British Academy announces new President and elects 66 new Fellows

The British Academy announced today, Friday 15 July, that Professor Sir David Cannadine will be its thirtieth President. He will take up office in July 2017 for a four year term, succeeding Lord Nicholas Stern.

Professor Cannadine is a modern British historian who was elected a Fellow of the Academy in 1999. He is Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University, a Visiting Professor of History at Oxford University, and the editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

On being President of the British Academy, Professor Cannadine said:

"I am hugely thrilled and honoured to be following Nick Stern as the next President of the British Academy.

"In more ways than one, these are challenging times, for the Academy, the people it represents and the values it embodies. The current climate of opinion seems ever more hostile to academic excellence, intellectual distinction and evidence-based research, and to humane tolerance and liberal internationalism. These are the essential verities and transcendent truths that the Academy was established to recognize and promote, and during my presidency I am determined to do all I can to proclaim, safeguard and reaffirm them.

“In the current political and economic climate this will not be an easy task, and I hope I may count on the support of the Academy's benefactors, Fellows and staff: truly, we are all in this together, and there is a great deal of urgent and important work to do."

At its Annual General Meeting (14 July 2016), the Academy also elected 42 distinguished UK academics as Fellows, in recognition of their outstanding contribution to research. Their research areas span the breadth of the humanities and social sciences, including law, linguistics, economics and history.

In addition to the UK Fellows, the British Academy elected 20 new Corresponding Fellows from overseas universities in the US, Australia, Spain and Germany. Four Honorary Fellows were also elected:
• Sir Paul Nurse, former President of the Royal Society, now Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute and Chancellor of the University of Bristol from January 2017;
• Lord Sainsbury, philanthropist, former Science Minister and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge;
• Kate O’Regan, former judge in the Constitutional Court of South Africa,
• Janet Yellen, economist and the first woman Chair of the US Federal Reserve.

A full list of the new British Academy Fellows and their institutions appears below.

The Academy's Review of the Year and further information on the Academy and its activities are available online.

British Academy New Fellows 2016

UK Fellows

Professor Trevor R S Allan
Professor of Jurisprudence and Public Law, University of Cambridge; Fellow, Pembroke College, Cambridge

Professor Julia Barrow
Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Leeds

Professor Stephen Broadberry
Professor of Economic History, University of Oxford

Professor Robin Burgess
Professor of Economics and Director, International Growth Centre, London School of Economics

Professor Robyn Carston
Professor of Linguistics, University College London; Senior Researcher, Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, University of Oslo

Professor Patricia Clavin
Professor of International History, University of Oxford; Fellow, Jesus College, Oxford

Professor Sean Connolly
Professor of Irish History, Queen’s University, Belfast

Professor Steven Connor
Grace 2 Professor of English, University of Cambridge

Professor Peter Cooper
Professor of Psychopathology, University of Reading

Professor Paul Crossley
Professor Emeritus of History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London

Professor Brian Cummings
Anniversary Professor, Department of English and Related Literature, University of York

Professor Jonathan Dancy
Senior Research Professor, University of Reading; Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin

Professor Jane Duckett
Edward Caird Chair of Politics, University of Glasgow

Professor Nancy Edwards
Professor of Medieval Archaeology, Bangor University

Professor Martin Eimer
Professor of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London

Professor Ewan Ferlie
Professor of Public Services Management, King’s College London

Professor Judith Freedman
Pinsent Masons Professor of Taxation Law and Associate Dean for Development, University of Oxford; Director of Legal Research, Centre for Business Taxation; Fellow, Worcester College, Oxford

Professor Miranda Fricker
Professor of Philosophy, University of Sheffield

Professor Robert Frost
Burnett Fletcher Chair in History, University of Aberdeen

Professor Douglas Gale
Professor of Economics, Imperial College Business School; Research Director, Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis, Imperial College

Professor Matthew Gandy
Professor of Cultural and Historical Geography, University of Cambridge

Professor Simon Goldhill
Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge; Director of the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH); Fellow, King’s College, Cambridge

Professor Hilary Graham CBE
Professor of Health Sciences, University of York

Professor John Hudson
Professor of Legal History, University of St Andrews

Professor Lorna Hutson
Berry Professor of English Literature, University of St Andrews

Professor Emily Jackson
Professor of Law, London School of Economics

Professor Kelvyn Jones
Professor of Human Quantitative Geography, University of Bristol

Professor Simon Keay
Professor of Roman Archaeology and Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Humanities, University of Southampton; Research Professor, British School at Rome

