Presidential Address by Julia Black, 2024

Welcome everybody to the 122 Annual General Meeting of the British Academy. We have Fellows joining online as well as those in the room; thank you all for coming.

I am pleased to confirm that all matters brought forward to the meeting have been voted on and approved in advance via the online form.

As well as presenting the nominees for Fellowship, Fellows were asked to cast their votes on the annual re-election of Vice Presidents and five new members of Council. This year we also asked you to vote on the nominated President for 2025. Our Byelaws state that any alternative nominations for these offices may be made but must reach the Academy at least seven days before the meeting, and I can report that no such alternative nominations have been made. Where comments have been raised against any of the papers, we have passed these on to the relevant Teams for consideration. We have also allowed time for Fellows to raise questions during the AGM, either in person or online (where they will be moderated and may be collated for expediency).

Before I go on, please may we take a moment’s silence in memory of the Fellows who have sadly passed away this year.

Thank you. Firstly, I must say that it is rather exciting to be here together in person, as Fellows and staff, on the cusp of a significant new chapter for our wonderful building and how we come together and interact within it. I am so looking forward to seeing our new lower ground spaces in full swing in just a couple of months’ time.

In preparing my opening remarks, I thought I ought to give a few brief reflections about how the world outside of these walls has changed over the past year. But it quickly struck me that ten minutes seemed rather a daunting time limit for such a task! So I will try to – succinctly – cover events which most concern us, as a community of scholars.

Of course, most recently we have emerged from a General Election which has resulted in a marked shift in the political landscape and a new party in government for the first time in many years. It will most likely take a little while for the dust to settle and for a clear picture to emerge regarding how the new government’s agenda might impact our disciplines and the education and research landscape. But what is certain is that the political backdrop is almost entirely different to what it was even just a month ago. This election, as all major elections do, revealed fresh insights around wider social and cultural attitudes across the UK – highlighted in the losses and gains, which I am sure we have all been following at one point or another.

I don’t need to tell the people in this room what a challenging time the last couple of years have been for many of our subjects – particularly the arts and humanities. But in recent months particularly, there has been a sense of acceleration of the sobering situation which we have been facing for some time. In higher education, provision is shrinking, with more and more departments facing acute pressures and forced to make cuts or close courses entirely. Against this backdrop, more likely because of it, we are seeing a spate of commentary and opinion pieces – and unhelpful tropes – about whether the humanities even matter or not. We are all well-versed in the challenges. Our universities are at a critical juncture and we hope the solution will be led by the new government, to shore up the health and provision of our institutions, and in turn, provision for our subjects. We, the Academy, have been – and will continue – to do all we can to be a loud and leading voice for why the humanities matter, and what must be done to preserve and enhance their health in the higher education and research landscape to ensure we remain world-leading. Your support has been, and remains, crucial.

More positively, was the UK’s formal association to Horizon Europe around the turn of the year. That news was welcomed warmly – and with palpable relief – by us and the wider research community after years of engaging with government on this issue. The humanities and social sciences have historically done very well from the opportunities presented by Horizon Europe funding and we are delighted to be involved once again, offering priming grants to researchers of all backgrounds and areas of study, to help kick-start projects which are eligible for further funding through Horizon funding routes. Yet despite that positive development, the wider global backdrop remains one of instability and volatility, as the conflict in Ukraine sadly continues, amid renewed and dreadful violence in Israel and Gaza – of which we have seen the tentacles spread out across the wider Middle East. We have been making the case to government for more funding to expand our Researchers at Risk scheme to academics globally.

At home, the Government last year hosted the AI Safety Summit – the first of its kind – at Bletchley Park. We were proud to play a central role in shaping the agenda for the Summit – demonstrating how our disciplines sit at the core of this pressing issue for societies around the world. Even in distilling my reflections to just this small and entirely non-exhaustive summary, I am struck by a year which has, at times, felt akin to navigating choppy waters, with uncertainty about when the storm clouds might part (not entirely unlike our British summer so far – we often say the Academy reflects the wider world that it operates in!).

