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News of Fellows - 2007

  • Professor Ash Amin organised a debate on the potential genetic basis for racism with contributions from Professor Robin Dunbar and Professor David Livingstone, reported ('Is there a gene for racism?', THES, 3 August 2007)
  • Professor Rosemary Ashton
    • appeared on BBC R4's In our Time, discussing William Wordsworth's Prelude (22 November 2007)
  • Professor Jonathan Bate
    • chaired Germaine Greer's lecture 'Anne Hathaway Revisited' at the Royal Society of Literature (10 December 2007)
    • presented Poetry of History, a series of programmes examining history through the poetry it inspired (BBC R4, from 25 November 2007)
    • appeared at the 2007 Cheltenham Literature Festival talking about the challenges of re-editing Shakespeare for the actor and the modern reader (14 October 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week, discussing the RSC Shakespeare Complete Works, which he edited with Eric Rasmussen, based entirely on the First Folio (16 April 2007)
    • wrote on the continuing popularity of Shakespeare ('A Man for All Ages' Guardian, Books Section, 14 April 2007)
  • Dame Gillian Beer
    • appeared on Start the Week, discussing our current preoccupation with posterity and legacy, in advance of the Academy's event Posterity: Present concerns with the Future (3 December 2007)
    • delivered the 2007 Romanes Lecture on 'Darwin and the Consciousness of Others' (8 November 2007)
  • Dr Margaret Bent was appointed CBE in the New Years' Honours 2008 for services to musicology (29 December 2007)
  • Professor Maxine Berg appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves, discussing global history (8 January 2008)
  • Professor Tim Besley profiled ('Hardliner is prepared to be unpopular', The Times, 26 July 2007)
  • Professor Ken Binmore advised that governments should take note of 'mechanism design', work on which recently won three economists the Nobel Prize (including Fellow of the Academy Professor Eric Maskin) ('Rules of the game', Prospect, 25 October 2007)
  • Professor Simon Blackburn
    • considered the increasing popularity of philosophy graduates in the employment market ('I think, therefore I earn' Guardian, 20 November 2007)
    • reviewed the life and work of Jean Baudrillard ('Au revoir Baudrillard' Prospect, 29 March 2007)
    • interviewed, discussing his career as a philsopher and views on religion ('I'm bringing more people to philosophy' Financial Times, 10 November 2007 MAY REQUIRE FREE REGISTRATION
  • Professor Vernon Bogdanor
    • discussed the difficulties presented by proposals to set up a committee of English MPs to consider 'English-only' issues, and the threat this would be to the Union ('Tory plans for an 'English Parliament' will wreck the Union', Observer, 4 November 2007)
    • commented on Gordon Brown's initiative to 'search for British values' ('In search of British values', Prospect, 27 September 2007)
    • discussed what the Liberal Democrats stand for and what distinguishes them from the other UK political parties (BBC R4 Today programme, 17 September 2007)
    • commented on the challenges presented in Gordon Brown's first month in office (Has any PM had a more difficult first month?, Observer, 6 August 2007)
  • Professor Alan Bowman appeared on BBC R4's Material World, discussing the Vindolanda Texts, and the development of new techniques to make them more legible (10 January 2008)
  • Professor John Burrow
    • appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves discussing the impact the study of the past has had on the western world over the past 2500 years (18 December 2007)
    • had his book A History of Histories selected by Antonia Fraser as one of her history books of the year (Front Row, BBC R4, 13 December 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week discussing the histories people wrote in the past and how this reflected their own cultural and political circumstances (10 December 2007)
  • Professor John Butt won the 2007 Classic FM Gramophone Award for Best Baroque Vocal Recording in his role as Conductor/Co-artistic director of the Handel Messiah (Dublin version, 1742) with the Dunedin Consort & Players (Gramophone, 4 October 2007)
  • Professor David Cannadine
    • made a call for the appointment of a Chief Historical Advisor to Government at the launch of the History and Policy website and was also interviewed about the idea on BBC R4's Today programme (BBC R4, 5 December 2007). The call was discussed by Peter Riddell in the Times ('When you are in a hole, history can show the exit', Times, 7 December 2007)
  • Professor John Carey
    • joined the Saturday Review panel to discuss the cultural highlights of the week (BBC R4, 29 September 2007)
    • presented Menace of the Masses, a television programme on the response of Edwardian intellectuals to the rise of popular culture and mass education, as part of BBC4's Edwardians series (25 April 2007)
  • Professor David Clark contributed to a report on the announcement by Government that more is to be spent on 'talking therapies' for depression (BBC News at 10, 10 October 2007)
  • Professor Linda Colley's Britons selected by Gordon Brown as one of his 'five best books' (Open Book, BBC R4, 25 June 2007)
  • Professor Stefan Collini
    • appeared in BBC R3's Nightwaves, discussing writing non-fiction for the general reader (21 February 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week programme discussing the popularity of non-specialist factual writing (18 February 2008)
  • Professor David Crystal
    • appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking about his book By Hook or by Crook: A Journey in Search of English (Century, 2007) (1 June 2007)
    • described a journey looking for the English language, and dialects thereof ('What's so special about Bricklehampton?', Guardian, 19 May 2007)
  • Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe
    • appeared on Digging the Past: Time Shift, part of BBC4's Archaeology night discussing the enduring popularity of archaeology on television from the early days of Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Animal, Vegetable, Mineral to Time Team (21 October 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Great Lives, talking about Julius Caesar (22 May 2007)
  • Professor John Curtis commented on the looting of archaeological sites in Iraq ('A failure of duty', Independent, 17 September 2007)
  • Professor Ian Deary's work on the degeneration of the brain in later life reported (Does your IQ match the class of ’47? The Times, 5 June 2007)
  • Dame Mary Douglas's life and work appraised following her death ('Mary Douglas remembered', Prospect, 31 May 2007)
  • Professor Tom Devine commented on Gordon Brown's initiative to 'search for British values' ('In search of British values', Prospect, 27 September 2007)
