Our Fellows

The British Academy Fellowship comprises over 1,800 academics elected for their distinction in one or more branches of the humanities and social sciences. It is an active Fellowship, where Fellows have important roles in assessing applications for research grants, overseeing and contributing to the British Academy’s policy research programmes, and representing our disciplines nationally and internationally.

Our Fellows are nominated and elected on the basis of outstanding academic distinction. The current Fellowship elects a small number of new Fellows annually through a rigorous process subject to the British Academy’s bye-laws.

UK Fellows comprise the majority of our Fellowship.

They are scholars who have achieved distinction in a field of study within the humanities and social sciences.

Election is a mark of distinction, as only a very small number of scholars in any field are elected. Up to 52 new elections are made in each year to the fellowship.

International Fellows are scholars outside the UK who have attained high international standing in a field of study within the humanities and social sciences.

Some familiarity with research in the UK is valuable in order to facilitate a contribution to the work of the Academy, for example through assessments of candidates for election.

Up to 30 elections are made in each year to the International Fellowship. There are now over 400 International Fellows.

Honorary Fellows have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion of the purposes for which the British Academy was founded.

They can be:

• Persons of academic distinction in other fields whose work has a bearing on the humanities or social sciences.
• Leading figures or philanthropists who have themselves done distinguished work in the Academy's fields of interest or promoted or advanced the causes for which the Academy was founded.

Up to four Honorary Fellows may be elected in any one year.