The support and collaboration we have as a Fellowship has been instrumental in ensuring that the Academy is a clear voice and advocate for our community despite, at times, the harsh headwinds. We could not do all that we do without you. From reviewing and assessing the significant number of grants we award each year, to those of you who are active on Committees, providing invaluable expertise and guidance across all areas of our strategy and delivery. You are the Academy, from its foundations upwards, and I thank you for all that you do for the Academy.

I particularly want to thank those Council members whose three-year terms have come to an end: Professor Graeme Barker CBE, Professor Marianne Elliott OBE, Professor Angela McRobbie, Professor Felix Driver and Professor Ian Christie. My thanks to them for their hard work, for their insights and challenge, and for their continuing commitment to the Academy – particularly Graham, who is taking on the role of Chair of Audit Committee. And I want to take the opportunity to welcome five new Council members: Professor Charles Baden-Fuller, Professor Martin Eimer, Professor Aditi Lahiri, Professor Sharon Monteith and Professor Lynda Nead. I look forward to working with them.

I also want to pay particular thanks to our VPs – Christina Boswell, Public Policy; Cyprian Broodbank, BIRI; Lindsay Farmer, Publications and Conferences; Rana Mitter, Communications and Public Engagement; and Judith Still, VP Humanities. These are important and increasingly time-consuming roles, providing strategic leadership for the Academy and working closely with the executive teams in each of their areas, but also through SCC and Council for the Academy as a whole. I particularly want to thank those VPs whose term comes to an end this year: Sally Shuttleworth, Treasurer; Simon Swain, VP RHEP; Simon Goldhill Foreign Secretary and VP International, and to Conor Gearty, VP Social Sciences.

Sally has done a tremendous job as Treasurer and Chair of Resources Committee. She has also had the – at times unenviable – task of chairing the Building Project Board and I’m delighted that the main phase of the work is complete, more or less on budget, and the spaces are looking amazing. The two new Fellows rooms were opened in time for the Summer Showcase last week, and the lower floors will be open in time for the autumn.

Simon Swain has led two innovative and impactful initiatives in his time as VP of the Research and Higher Education Policy Committee (RHEP) – and the partial randomisation of our small grants, which is attracting interest from other funders and has seen our applications increase significantly; and the creation of the ECR Network, which he is staying on to chair and on which we will hear more later. Each is emblematic of the ways in which the Academy is reaching out and opening up, and each has been a significant success during their pilot phases that we are now rolling them out on a long-term basis.

Conor’s commitment to EDI and inclusiveness has been tremendous and he has gone to enormous lengths to engage with Fellows, initiating induction sessions for new cohorts of Fellows – which I know they have been very much appreciated by them – and engaging closely with section chairs. With Judith, his counterpart VP Humanities, he has challenged sections on diversity at every opportunity and although there is still more to do, his leadership has been critical.

Finally, Simon Goldhill – under his leadership our international funding has grown significantly, and indeed will double for next year. Working closely with the international team, he has devised successive series of creative and inclusive international programmes, including collaborative programmes on themes such as Global Disorder and Just Transitions, and he has also overseen the Researchers at Risk programme, of which again we will hear more later. His leadership has been tireless and his energy seemingly boundless!

Sally is succeeded by April McMahon (currently Chair of the Audit Committee), Simon Swain is succeeded by Margot Finn, Simon Goldhill by Patrick Haggard (currently on Council) and Conor Gearty by Mike Heffernan. They have already been joining in meetings of SCC and Council this term and I look forward to working with them.

Finally, and most importantly, I am delighted that Fellows have confirmed our colleague, Susan Smith – who is here today – as President-elect for 2025-2029. I am sure that Susan will be an excellent President of the Academy when she takes up the office next year and I hope you’ll join me in offering her our warmest congratulations.

I am tremendously proud of all we – staff and Fellowship alike – have achieved together, which Hetan will outline in more detail in a moment. I am also optimistic and energised for the year we have ahead of us, as we embark on a new chapter to open up all we do to wider, public audiences as we have never before in our history. I look forward to seeing how our collective efforts will continue to shape a better, more informed world, working together as an engaged and diverse group of peers to make the case for our disciplines.

Thank you. I will now hand over to our Chief Executive, Hetan Shah, to give some remarks on Academy business over the past year.