  • Professor Eamon Duffy participated in Keeping the Faith, a BBC R4 series on different experiences of the English Reformation
    • In programme 1 (24 September 2007) he accompanied the broadcaster Edward Stourton on a visit to the ancestral home of the Stourtons to talk about the English Reformation and how people maintained their Catholic faith in the face of persecution
    • In programme 2 (1 October 2007) he accompanied the historian Jane Ridley as she visited key locations in the life of her ancestor Nicholas Ridley, author of the Book of Common Prayer and Protestant martyr
  • Professor Robin Dunbar participated in a debate on the potential genetic basis for racism organised by Professor Ash Amin ('Is there a gene for racism?', THES, 3 August 2007)
  • Professor Richard Dworkin's Holberg Prize Symposium took place at the University of Bergen (27 November 2007)
  • Professor Terry Eagleton
  • Professor Roy Foster
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week programme discussing the changes in Irish society since the 1970s (following publication of Luck and the Irish: A Brief History of Change 1970-2000 by Allen Lane) (5 November 2007)
    • explained why he particularly admires the war paintings of Sir William Orpen (Saturday Review, BBC R4, 4 August 2007), and
    • wrote on the difficulties faced by editors of the poetry of W B Yeats ('The Golden Bird', Guardian, 14 July 2007)
  • Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman wrote on the affects of continual combat on the armed forces and its implications for the defence budget ('Constant combat is draining our Services and their budget', The Times, 24 November 2007)
  • Professor Uta Frith chaired 'Behaving Badly', a round table discussion on the light science and literature can shed on the causes and nature of crime (Royal Society of Literature, 15 October 2007)
  • Professor Charles Goodhart participated in BBC R4's The Long View, discussing the collapse of the bank Overend, Gurney in the 1860s and comparing it to the recent banking crisis (23 October 2007)
  • Professor Martin Goodman appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking about his book Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Cultures (Allen Lane, 2007) (29 May 2007)
  • Professor Fred Halliday set out the do's and don'ts of being a visiting lecturer ('Now, please give a warm welcome to . . . ' p. 14, THES, 5 October 2007)
  • Professor Norman Hammond published the latest article in his regular column on archaelogy ('Dig reveals location of Harvard’s Native presses', The Times, 14 January 2008)
  • Professor David Hand assumed office as President of the Royal Statistical Society on 1 January 2008
  • Professor Peter Hennessy
    • was guest editor of the Today programme on BBC R4 (28 December 2007)
    • selected to be one of the guest editors of BBC R4's Today programme between Christmas and the New Year ('Albarn and ex-spy to edit Today', BBC News website, 27 November 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves discussing Cabinets and the Bomb (19 November 2007)
    • provided the background for an article on Britain's rationale for keeping nuclear weapons with his publication Cabinets and the Bomb ('We still need our nuclear badge', The Times, 13 November 2007)
    • appeared on BBCR4's Start the Week programme, discussing how successive governments have dealt with the issue of nuclear weapons following publication of Cabinets and the Bomb by the British Academy (via OUP) (5 November 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R3's Private Passions programme, discussing his musical likes and dislikes (4 November 2007)
    • revealed Clement Atlee's fears regarding the nuclear bomb and the likelihood of its use in the 1940s ('Attlee feared atom bomb Armageddon', Sunday Times, 4 November 2007)
    • revealed Clement Atlee's fears regarding the nuclear bomb and the likelihood of its use in the 1940s ('Attlee feared atom bomb Armageddon', Sunday Times, 4 November 2007)
    • joined a panel of experts to assess what it takes to be a successful British Premier (Prime Ministers, BBC4, 22 September 2007)
    • returned to the area of North London where he grew up in the 1950s and reflects on how the neighbourhood has changed (The House I Grew Up In, BBC R4, 6 August 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Any Questions? (4 May 2007, transcript available)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Open Book, discussing political writing (29 April 2007)
    • was interviewed on BBC R4's Today programme regarding political writing and winning the one of the 2007 Orwell Prizes (25 April 2007 - available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/zwednesday_20070425.shtml (go to 8.45))
    • presented Secrets and Mysteries in BBC R4's Analysis strand, about the threat of terrorism and the UK government's strategy to counter it (the programme includes the first broadcast interview with Sir David Omand, the Co-ordinator of Security and Intelligence) (21 April 2007, transcript available)
  • Professor Sir Bob Hepple, QC, Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, interviewed following publication of the Council's report 'The forensic use of bioinformation: ethical issues' (BBC R4 Today programme, 18 September 2007; also reported in the Guardian, Independent, and The Times)
  • Professor Miles Hewstone interviewed by Madeleine Bunting on his work on social integration ('A World of Difference', Guardian, 5 September 2007)
  • Professor Gertrude Himmelfarb
  • Professor Eric Hobsbawm
    • commented on Gordon Brown's initiative to 'search for British values' ('In search of British values', Prospect, 27 September 2007)
    • was interviewed on the occasion of his 90th birthday ('Why the Left is right', The Scotsman, 7 July 2007)
    • appeared by BBC R3's Night Waves following publication of his new book Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism (Little, Brown 2007) (5 July 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week programme discussing the issues facing contemporary society (2 July 2007)
    • appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking on the theme of 'memories of an empire' (26 May 2007)
  • Professor Julian Jackson delivered a series of audio essays on the impact of the 1871 Paris Commune and the long shadow it has cast on social, cultural and political life in France (The Essay, BBC R3, 28 January-1 February 2008)
  • Dr M R James's short stories dramatised (Woman's Hour drama, BBC R4, 24-28 December 2007)
  • Professor John Kay
    • wrote on the economics of imperfect knowledge ('The fruitless search for exact knowledge', Financial Times, 16 October 2007 REQUIRES FREE REGISTRATION)
    • contributed to an examination of the lessons craftspeople have for entrepreneurs in running businesses (In Business, BBC R4, 27 September 2007)
