The British Academy appoints ten new Global Professors at universities across the UK

Exploring the inter-relationship between digital media and democracy, examining the literature of addiction, and investigating how threats to our well-being posed by climate change can be addressed through indigenous knowledge; are some of the research projects led by the second cohort of award-holders under the British Academy’s Global Professorships programme.

Supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the UK Government’s National Productivity Investment Fund, the Global Professorships programme began in 2018, with a first cohort of award-holders appointed in early 2019. It provides mid-career to senior scholars, active in any discipline within the social sciences and the humanities and based in any country overseas, the opportunity to relocate to the UK for four years and pursue their individual research goals while contributing to UK higher education.

The programme seeks to demonstrate and enhance the UK’s commitment to international research partnerships and collaboration as well as strengthen the UK’s research capacity and capability in the humanities and the social sciences.

The ten scholars awarded Global Professorships under the second round of the programme come from South Asia, North America and the EU. Half of the successful applicants are active in disciplines within the humanities, with the other half pursuing research projects in the social sciences.

The full list of award-holders:

• Law, Virtue and Political Community – Dr Maria Amalia Amaya Navarro, University of Edinburgh


• Romantic Melodrama: Feeling in Search of Form – Professor Michael Gamer, Queen Mary University of London


• Distributional Macroeconomics: Better Understanding the Two-Way Interaction of Inequality and the Macroeconomy – Professor Benjamin Moll, London School of Economics and Political Science


• The Literature of Addiction – Professor Robert Morrison, Bath Spa University


• Human Stress, Resilience and Adaptation in Ancient Northern Ireland and Scotland – Professor Marc Oxenham, University of Aberdeen


• Digital Media, Participation and Political Culture – Dr Aswin Punathambekar, Loughborough University


• Radical Activism and British Publishing for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Children – Professor Karen Sands O’Connor, Newcastle University


• Sexual Relations as International Relations – Dr Laura Sjoberg, Royal Holloway, University of London


• Indigenous Environmental History and Applied Traditional Ecological Knowledge – Professor Gregory Smithers, University of Hull


• Imagined Futures: Technology, Urban Planning and Their Subjects at the Margins of an Indian Megapolis – Professor Sanjay Srivastava, University College London.

Professor Ash Amin, British Academy Foreign Secretary, said:

‘We are delighted to welcome this new cohort of British Academy Global Professors, who will be joining a wide range of higher education institutions across the UK and working on a fascinating set of projects. Our ambition is to support outstanding internationally-recognised scholars from around the world, enabling them to develop lasting networks and collaborations in the UK while drawing on their knowledge and expertise to drive excellence in UK research and higher education.’

The next competition round for awards beginning in 2020/21 is now open.