Professor Susanne Küchler
Professor of Anthropology and Head of Department, University College London

Professor Nilli Lavie
Professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London

Professor Elizabeth Eva Leach
Professor of Music, University of Oxford

Mr Michael Macdonald
Research Associate, Faculty of Oriental Studies and Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford; Honorary Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford

Professor Catherine Merridale
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Historical Research, University of London; Senior Research Associate, Centre for History and Economics, University of Cambridge

Professor Catherine Morgan
Senior Research Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford; Professor of Classics and Archaeology, University of Oxford

Professor Michael Power
Professor of Accounting, London School of Economics

Professor Sophie Scott
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London

Professor Duncan Snidal
Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford; Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford

Professor Judy Wajcman
Anthony Giddens Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics

Professor Patricia Waugh
Professor of English, Durham University

Professor Fiona Williams OBE
Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Leeds; Research Associate, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford; Honorary Professor, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia

Professor Michael Wright
Professor of Entrepreneurship, Head of Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Director, Centre for Management Buyout Research, Imperial College Business School

Professor Patrick Wright
Professor of Literature and Visual and Material Culture, King’s College London

Corresponding Fellows (overseas)

Professor Pauline Allen
Research Professor of Early Christian Studies and Director of the Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University

Professor Susan Athey
Economics of Technology Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Professor Peter Bellwood
Emeritus Professor of Archaeology, Australian National University

Professor Gráinne De Búrca
Florence Ellinwood Allen Professor of Law, New York University School of Law; Faculty Director, Hauser Global Law Program; Co-Director, Jean Monnet Center for Regional and International Economic Law and Justice

Professor Esther Duflo
Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)

Professor Kathleen Eisenhardt
Stanford Warren Ascherman Professor, Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University

Professor Laura Engelstein
Henry S McNeil Professor Emerita of Russian History, Yale University

Professor Denis Feeney
Giger Professor of Latin, Princeton University

Professor Jane Jacobs
Professor in Urban Studies, and Director, Division of Social Sciences, Yale-NUS College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Professor George Lewis
Edwin H Case Professor of American Music, Columbia University

Professor Toril Moi
James B Duke Professor of Literature and Romance Studies, Professor of English, Philosophy and Theatre Studies, and Director, Center for Philosophy, Arts and Literature, Duke University

Professor Joel Mokyr
Robert H Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History, Northwestern University; Sackler Professor, Eitan Berglas School of Economics, Tel Aviv University

Professor Elizabeth J Perry
Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government, Harvard University, and Director, Harvard-Yenching Institute

Professor Derek R Peterson
Professor of History and African Studies, University of Michigan

Professor Robert J Sampson
Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University

Professor Núria Sebastián Gallés
Professor, Department of Information and Communications Technologies, Pompeu Fabra University

Professor Dr Wolfgang Streeck
Professor and Director Emeritus, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne

Professor Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Distinguished Professor and Irving and Jean Stone Chair in Social Sciences, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles

Professor Judith Thomson
Professor Emerita in Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Professor Michael Walzer
Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

Honorary Fellows

Sir Paul Nurse FRS FREng
Director, The Francis Crick Institute; Former President, Royal Society; Chancellor of the University of Bristol from January 2017

Justice Kate O’Regan
Former Judge, Constitutional Court, South Africa; Visiting Professor, University of Oxford; Honorary Visiting Professor, University of Cape Town

Lord Sainsbury of Turville Hon FRS, Hon FREng, Hon FMedSci
Founder, Gatsby Charitable Foundation; Chancellor, University of Cambridge

The Honorable Janet L Yellen
Chairman of the Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System

Editor’s notes

1. For further information, images and interviews please contact the Press Office on [email protected] or 020 7969 5227.

2. Professor Sir David Cannadine FBA, FRSL, FSA, FRHistS is an historian of modern British history from 1800 to 2000. He is Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University, a Visiting Professor of History at Oxford University, and the editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He has previously taught at the University of Cambridge and Columbia University, New York. He was Director and Professor of History at the Institute of Historical Research from 1998-2003. His principal publications include The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (1999); Class in Britain (1998) and Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire (2001).  He has contributed to many national bodies in heritage and the arts, including the National Portrait Gallery, English Heritage, Westminster Abbey, the Victorian Society, Royal Academy Trust and the Library of Birmingham Trust.

3. The British Academy for the humanities and social sciences. Established by Royal Charter in 1902. Its purpose is to inspire and support high achievement in the humanities and social sciences throughout the UK and internationally, and to promote their public value. For more information, please visit www.britishacademy.ac.uk.

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