    • wrote on the economic doctrine of the centre-left ('The failure of market failure' Prospect, 26 July 2007)
  • Sir Anthony Kenny
    • contributed to the debate surrounding the governance and management of Oxford University ('Manifesto for a modern ancient', THES, 27 July 2007 (review of Can Oxford be Improved? A View from the Dreaming Spires and the Satanic Mills, Anthony Kenny and Robert Kenny, Imprint Academic, 2007))
    • appeared on BBC R4's In Our Time, talking about William of Ockham and the principle of Ockham's Razor (31 May 2007)
    • profiled in THES, following publication of Philosophy in the Modern World (OUP) ('Classics Never Grow Old', THES, 11 May 2007, pp18-19
  • Professor Sir Ian Kershaw
    • gave evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committee hearing on financial stability and transparency on 17 December (reported on BBC News Website, 17 December 2007)
    • commented on inflation in the UK and related problems in the housing market ('Threat of inflation remains, says King', Financial Times, 29 November 2007 MAY REQUIRE FREE REGISTRATION)
    • commented on the Bank of England's handling of the 'Northern Rock crisis' and the ongoing difficulties faced by the banking sector (File on 4, BBC R4, 6 November 2007; transcript of the interview also available)
    • profiled (Profile, BBC R4, 23 September 2007)
    • appeared before the Treasury Select Committee and answered questions on the Bank's handling of the Northern Rock crisis (20 September 2007, highlights available from BBC News; reported in the Guardian)
    • set out the Bank's approach to the turmoil in the banking sector in a letter to the chairman of the Commons Treasury Select Committee ('Bank won't bail out City', Guardian, 12 September 2007)
    • discussed the omission of mortgage costs and house prices in the Consumer Price Index and the difficulties this presents the Monetary Policy Committee (BBC R4's Inside Money, 21 July 2007 (transcript available and interview with Professor King)
    • profiled (Ian Kershaw: Past Master, Guardian, Education section, 5 June 2007)
    • appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking about his book Fateful Choices (Allen Lane, 2007) (25 May 2007)
  • Professor Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England,
    • gave evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committee hearing on financial stability and transparency on 17 December (reported on BBC News Website, 17 December 2007)
    • commented on inflation in the UK and related problems in the housing market ('Threat of inflation remains, says King', Financial Times, 29 November 2007 MAY REQUIRE FREE REGISTRATION)
    • commented on the Bank of England's handling of the 'Northern Rock crisis' and the ongoing difficulties faced by the banking sector (File on 4, BBC R4, 6 November 2007; transcript of the interview also available)
  • Professor Adam Kuper discussed the anthropology of sibling incest on BBC R4's Woman's Hour (16 April 2007)
  • Professor Nicola Lacey
  • Professor Lord Richard Layard
    • discussed whether ideas such as 'happiness' and 'well-being' can be quantified and if so, how (More or Less, BBC R4, 12 November 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Broadcasting House, discussing the impact of social problems on the nation's mental health (21 October 2007)
    • welcomed the government's commitment to increasing significantly the availability of state-of-the-art psychological therapies for the treatment of depression ('And now for the good news about therapy', Observer, 14 October 2007)
    • contributed to a report on the announcement by Government that more is to be spent on 'talking therapies' for depression (BBC News at 10, 10 October 2007)
    • discussed the extent to which government should take responsibility for individual happiness ('Against unhappiness' Prospect, 31 May 2007)
  • Professor Hermione Lee
    • has been elected President of Wolfson College, Oxford, taking up her post on 1 October 2008 (reported on Wolfson's website, 11 February 2008)
    • had her biography of Edith Wharton selected by Margaret Drabble as her book of the year ('That's the best thing we've read all year', Observer, 25 November 2007)
    • interviewed Philip Roth on the publication of Exit, Ghost ('An audience with Philip Roth', Observer, 7 October 2007)
    • reviewed Sally Potter's production of Carmen at the ENO (Front Row, BBC R4, 1 October 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Front Row, discussing Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth in a series on landmark portrayals of human sexuality (10 September 2007) and reviewing Atonement, the film adaptation of Ian McKewan's novel (5 September 2007)
    • appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking about her book Edith Wharton (Chatto and Windus, 2007) (1 June 2007)
  • Professor Angela Leighton's On Form selected as one of Adam Phillips' books of the year ('That's the best thing we've read all year', Observer, 25 November 2007)
  • Professor David Livingstone participated in a debate on the potential genetic basis for racism organised by Professor Ash Amin ('Is there a gene for racism?', THES, 3 August 2007)
  • Professor Roger Lonsdale has been awarded Modern Language Association Prize for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition for his edition of Samuel Johnson’s The Lives of the Poets (announced 5 December 2007)
  • Professor Diarmuid MacCulloch contributed to The Protestant Revolution, an examination of the impact Martin Luther and the Reformation continue to have on all aspects of modern life (BBC4 12, 19, 26 September, 1 October)
  • Professor Stephen Machin appeared on BBC R4's Today programme in an item on a report he co-authored on social mobility for the Sutton Trust (25 June 2007) (a press release from the Sutton Trust is available at http://www.suttontrust.com/newsarchive.asp#a016 and the full text of the report is available at http://www.suttontrust.com/policy/IntergenerationalMobility.pdf). This publication formed the basis of a series of special reports on class and social mobility by John Humphrys (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/policy/misc/social_mobility_index.shtml)
  • Dr Noel Malcolm commented on Gordon Brown's initiative to 'search for British values' ('In search of British values', Prospect, 27 September 2007)
  • Professor Eric Maskin awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Economics, with two colleagues ('Nobel for 'mechanism design' pioneers', Independent, 16 October 2007; his work explained: 'What is mechanism design theory?', Guardian, 15 October 2007; The press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences provides more background as well as a recorded interview with Professor Maskin.)
