancient History, Classical Archaeology, Egyptology, Greek Philology, Historical-Comparative Linguistics, Latin Philology, European Archaeology as well as the Vindonissa Professorship for the Archaeology of the Roman Provinces.

Eight professorships in the Department of History focus on teaching and research in the Middle Ages, the Early Modern History, Modern and Contemporary History, Eastern European History, African History and Digital History.

The Department of Social Sciences comprises the subject areas of Anthropology, Gender Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Sustainability Research, Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science, Sociology and Urban Studies.

The Department Arts, Media, Philosophy passes through the four subject areas of Art History, Musicology, Philosophy and Media Studies.

The Department of Languages and Literatures is the largest department within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. It combines the teaching staff, researchers and students as well as the technical and administrative staff of the following subject areas into one planning, budget and administrative unit: German Language and Literature, Anglophone Language and Litrerature, French Language and Literature, Ibero-Romance Language and Literature, Italian Language and Literature, Nordic Studies and Slavic Studies.

The Digital Humanities Lab is a technology-oriented laboratory of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences with more than 20 years of practice in interdisciplinary research. Its roots lie in photography, beginning in the 1920s, which led to digital image processing and the long-term preservation of digital data in the early 1980s.

eikones - Center for the Theory and History of the Image is an interfaculty and interdisciplinary academic unit at the University of Basel with the aim of coordinating and funding research and teaching in the theory and history of the image.

The Center for African Studies Basel (ZASB) coordinates teaching and research on Africa at the University of Basel and its partner institutions. It is an internationally recognized center for interdisciplinary research on Africa and offers a Master's and a doctorate in African Studies as well as a continuing education program.

The Center for Jewish Studies was founded by the Foundation for Jewish Studies together with the University of Basel. It began its work in October 1998. Since May 2000, the subject «Jewish Studies» has been officially recognized by the University. Jewish Studies can be studied as a focal area in Theology and as a bachelor's or master's degree subject in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Religious studies is a cultural and social science subject. It describes «religion» with academic distance and compares its cultural, social, communicative, media and sensual aspects.

The Eastern European focal area is run by the Slavic Studies and the professorship of Eastern European History. It supports interdisciplinary teaching and research on the history and culture of the Eastern European regions.