A Professor of History at the University of Warwick is one of only 38 academics to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy at its Annual General Meeting on 21 July.

Professor Carolyn Steedman is the latest scholar to join the prestigious Academy which is the UK’s national body for the promotion of the humanities and social sciences and joins the existing 900 Fellows, including Marina Warner, Seamus Heaney, Eric Hobsbawm and Lord Bragg.

Professor Steedman was delighted with the honour although she was unable to attend the awards dinner itself because of her commitments at graduation day at the University of Warwick where one of her students was receiving his PhD in History.

Talvin Gill, whose thesis examined the social and political history of the Indian Workers’ Association from 1930 to the 1990s, graduated alongside his twin brother, Jag, who was awarded a PhD in Comparative Literature.

She said: “I would have loved to have been at the Academy’s award dinner for what would have been a tremendous occasion. It was a difficult choice to make but I felt I must stay here to see my student, Tal Gill, whose doctorate I supervised, receive his PhD.”

Carolyn joined the University in 1984 and lives locally in Leamington Spa. She is a graduate of the University of Sussex and obtained her PhD from Cambridge in 1989.

The Academy’s President, Sir Adam Roberts, said: “I congratulate all the distinguished Fellows who have been elected to the Academy this year, on achieving this peer group recognition of the outstanding contribution they’ve made to scholarship and research in the humanities or social sciences. Election is not only an honour, but also a beginning. I look forward to their active participation in the life and work of the Academy.’

Notes for editors:
The British Academy, established by Royal Charter in 1902, champions and supports the humanities and social sciences. It aims to inspire, recognise and support excellence and high achievement across the UK and internationally. For more information, please visit www.britac.ac.uk 
For more information on the Department of History: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ 
Photo shows Talvin and Jag Gill, who live locally in Coventry, with Professor Steedman.

For further information or to arrange interviews contact Kate Cox, Communications Manager on +44 (0)2476 574255/150483, m: +44(0)7920 531221 or kate.cox@warwick.ac.uk.