  • Professor Doreen Massey
    • wrote on the inequalities of the London economy ('Trading places . . . ', THES, 13 July 2007, pp. 16-17);
    • appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves to discuss 21st century globalisation (2 July 2007); and
    • participated in BBC R4's Start the Week programme discussing London's role in globalisation (25 June 2007)
  • Professor Stephen Nickell
    • commented on the possibility of a housing crisis in the light of the government's pledge to build 3 million more homes by 2020. (BBC News, 25 October 2007)
    • contributed to The Roof Over Your Head, a programme in BBC R4's Analysis strand, looking at the UK housing market and the effect of rising house prices on social inequality (16 August 2007, transcript available)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Today programme in his capacity as chair of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, talking about the UK housing market (11 July 2007)
    • was interviewed on BBC R4's Today programme regarding 'Affordability Matters', a report on the future cost of housing published by the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, of which he is chair (7 June 2007). The full text of the report is available from the Department of Communities and Local Government's website: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1510913
  • Baroness O'Neill took part in the Reith Global Debate on the status of freedom of speech today (BBC World Service, from 9 December 2007)
  • Professor Richard Overy
    • appeared on BBC R4's Today programme, discussing the reissue of What Britain Has Done, 1939-1945, for which he has written a new introduction (22 October 2007)
    • selected his fifty key dates in history ('The 50 key dates of world history', The Times, 19 October 2007)
  • Professor Lord Bikhu Parekh commented on Gordon Brown's initiative to 'search for British values' ('In search of British values', Prospect, 27 September 2007)
  • Professor Peter Parsons' book The City of the Sharp-nosed Fish was selected as one of the ten best history books by The Independent (11 September 2007)
  • Professor Robert Plomin discussed the role of genetics in determining IQ and educational performance, and how this might affect educational policy (Talking Politics, BBC R4, 1 September 2007)
  • Professor Robert Putnam interviewed about his work on social capital ('Capital ideas', Guardian, 18 July 2007)
  • Professor David Reynolds profiled, describing how he is set to become the latest popular 'television historian' ('David Reynolds: Peak performance', Guardian, 2 October 2007)
  • Professor Sir Adam Roberts discussed the future of Kosovo as an independent state, and the diplomatic implications of its creation ('Tomorrow Kosovo is expected to declare independence', Today programme, BBC R4, 16 February 2008 (audio file))
  • Professor Alan Ryan wrote on
    • John Stuart Mill's harm principle in the context of the anniversay of the Wolfenden Report on human sexuality ('If Justinian had been right to think that buggery brought on earthquakes, you'd have been right to protest against its eventual decriminalisation' THES, 21 September 2007)educational standards and university expansion ('We are intending to give degrees to students who can't get a C at GCSE in maths and English. Why?' THES, 13 August 2007)
    • the utility of A levels for selecting students for higher education reported ('Record pass rate with a quarter of A-levels at grade A', Daily Mail, 16 August 2007)
    • what the creation of the DIUS and DCSF reveals about government policy on education ('If we want an improved workforce, it's the skills of the non-academic 14 to 19-year-olds we need to worry about', THES, 13 July 2007, p. 13)
    • two-year degrees (THES, 8 June 2007, p. 13)
  • Dr Rosalind Savill marked 15 years in post as Director of the Wallace Collection (19 November 2007)
  • Professor David Sedley appeared on In Our Time discussing the philosophy and personality of Socrates (BBC R4, 27 September 2007)
  • Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams contributed to the series The Story of India, part of the BBC's India and Pakistan 07 strand (7 September 2007)
  • Professor Quentin Skinner
    • will deliver a lecture on John Milton as a Theorist of Liberty, the inaugural event of the celebration of Milton's 400th anniversary in Cambridge (30 January 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week to discuss John Milton and liberty (28 January 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves, discussing the continuing relevance of Machiavelli's The Prince (18 December 2007)
  • Professor Jon Stallworthy
  • Professor George Steiner
    • delivered a talk on those subjects he has been unable to write about, and the reasons why (chaired by Professor Marina Warner) (11 February 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Front Row, discussing his various unwritten books, and the reasons he didn't write them (24 January 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves, discussing his new work, which imagines all the books that he hoped to write, but never did (8 January 2008)
  • Professor Lord Nicholas Stern has spoken out in support of the the Climate Change Bill, currently before the House of Lords and called for the UK to give a lead to other countries in meeting the challenge of reducing global emissions ('Britain, climate change leaders', Times, 22 February 2008)
  • Professor Joseph Stiglitz
    • was interviewed on the long-term world-wide economic impact of the Iraq War ('The true cost of war', The Guardian, 28 February 2008)
    • appeared BBC R4's Start the Week, discussing how the cost of the Iraq War could have been so significantly underestimated (25 February 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R3's Nightwaves, discussing the true cost of America's war in Iraq, and its wider economic consequences (26 February 2008)
  • Professor Martin Swales interviewed in his role as Chairman of the Academy's Working Group on the decline in modern foreign language learning regarding the impact of poor language skills amongst students has on higher research in the UK ('Academy concern over decline in language study', Guardian, 21 November 2007)
  • Professor Oliver Taplin gave a platform talk on the relationship between Greek tragedy and vase paintings (Pots and Plays, Lyttelton Theatre, 11 January 2008)
  • Professor Charles Taylor profiled and interviewed (Prospect, 31 January 2008)
  • Professor Pat Thane
    • discussed the importance of history to policy makers (Start the Week, BBC R4, 26 November 2007)
    • participated in Changing Charities, a programme in BBC R4's Analysis strand, discussing the role of the voluntary sector in the delivery of public services (5 July 2007) (transcript available)
  • Professor Nigel Thrift profiled as he published a new strategy for the University of Warwick ('Going up in the world', Independent, 13 September 2007)
  • Professor Gerard van Gelder appeared on In Our Time, discussing The Arabian Nights (In Our Time, BBC R4, 18 October 2007)
  • Professor Sir Brian Vickers was knighted in the New Year's Honours 2008 for services to literary scholarship (29 December 2007)
  • Professor Marina Warner
    • appeared on In Our Time, discussing The Arabian Nights (In Our Time, BBC R4, 18 October 2007)
