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News from the Academy
BORDERING ON DEMOCRACY?
The British Academy has published a new report examining the complexities of redrawing the UK's constituency boundaries. (856kb pdf).
The report was compiled in advance of the second reading debates in the House of Commons on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill (6 Sept 2010) which seek to overhaul the current electoral process.
Drawing a New Constituency Map for the United Kingdom (856kb pdf) was compiled by some of the UK’s leading experts on representation – Professors Michel Balinski, Ron Johnston FBA, Iain McLean FBA and Peyton Young.
BRITISH ACADEMY PRESIDENT COMPLETES EPIC CHALLENGE
British Academy President, Sir Adam Roberts has successfully completed the1000-mile journey from Land’s End to John o’Groats by bicycle to raise almost £3,000 for the Academy’s work in the humanities and social sciences.
From the geography of navigating the route; to the psychology of having to get back on the bike each day come rain or shine; to the statistics of converting calories into miles and then into pounds, Sir Adam made good use of his humanities and social science expertise to accomplish the challenge with his daughter (also photographed) by Sunday 29 August, his 70th birthday. He began the journey on Tuesday 10 August 2010.
Sir Adam Roberts' Just Giving Page
DIARIES OF NELSON'S NURSE REDISCOVERED
Dr Elaine Chalus, Senior Lecturer in History at Bath Spa University has won a major research grant from the British Academy to investigate diaries kept by Elizabeth Wynne, a naval wife who tended Lord Nelson's battle wounds at sea.
Dr Chalus will use her funding award to bring to light the 40 volumes of diaries, most of which have never been published, and to write a biography of Elizabeth (who married one of Nelson's famous 'band of brothers' - Captain (later Admiral Sir) Thomas Francis Fremantle - during the Napoleonic Wars) and her descendants.
Diaries tell forgotten story of Nelson's Nurse - The Independent 31/08/10
PSYCHOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANG
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Sceptical about climate change? The rise in public uncertainty about the evidence in support of global warming, and the role in humans causing it has the potential to undo any progress made to encourage people to engage in more sustainable lifestyles.
At the joint British Academy and British Psychological Society Annnual Lecture on Thursday 23 September, environmental psychologist David Uzzell will explore this topical issue. Are technological advances enough, or are influential contributions by psychologists needed to aide us in our fight against climate change?
Find out more about this fascinating lecture, free to the public.
More news storiesNews of Fellows
Baroness O’Neill, former PBA, was interviewed in The Guardian on 24 August and Radio 4s You and Yours on the 31 August about the decline in modern language learning and the Academy’s 2009 report Language Matters.
David Crystal will present The Stories of English in an event at the first exhibition ever to explore the evolution of the English language from Anglo-Saxon runes to modern day rap. Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices will take place at the British Library from 12 November 2010 - 3 April 2011.
Nicholas Stern, Lord Stern, broke his holiday in Australia to advise newly elected parliamentarians there on issues to do with climate change, as they consider which of the two major parties to support, following the recent indecisive federal election.
Jean Starobinski celebrates his 90th birthday this year, which will be marked by an international colloquium in his honour in November in Bern and Geneva on literary theory, the theme being 'A distance de loge'.
Stefan Collini unpicks some of the fashionable rhetoric surrounding the concept of social mobility in an article in The Guardian, 24 August
Sir Frank Kermode died on 17 August, at the age of 90, one of the greatest literary critics of our time. He was the Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at UCL and the King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University. He inspired the founding of the London Review of Books in 1979.
Obituary - Guardian
Obituary -Telegraph
Dr Anna Marmodoro, British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow has been awarded a European Research Council grant of £1m for a five year project in ancient metaphysics, to begin in 2011. The project builds on her British Academy sponsored research on causal powers in Aristotle’s metaphysics.
Seamus Heaney revealed in the Times on 14 August how the tale of the Bog People had inspired his famous poem of that name of 1969. He also acknowledged how developments in the scholarly understanding of burials in the Danish bogs had affected his perspective. Seamus Heaney`s latest collection of poems Human Chain is published in September.
Peter Hennessey presented Why Russia Spies on BBC Radio 4 on 15 August.