Warwick professor elected as a Fellow of British Academy

Professor of History at The University of Warwick, Carolyn Steedman, has been elected as a Fellow of the British Academy.

The Academy’s Annual General Meeting, in which the scholars chosen to join the Academy this year took place on 21st July. However Professor Steedman chose to miss the dinner in favour of Warwick’s graduation day, in order to be present for her PhD student Talvinder Gill’s reception of his doctorate.

The academy, which describes itself as the U.K’s “national body for the promotion of the humanities and social sciences” will be part of a group of 900 fellows. The prestigious academy, which selects fellows based on their academic accreditations contains renowned scholars such as Marina Warner, Seamus Heaney, Eric Hobsbawm and Lord Bragg. Professor Steedman is the latest scholar to join 38 other fellows selected this year, and one of a very few from her subject area. The Academy selects fellows who have attained “academic distinction as reflected in scholarly research activity and publication” the election process is therefore a very tough one.

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.”

Her PhD student, Talvin Gilll, whose graduation Professor Steedman attended in lieu of the award’s dinner did a thesis on the social and political history of the Indian Workers’ Association from 1930 to 1990.

In an interview with _The Boar_, Talvin said: “I am immensely proud of Carolyn’s election… The award is richly deserved… Throughout my period of study under her supervision I was continually reminded how fortunate I was to have such a distinguished tutor by other scholars inside and outside the field of social history.

“This is a testament to the immense respect she attracts from various academic areas but also demonstrates the wide reach of her work.

“The fact she missed her award dinner to attend my PhD graduation was a major honor and a further reminder of her dedication as mentor and tutor. This perfectly demonstrated the way Carolyn commits 100 per cent to all her students. After the ceremony she talked of her pride at the award of my degree and the need to enjoy it but also to focus on what comes next.”

Professor Steedman joined the University in 1984 and lives in Leamington. She graduated from Sussex University, and received her PhD from Cambridge University in 1989.