    • contributed a short story, The Family Friend, to a series of specially commissioned new fiction read by Alan Howard (BBC R4, Afternoon Reading, 18 October 2007)
    • delivered the lecture at the British Library's 2007 Annual Literary Dinner (edited version published as 'My journey through the stacks of time' The Times, 21 July 2007
    • appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking about her book Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century (31 May 2007)
    • reconsidered Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare ('Evangelists for the Bard' Guardian, Books Section, 5 May 2007)
  • Dame Mary Warnock discussed the requirement for a national human bioethics commission given the structures already in place ('Parliament must retain moral authority over science', Observer, 13 January 2008)
  • Professor Andew Whiten was awarded the Royal Anthropological Institute's Rivers medal (for a published body of work which has made, as a whole, a significant contribution to social, physical or cultural anthropology or archaeology) (25 July 2007)
  • Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury,
  • Sir Alan Wilson has been appointed Chair of the AHRC (announced 11 December 2007)
  • Sir Mortimer Wheeler profiled in Sir Mortimer Wheeler: A Life in Ruins as part of BBC4's Archaeology Night (BBC4, 21 October 2007)
  • Lord Woolf to chair the independent ethics review committee at BAE (see: http://www.woolfcommittee.com/)
  • Professor Michael Zander was interviewed on BBC R4's Today programme regarding perceived ethnic and racial biases in the criminal justice system (13 June 2007)
  • Dr Theodore Zeldin wrote on the Bologna Process and the importance of the informal, social side of higher education. ('Across campuses and nations - only connect', THES, 18 May 2007, p. 17)

News of Fellows: 2007

  • Professor Ash Amin organised a debate on the potential genetic basis for racism with contributions from Professor Robin Dunbar and Professor David Livingstone, reported ('Is there a gene for racism?', THES, 3 August 2007)
  • Professor Rosemary Ashton
    • appeared on BBC R4's In our Time, discussing William Wordsworth's Prelude (22 November 2007)
  • Professor Jonathan Bate
    • chaired Germaine Greer's lecture 'Anne Hathaway Revisited' at the Royal Society of Literature (10 December 2007)
    • presented Poetry of History, a series of programmes examining history through the poetry it inspired (BBC R4, from 25 November 2007)
    • appeared at the 2007 Cheltenham Literature Festival talking about the challenges of re-editing Shakespeare for the actor and the modern reader (14 October 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week, discussing the RSC Shakespeare Complete Works, which he edited with Eric Rasmussen, based entirely on the First Folio (16 April 2007)
    • wrote on the continuing popularity of Shakespeare ('A Man for All Ages' Guardian, Books Section, 14 April 2007)
  • Dame Gillian Beer
    • appeared on Start the Week, discussing our current preoccupation with posterity and legacy, in advance of the Academy's event Posterity: Present concerns with the Future (3 December 2007)
    • delivered the 2007 Romanes Lecture on 'Darwin and the Consciousness of Others' (8 November 2007)
  • Dr Margaret Bent was appointed CBE in the New Years' Honours 2008 for services to musicology (29 December 2007)
  • Professor Maxine Berg appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves, discussing global history (8 January 2008)
  • Professor Tim Besley profiled ('Hardliner is prepared to be unpopular', The Times, 26 July 2007)
  • Professor Ken Binmore advised that governments should take note of 'mechanism design', work on which recently won three economists the Nobel Prize (including Fellow of the Academy Professor Eric Maskin) ('Rules of the game', Prospect, 25 October 2007)
  • Professor Simon Blackburn
    • considered the increasing popularity of philosophy graduates in the employment market ('I think, therefore I earn' Guardian, 20 November 2007)
    • reviewed the life and work of Jean Baudrillard ('Au revoir Baudrillard' Prospect, 29 March 2007)
    • interviewed, discussing his career as a philsopher and views on religion ('I'm bringing more people to philosophy' Financial Times, 10 November 2007 MAY REQUIRE FREE REGISTRATION
  • Professor Vernon Bogdanor
    • discussed the difficulties presented by proposals to set up a committee of English MPs to consider 'English-only' issues, and the threat this would be to the Union ('Tory plans for an 'English Parliament' will wreck the Union', Observer, 4 November 2007)
    • commented on Gordon Brown's initiative to 'search for British values' ('In search of British values', Prospect, 27 September 2007)
    • discussed what the Liberal Democrats stand for and what distinguishes them from the other UK political parties (BBC R4 Today programme, 17 September 2007)
    • commented on the challenges presented in Gordon Brown's first month in office (Has any PM had a more difficult first month?, Observer, 6 August 2007)
  • Professor Alan Bowman appeared on BBC R4's Material World, discussing the Vindolanda Texts, and the development of new techniques to make them more legible (10 January 2008)
  • Professor John Burrow
    • appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves discussing the impact the study of the past has had on the western world over the past 2500 years (18 December 2007)
    • had his book A History of Histories selected by Antonia Fraser as one of her history books of the year (Front Row, BBC R4, 13 December 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week discussing the histories people wrote in the past and how this reflected their own cultural and political circumstances (10 December 2007)
  • Professor John Butt won the 2007 Classic FM Gramophone Award for Best Baroque Vocal Recording in his role as Conductor/Co-artistic director of the Handel Messiah (Dublin version, 1742) with the Dunedin Consort & Players (Gramophone, 4 October 2007)
  • Professor David Cannadine
    • made a call for the appointment of a Chief Historical Advisor to Government at the launch of the History and Policy website and was also interviewed about the idea on BBC R4's Today programme (BBC R4, 5 December 2007). The call was discussed by Peter Riddell in the Times ('When you are in a hole, history can show the exit', Times, 7 December 2007)
  • Professor John Carey
    • joined the Saturday Review panel to discuss the cultural highlights of the week (BBC R4, 29 September 2007)
    • presented Menace of the Masses, a television programme on the response of Edwardian intellectuals to the rise of popular culture and mass education, as part of BBC4's Edwardians series (25 April 2007)
  • Professor David Clark contributed to a report on the announcement by Government that more is to be spent on 'talking therapies' for depression (BBC News at 10, 10 October 2007)
  • Professor Linda Colley's Britons selected by Gordon Brown as one of his 'five best books' (Open Book, BBC R4, 25 June 2007)
  • Professor Stefan Collini
    • appeared in BBC R3's Nightwaves, discussing writing non-fiction for the general reader (21 February 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week programme discussing the popularity of non-specialist factual writing (18 February 2008)
  • Professor David Crystal
    • appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking about his book By Hook or by Crook: A Journey in Search of English (Century, 2007) (1 June 2007)
