University | Policy | Arts

17 Jul 09

Professor Sir Adam Roberts has taken up his position as President of the British Academy, the national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Seven academics from Oxford University have also been elected as Fellows of the British Academy. A total of 38 new Fellowships were awarded by the Academy for distinguished achievement in the humanities and social sciences.

Sir Adam is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Studies in Oxford University’s Department of Politics and International Relations, an Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and is an experienced adviser of public bodies, in the UK and overseas, on policy issues, especially international relations.

Speaking at his inauguration at the Academy’s Annual General Meeting, he emphasised the need for policy-makers, particularly those implementing international policy, to understand the history, culture and languages of the societies with which they deal.

'The humanities and social sciences are not luxuries, but crucial contributors to the richness of society, to prosperity and well-being,’ said Sir Adam.

‘The major problems that face us today, nationally and internationally will not be solved by science and technology alone. Indeed the most intractable challenges are likely to rely for their solution on an understanding of human behaviour, of social and political change, and of intercultural understanding – all of which depend on the humanities and social sciences.

'By strengthening the policy engagement capacity located at the Academy, we can give leadership and develop a powerful voice on behalf of our disciplines.‘

Professor Sir Adam Roberts KCMG FBA is elected for a four year term until 2013 and takes over the role from Baroness Onora O’Neill. 

The new British Academy Fellows from Oxford are:

William Beinart is Rhodes Professor of Race Relations and Professorial Fellow, St Antony’s College. His research interests are in South African history, politics and society, including detailed studies of rural African communities, as well as a general history of the country.  In recent years, he has focused on environmental history, both in southern Africa and beyond.  He is strongly committed to the expansion of African Studies, both in the University and beyond.  

Robin Briggs is Senior Research Fellow, All Souls College. His research interests initially centred on the histoire des mentalités, and the relationship between the Catholic Reform movement and popular religion. This led into the history of witchcraft, plus a general interest in the political, social, and intellectual history of France from the Renaissance to the Revolution. This includes work on the history of applied science, such as the technical aspects of French naval history.

Jean Dunbabin is Senior Research Fellow, St Anne's College. Her research interests include the political history of medieval France, medieval ethical and political thought, and early universities. She has just finished a book on imprisonment in the high middle ages.

Malcolm Godden is Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. His research interests include the writings of Ælfric, the works traditionally attributed to King Alfred, and Piers Plowman. He is editor of the journal Anglo-Saxon England.  His edition of the Old English Boethius was published earlier this year and he is currently leading a collaborative research project on Boethius and early medieval commentary, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. 

Roger Pearson is Professor of French and Fellow and Praelector, The Queen's College. His research centres on French literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He has worked on the writings of Stendhal, Mallarmé, Voltaire, Zola and Maupassant. A major preoccupation underlying his research has been the relationship between the writer and the reader. He is currently investigating the role and function of the poet in nineteenth-century French literature.   

Christopher Pelling is Regius Professor of Greek at Christ Church. His research interests are in Greek and Latin historiography and biography, especially theliterary criticism of these prose texts; in particular, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, and Tacitus. He has also done research focused on Greek tragedy, and the ways in which literary criticism can affect and help the task of the practical historian in reconstructing historical reality.

David Womersley is Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature. His research extends from the early sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, and he has focused on Burke, Johnson, and Gibbon. He is one of the General Editors of the forthcoming Cambridge edition of the complete writings of Jonathan Swift, for which he is editing the volume devoted to Gulliver's Travels.