History of the prize
The award was endowed by Sir Frederic Kenyon (1863-1952), elected a Fellow in 1903 and serving in turn as the Academy’s sixth president and second secretary. The medal was awarded for the first time in 1957.
Eligibility
Eligible nominations can be for any scholar whose work relates to classical studies and archaeology.
How to nominate
Nominations for this award are open from 1 December to 31 January and may only be made by Fellows of the British Academy. Entries should be submitted electronically via this nomination form.
The deadline for submissions is 31 January each year. Nominations will be reviewed, and the winner selected, by the relevant panel.
If you have any queries submitting a nomination, please email [email protected].
2024 winner
Dr Christopher Stray has been awarded the 2024 Kenyon Medal for almost single-handedly creating the field of the institutional history of Classics. His 'Classics Transformed: Schools, Universities and Society in England, 1830-1960' (Oxford, 1998) was an instant classic, not only for its clear demonstration of the truth that Classics as we understand and teach it today is the product of a very distinct set of historical and social forces, but also for its (at the time) unparalleled deployment of sociological method and sophisticated archival research in the field of Classical reception. He was at his most productive and innovatory at a period before academia had woken up to 'reception studies' as a branch of the discipline.
Educated at Eltham College and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, Christopher Stray was taught by the ancient historian Moses Finley for part II of the Classical Tripos. He went on to the Institute of Education London (1966-7), where he was taught by John Sharwood Smith and became involved with the Joint Association of Classical Teachers. He taught Classics at Latymer Upper School 1967-9, then moved to Swansea in 1970 on marrying Margaret Kenna, a member of the Sociology and Anthropology department at what was then University College Swansea (now Swansea University). He has never held a university appointment.
His 1977 MSc thesis, based on interviews with local Classics teachers, is to be posted on the ‘Advocating Classics Education’ website at Durham University. His doctoral thesis (1994) was published by Oxford University Press in 1998 as 'Classics Transformed'. He has been appointed to visiting positions at Wolfson College, Cambridge (1996-8), the Beinecke Library, Yale (2007), the Institute of Classical Studies, London (2010-17), the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton (2012) and Trinity College, Cambridge (2024). In 1988 he co-founded and then convened the Textbook Colloquium (1988-2008). A conference held in 2018 to celebrate his 75th birthday led to a festschrift: Stephen J. Harrison and Christopher B. R. Pelling, eds, 'Classical Scholarship and its History, from the Renaissance to the Present: Essays in Honour of Christopher Stray' (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021). Since 2012 he has been a member of a team organised to assemble a large-scale history of Trinity College, Cambridge.
"I am amazed to be so honoured: this is the kind of thing that in my view always happens to others. I have never had a university post, and have worked in my chosen field out of pure interest, sustained by generous and supportive colleagues. The scholars I have studied have often been awarded whole chestfuls of honours, including medals, prizes and honorary degrees: it has never occurred to me that this might happen to me, and I am immensely grateful to those who chosen to make me a recipient."
- Dr Christopher Stray, August 2024
Previous winners
2023 Dr Susan Walker FSA
2022 Professor T.P. Wiseman FBA
2021 Dr David Breeze OBE FSA FRSE
2020 Professor Dame Averil Cameron FBA
2019 Professor Peter Parsons FBA
2015 Nigel Wilson FBA
2013 Professor Alan Cameron FBA
2011 Emeritus Professor David Peacock
2009 Dr James Adams FBA
2007 Professor Sir Geoffrey Lloyd FBA
2005 Professor Sir Fergus Millar FBA