    • described a journey looking for the English language, and dialects thereof ('What's so special about Bricklehampton?', Guardian, 19 May 2007)
  • Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe
    • appeared on Digging the Past: Time Shift, part of BBC4's Archaeology night discussing the enduring popularity of archaeology on television from the early days of Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Animal, Vegetable, Mineral to Time Team (21 October 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Great Lives, talking about Julius Caesar (22 May 2007)
  • Professor John Curtis commented on the looting of archaeological sites in Iraq ('A failure of duty', Independent, 17 September 2007)
  • Professor Ian Deary's work on the degeneration of the brain in later life reported (Does your IQ match the class of ’47? The Times, 5 June 2007)
  • Dame Mary Douglas's life and work appraised following her death ('Mary Douglas remembered', Prospect, 31 May 2007)
  • Professor Tom Devine commented on Gordon Brown's initiative to 'search for British values' ('In search of British values', Prospect, 27 September 2007)
  • Professor Eamon Duffy participated in Keeping the Faith, a BBC R4 series on different experiences of the English Reformation
    • In programme 1 (24 September 2007) he accompanied the broadcaster Edward Stourton on a visit to the ancestral home of the Stourtons to talk about the English Reformation and how people maintained their Catholic faith in the face of persecution
    • In programme 2 (1 October 2007) he accompanied the historian Jane Ridley as she visited key locations in the life of her ancestor Nicholas Ridley, author of the Book of Common Prayer and Protestant martyr
  • Professor Robin Dunbar participated in a debate on the potential genetic basis for racism organised by Professor Ash Amin ('Is there a gene for racism?', THES, 3 August 2007)
  • Professor Richard Dworkin's Holberg Prize Symposium took place at the University of Bergen (27 November 2007)
  • Professor Terry Eagleton
  • Professor Roy Foster
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week programme discussing the changes in Irish society since the 1970s (following publication of Luck and the Irish: A Brief History of Change 1970-2000 by Allen Lane) (5 November 2007)
    • explained why he particularly admires the war paintings of Sir William Orpen (Saturday Review, BBC R4, 4 August 2007), and
    • wrote on the difficulties faced by editors of the poetry of W B Yeats ('The Golden Bird', Guardian, 14 July 2007)
  • Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman wrote on the affects of continual combat on the armed forces and its implications for the defence budget ('Constant combat is draining our Services and their budget', The Times, 24 November 2007)
  • Professor Uta Frith chaired 'Behaving Badly', a round table discussion on the light science and literature can shed on the causes and nature of crime (Royal Society of Literature, 15 October 2007)
  • Professor Charles Goodhart participated in BBC R4's The Long View, discussing the collapse of the bank Overend, Gurney in the 1860s and comparing it to the recent banking crisis (23 October 2007)
  • Professor Martin Goodman appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking about his book Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Cultures (Allen Lane, 2007) (29 May 2007)
  • Professor Fred Halliday set out the do's and don'ts of being a visiting lecturer ('Now, please give a warm welcome to . . . ' p. 14, THES, 5 October 2007)
  • Professor Norman Hammond published the latest article in his regular column on archaelogy ('Dig reveals location of Harvard’s Native presses', The Times, 14 January 2008)
  • Professor David Hand assumed office as President of the Royal Statistical Society on 1 January 2008
  • Professor Peter Hennessy
    • was guest editor of the Today programme on BBC R4 (28 December 2007)
    • selected to be one of the guest editors of BBC R4's Today programme between Christmas and the New Year ('Albarn and ex-spy to edit Today', BBC News website, 27 November 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves discussing Cabinets and the Bomb (19 November 2007)
    • provided the background for an article on Britain's rationale for keeping nuclear weapons with his publication Cabinets and the Bomb ('We still need our nuclear badge', The Times, 13 November 2007)
    • appeared on BBCR4's Start the Week programme, discussing how successive governments have dealt with the issue of nuclear weapons following publication of Cabinets and the Bomb by the British Academy (via OUP) (5 November 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R3's Private Passions programme, discussing his musical likes and dislikes (4 November 2007)
    • revealed Clement Atlee's fears regarding the nuclear bomb and the likelihood of its use in the 1940s ('Attlee feared atom bomb Armageddon', Sunday Times, 4 November 2007)
    • revealed Clement Atlee's fears regarding the nuclear bomb and the likelihood of its use in the 1940s ('Attlee feared atom bomb Armageddon', Sunday Times, 4 November 2007)
    • joined a panel of experts to assess what it takes to be a successful British Premier (Prime Ministers, BBC4, 22 September 2007)
    • returned to the area of North London where he grew up in the 1950s and reflects on how the neighbourhood has changed (The House I Grew Up In, BBC R4, 6 August 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Any Questions? (4 May 2007, transcript available)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Open Book, discussing political writing (29 April 2007)
    • was interviewed on BBC R4's Today programme regarding political writing and winning the one of the 2007 Orwell Prizes (25 April 2007 - available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/zwednesday_20070425.shtml (go to 8.45))
    • presented Secrets and Mysteries in BBC R4's Analysis strand, about the threat of terrorism and the UK government's strategy to counter it (the programme includes the first broadcast interview with Sir David Omand, the Co-ordinator of Security and Intelligence) (21 April 2007, transcript available)
  • Professor Sir Bob Hepple, QC, Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, interviewed following publication of the Council's report 'The forensic use of bioinformation: ethical issues' (BBC R4 Today programme, 18 September 2007; also reported in the Guardian, Independent, and The Times)
  • Professor Miles Hewstone interviewed by Madeleine Bunting on his work on social integration ('A World of Difference', Guardian, 5 September 2007)
  • Professor Gertrude Himmelfarb
  • Professor Eric Hobsbawm
    • commented on Gordon Brown's initiative to 'search for British values' ('In search of British values', Prospect, 27 September 2007)
    • was interviewed on the occasion of his 90th birthday ('Why the Left is right', The Scotsman, 7 July 2007)
    • appeared by BBC R3's Night Waves following publication of his new book Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism (Little, Brown 2007) (5 July 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week programme discussing the issues facing contemporary society (2 July 2007)
    • appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking on the theme of 'memories of an empire' (26 May 2007)
