Title: Wide Field Spectroscopy and the Universe

Abstract: In this short survey of the applications of wide-field, multi-object spectroscopy to galaxy evolution, large-scale structure and cosmology, I interleave summaries of the general goals and state of play in these fields with specific examples based on my own recent work. I first briefly review the goals and figures of merit for current and future redshift surveys, before examining some recent results from deep surveys in the field, cluster redshift surveys and surveys of large scale structure. I take a look beyond redshift surveys to other probes of galaxy evolution before concluding with a discussion of the future prospects for such studies using the next generation of wide-field, multi-object spectrographs on large telescopes.