British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Professor Helen Cooper
Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature, University of Cambridge
Year elected: 2006
Her work crosses period boundaries - witness her first book, about pastoral, and her most recent, about romance. At the same time she is one of the leading scholars of Chaucer today. Her writings are notable, not only for the range and accuracy of her scholarship, but also for the shrewdness and lucidity of her writing.