  • Professor Julian Jackson delivered a series of audio essays on the impact of the 1871 Paris Commune and the long shadow it has cast on social, cultural and political life in France (The Essay, BBC R3, 28 January-1 February 2008)
  • Dr M R James's short stories dramatised (Woman's Hour drama, BBC R4, 24-28 December 2007)
  • Professor John Kay
    • wrote on the economics of imperfect knowledge ('The fruitless search for exact knowledge', Financial Times, 16 October 2007 REQUIRES FREE REGISTRATION)
    • contributed to an examination of the lessons craftspeople have for entrepreneurs in running businesses (In Business, BBC R4, 27 September 2007)
    • wrote on the economic doctrine of the centre-left ('The failure of market failure' Prospect, 26 July 2007)
  • Sir Anthony Kenny
    • contributed to the debate surrounding the governance and management of Oxford University ('Manifesto for a modern ancient', THES, 27 July 2007 (review of Can Oxford be Improved? A View from the Dreaming Spires and the Satanic Mills, Anthony Kenny and Robert Kenny, Imprint Academic, 2007))
    • appeared on BBC R4's In Our Time, talking about William of Ockham and the principle of Ockham's Razor (31 May 2007)
    • profiled in THES, following publication of Philosophy in the Modern World (OUP) ('Classics Never Grow Old', THES, 11 May 2007, pp18-19
  • Professor Sir Ian Kershaw
    • gave evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committee hearing on financial stability and transparency on 17 December (reported on BBC News Website, 17 December 2007)
    • commented on inflation in the UK and related problems in the housing market ('Threat of inflation remains, says King', Financial Times, 29 November 2007 MAY REQUIRE FREE REGISTRATION)
    • commented on the Bank of England's handling of the 'Northern Rock crisis' and the ongoing difficulties faced by the banking sector (File on 4, BBC R4, 6 November 2007; transcript of the interview also available)
    • profiled (Profile, BBC R4, 23 September 2007)
    • appeared before the Treasury Select Committee and answered questions on the Bank's handling of the Northern Rock crisis (20 September 2007, highlights available from BBC News; reported in the Guardian)
    • set out the Bank's approach to the turmoil in the banking sector in a letter to the chairman of the Commons Treasury Select Committee ('Bank won't bail out City', Guardian, 12 September 2007)
    • discussed the omission of mortgage costs and house prices in the Consumer Price Index and the difficulties this presents the Monetary Policy Committee (BBC R4's Inside Money, 21 July 2007 (transcript available and interview with Professor King)
    • profiled (Ian Kershaw: Past Master, Guardian, Education section, 5 June 2007)
    • appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking about his book Fateful Choices (Allen Lane, 2007) (25 May 2007)
  • Professor Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England,
    • gave evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committee hearing on financial stability and transparency on 17 December (reported on BBC News Website, 17 December 2007)
    • commented on inflation in the UK and related problems in the housing market ('Threat of inflation remains, says King', Financial Times, 29 November 2007 MAY REQUIRE FREE REGISTRATION)
    • commented on the Bank of England's handling of the 'Northern Rock crisis' and the ongoing difficulties faced by the banking sector (File on 4, BBC R4, 6 November 2007; transcript of the interview also available)
  • Professor Adam Kuper discussed the anthropology of sibling incest on BBC R4's Woman's Hour (16 April 2007)
  • Professor Nicola Lacey
  • Professor Lord Richard Layard
    • discussed whether ideas such as 'happiness' and 'well-being' can be quantified and if so, how (More or Less, BBC R4, 12 November 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Broadcasting House, discussing the impact of social problems on the nation's mental health (21 October 2007)
    • welcomed the government's commitment to increasing significantly the availability of state-of-the-art psychological therapies for the treatment of depression ('And now for the good news about therapy', Observer, 14 October 2007)
    • contributed to a report on the announcement by Government that more is to be spent on 'talking therapies' for depression (BBC News at 10, 10 October 2007)
    • discussed the extent to which government should take responsibility for individual happiness ('Against unhappiness' Prospect, 31 May 2007)
  • Professor Hermione Lee
    • has been elected President of Wolfson College, Oxford, taking up her post on 1 October 2008 (reported on Wolfson's website, 11 February 2008)
    • had her biography of Edith Wharton selected by Margaret Drabble as her book of the year ('That's the best thing we've read all year', Observer, 25 November 2007)
    • interviewed Philip Roth on the publication of Exit, Ghost ('An audience with Philip Roth', Observer, 7 October 2007)
    • reviewed Sally Potter's production of Carmen at the ENO (Front Row, BBC R4, 1 October 2007)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Front Row, discussing Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth in a series on landmark portrayals of human sexuality (10 September 2007) and reviewing Atonement, the film adaptation of Ian McKewan's novel (5 September 2007)
    • appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking about her book Edith Wharton (Chatto and Windus, 2007) (1 June 2007)
  • Professor Angela Leighton's On Form selected as one of Adam Phillips' books of the year ('That's the best thing we've read all year', Observer, 25 November 2007)
  • Professor David Livingstone participated in a debate on the potential genetic basis for racism organised by Professor Ash Amin ('Is there a gene for racism?', THES, 3 August 2007)
  • Professor Roger Lonsdale has been awarded Modern Language Association Prize for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition for his edition of Samuel Johnson’s The Lives of the Poets (announced 5 December 2007)
  • Professor Diarmuid MacCulloch contributed to The Protestant Revolution, an examination of the impact Martin Luther and the Reformation continue to have on all aspects of modern life (BBC4 12, 19, 26 September, 1 October)
  • Professor Stephen Machin appeared on BBC R4's Today programme in an item on a report he co-authored on social mobility for the Sutton Trust (25 June 2007) (a press release from the Sutton Trust is available at http://www.suttontrust.com/newsarchive.asp#a016 and the full text of the report is available at http://www.suttontrust.com/policy/IntergenerationalMobility.pdf). This publication formed the basis of a series of special reports on class and social mobility by John Humphrys (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/policy/misc/social_mobility_index.shtml)
  • Dr Noel Malcolm commented on Gordon Brown's initiative to 'search for British values' ('In search of British values', Prospect, 27 September 2007)
  • Professor Eric Maskin awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Economics, with two colleagues ('Nobel for 'mechanism design' pioneers', Independent, 16 October 2007; his work explained: 'What is mechanism design theory?', Guardian, 15 October 2007; The press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences provides more background as well as a recorded interview with Professor Maskin.)
  • Professor Doreen Massey
    • wrote on the inequalities of the London economy ('Trading places . . . ', THES, 13 July 2007, pp. 16-17);
    • appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves to discuss 21st century globalisation (2 July 2007); and
    • participated in BBC R4's Start the Week programme discussing London's role in globalisation (25 June 2007)
  • Professor Stephen Nickell
    • commented on the possibility of a housing crisis in the light of the government's pledge to build 3 million more homes by 2020. (BBC News, 25 October 2007)
    • contributed to The Roof Over Your Head, a programme in BBC R4's Analysis strand, looking at the UK housing market and the effect of rising house prices on social inequality (16 August 2007, transcript available)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Today programme in his capacity as chair of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, talking about the UK housing market (11 July 2007)
    • was interviewed on BBC R4's Today programme regarding 'Affordability Matters', a report on the future cost of housing published by the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, of which he is chair (7 June 2007). The full text of the report is available from the Department of Communities and Local Government's website: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1510913
  • Baroness O'Neill took part in the Reith Global Debate on the status of freedom of speech today (BBC World Service, from 9 December 2007)
  • Professor Richard Overy
    • appeared on BBC R4's Today programme, discussing the reissue of What Britain Has Done, 1939-1945, for which he has written a new introduction (22 October 2007)
    • selected his fifty key dates in history ('The 50 key dates of world history', The Times, 19 October 2007)
  • Professor Lord Bikhu Parekh commented on Gordon Brown's initiative to 'search for British values' ('In search of British values', Prospect, 27 September 2007)
  • Professor Peter Parsons' book The City of the Sharp-nosed Fish was selected as one of the ten best history books by The Independent (11 September 2007)
  • Professor Robert Plomin discussed the role of genetics in determining IQ and educational performance, and how this might affect educational policy (Talking Politics, BBC R4, 1 September 2007)
  • Professor Robert Putnam interviewed about his work on social capital ('Capital ideas', Guardian, 18 July 2007)
  • Professor David Reynolds profiled, describing how he is set to become the latest popular 'television historian' ('David Reynolds: Peak performance', Guardian, 2 October 2007)
  • Professor Sir Adam Roberts discussed the future of Kosovo as an independent state, and the diplomatic implications of its creation ('Tomorrow Kosovo is expected to declare independence', Today programme, BBC R4, 16 February 2008 (audio file))
  • Professor Alan Ryan wrote on
    • John Stuart Mill's harm principle in the context of the anniversay of the Wolfenden Report on human sexuality ('If Justinian had been right to think that buggery brought on earthquakes, you'd have been right to protest against its eventual decriminalisation' THES, 21 September 2007)educational standards and university expansion ('We are intending to give degrees to students who can't get a C at GCSE in maths and English. Why?' THES, 13 August 2007)
    • the utility of A levels for selecting students for higher education reported ('Record pass rate with a quarter of A-levels at grade A', Daily Mail, 16 August 2007)
    • what the creation of the DIUS and DCSF reveals about government policy on education ('If we want an improved workforce, it's the skills of the non-academic 14 to 19-year-olds we need to worry about', THES, 13 July 2007, p. 13)
    • two-year degrees (THES, 8 June 2007, p. 13)
  • Dr Rosalind Savill marked 15 years in post as Director of the Wallace Collection (19 November 2007)
  • Professor David Sedley appeared on In Our Time discussing the philosophy and personality of Socrates (BBC R4, 27 September 2007)
  • Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams contributed to the series The Story of India, part of the BBC's India and Pakistan 07 strand (7 September 2007)
  • Professor Quentin Skinner
    • will deliver a lecture on John Milton as a Theorist of Liberty, the inaugural event of the celebration of Milton's 400th anniversary in Cambridge (30 January 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Start the Week to discuss John Milton and liberty (28 January 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves, discussing the continuing relevance of Machiavelli's The Prince (18 December 2007)
  • Professor Jon Stallworthy
  • Professor George Steiner
    • delivered a talk on those subjects he has been unable to write about, and the reasons why (chaired by Professor Marina Warner) (11 February 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R4's Front Row, discussing his various unwritten books, and the reasons he didn't write them (24 January 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R3's Night Waves, discussing his new work, which imagines all the books that he hoped to write, but never did (8 January 2008)
  • Professor Lord Nicholas Stern has spoken out in support of the the Climate Change Bill, currently before the House of Lords and called for the UK to give a lead to other countries in meeting the challenge of reducing global emissions ('Britain, climate change leaders', Times, 22 February 2008)
  • Professor Joseph Stiglitz
    • was interviewed on the long-term world-wide economic impact of the Iraq War ('The true cost of war', The Guardian, 28 February 2008)
    • appeared BBC R4's Start the Week, discussing how the cost of the Iraq War could have been so significantly underestimated (25 February 2008)
    • appeared on BBC R3's Nightwaves, discussing the true cost of America's war in Iraq, and its wider economic consequences (26 February 2008)
  • Professor Martin Swales interviewed in his role as Chairman of the Academy's Working Group on the decline in modern foreign language learning regarding the impact of poor language skills amongst students has on higher research in the UK ('Academy concern over decline in language study', Guardian, 21 November 2007)
  • Professor Oliver Taplin gave a platform talk on the relationship between Greek tragedy and vase paintings (Pots and Plays, Lyttelton Theatre, 11 January 2008)
  • Professor Charles Taylor profiled and interviewed (Prospect, 31 January 2008)
  • Professor Pat Thane
    • discussed the importance of history to policy makers (Start the Week, BBC R4, 26 November 2007)
    • participated in Changing Charities, a programme in BBC R4's Analysis strand, discussing the role of the voluntary sector in the delivery of public services (5 July 2007) (transcript available)
  • Professor Nigel Thrift profiled as he published a new strategy for the University of Warwick ('Going up in the world', Independent, 13 September 2007)
  • Professor Gerard van Gelder appeared on In Our Time, discussing The Arabian Nights (In Our Time, BBC R4, 18 October 2007)
  • Professor Sir Brian Vickers was knighted in the New Year's Honours 2008 for services to literary scholarship (29 December 2007)
  • Professor Marina Warner
    • appeared on In Our Time, discussing The Arabian Nights (In Our Time, BBC R4, 18 October 2007)
    • contributed a short story, The Family Friend, to a series of specially commissioned new fiction read by Alan Howard (BBC R4, Afternoon Reading, 18 October 2007)
    • delivered the lecture at the British Library's 2007 Annual Literary Dinner (edited version published as 'My journey through the stacks of time' The Times, 21 July 2007
    • appeared at the 2007 Hay Festival, talking about her book Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century (31 May 2007)
    • reconsidered Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare ('Evangelists for the Bard' Guardian, Books Section, 5 May 2007)
  • Dame Mary Warnock discussed the requirement for a national human bioethics commission given the structures already in place ('Parliament must retain moral authority over science', Observer, 13 January 2008)
  • Professor Andew Whiten was awarded the Royal Anthropological Institute's Rivers medal (for a published body of work which has made, as a whole, a significant contribution to social, physical or cultural anthropology or archaeology) (25 July 2007)
  • Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury,
  • Sir Alan Wilson has been appointed Chair of the AHRC (announced 11 December 2007)
  • Sir Mortimer Wheeler profiled in Sir Mortimer Wheeler: A Life in Ruins as part of BBC4's Archaeology Night (BBC4, 21 October 2007)
  • Lord Woolf to chair the independent ethics review committee at BAE (see: http://www.woolfcommittee.com/)
  • Professor Michael Zander was interviewed on BBC R4's Today programme regarding perceived ethnic and racial biases in the criminal justice system (13 June 2007)
  • Dr Theodore Zeldin wrote on the Bologna Process and the importance of the informal, social side of higher education. ('Across campuses and nations - only connect', THES, 18 May 2007, p. 17)
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