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

Oxford University Press is delighted to make the prestigious publications of the British Academy available online. At launch, British Academy Publications Online (BAPO) will offer readers access to the full text of 100 print titles comprising both of monographs and collections of essays.  Among those included are Vernon Bogdanors The British Constitution in the Twentieth Century and Georgina Herrmanns After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam. The titles included on British Academy Publications Online cover a wide range of subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, including classics, archaeology, history, politics and philosophy. The British Academy, established in 1902, is ...

A new round of Newton International Fellowships - an initiative to fund research collaborations and improve links between UK and overseas researchers - has now opened. The Newton International Fellowships are funded by the British Academy and the Royal Society and aim to attract the most promising early-career post-doctoral researchers from overseas in the fields of the humanities, the natural, physical and social sciences. The Fellowships enable researchers to work for two years at a UK research institution with the aim of fostering long-term international collaborations. Newton Fellows will receive an allowance of £24,000 to cover subsistence and up to ...

Research led by Professor Robin Dunbar of Oxford University suggests that the number of friends people have is related to the size of their frontal lobes, the Metro reports. The study shows 'a link between the ability to read how other people think and social network size', said Professor Dunbar.

Economist Professor John Kay examines the monetary implications of  Scottish devolution in the Financial Times, and considers the case for a treaty to secure a currency union with England.

Professor Graham Furniss will give evidence to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on 1 February 2012, as part of its inquiry into science and international development.  The Academy submitted written evidence in December 2011, available on the research and higher education policy page.

High Court Judge, Sir Robert Cranston, will deliver the 2012 Queen Mary Law and Society Lecture on 1 March in the Mathematics Lecture Theatre at Queen Mary, University of London in Mile End Road.  The lecture, Judges, politics and the state: the judicial role, begins at 6.30pm. Email lawevents@qmul.ac.uk

As part of his research into the condition of autism, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at Cambridge, Simon Baron-Cohen, is exploring growing evidence that parents who are 'systemisers', such as hard science graduates, are more likely to have a child with autism.  

Tony Judt, who died in 2010, is the subject of a new book Thinking the 20th Century: Intellectuals and Politics in the 20th C, the result of interviews with Timothy Snyder, carried out in the last year of his life. (Heinemann)

The distinguished philosopher and well-known broadcaster, Lord Quinton, has been honoured by the creation of a tutorial fellowship in his name at New College, Oxford, funded by the Leon Levy Foundation. Professor Quinton died in 2010.

Professor Paul Brand has been appointed Professor of English Legal History at Oxford.

Emeritus Professor of Social Policy and Labour Peer, Baroness Lister of Burtersett, questions comments regarding the benefit cap made by the Executive Director of the Centre for Social Justice in a letter to The Guardian.

Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the worlds greatest contemporary novelists, will speak at the British Academy in June as part of its spring programme of events - ranging from exploring literature from Dickens to Greek myths and issues from Scottish devolution to climate change. The acclaimed writer, politician and journalist, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010, will discuss his latest novel, The Dream of the Celt, to coincide with its publication in June.   Among the themes in the programme are events which reflect the breadth of the humanities and social sciences and their role in addressing current ...

On 26 January Professor Sir Adam Roberts gave an opening presentation at a Wilton Park Conference on 'Peaceful Protest: A Cornerstone of Democracy', held at Wiston House, Sussex, 26-8 January 2012.

Leading figure in the world of economics, Professor John Kay, is speaking at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 24 February.  Professor Kay will discuss issues raised by the Review of UK Equity Markets and Long Term Decision Making which he has conducted for the Department of Business Innovation and Skills.

Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, Tim  Blanning, joined Honorary Fellow Melvyn Bragg on Radio 4's In Our Time to discuss 1848, the year that revolution swept across Europe.

Emeritus Professor of the History of Art, Martin Kemp, discusses the first realistic depiction of the moon by the artist and friend of Galileo, Cigoli, in Frankenstein's Moon on BBC Radio 4.

Research Professor at the Institute of Contemporary History, Kings College London, Vernon Bogdanor, argues in The Times today that the judiciary, not Parliament, is the true guardian of human rights.

The British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust have today (18.01.12) announced a major new collaboration to support the award of Small Research Grants across the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Academy announced last year that its Small Research Grants scheme (SRGs) had been resumed with the agreement of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, although with more restricted funding than in the past. Today, in a significant new development, the Leverhulme Trust has confirmed a grant of £1.5 million over 3 years to support the scheme which will continue to be administered by the Academy. This support recognises the ...

The Chair of Greek at Glasgow University is to be revived with a £2.4 million bequest from Professor Douglas MacDowell who died in 2010.  The post has been dormant for more than a decade after the departments of Greek and Latin merged, reports The Scotsman. 

Professor Stephen Ball will give evidence to the House of Commons Education Select Committee (18 January 2012) as part of its inquiry into the administration of examinations for 15-19 year olds. The Academy submitted written evidence last month, available on the research and higher education policy page.

Professors Laurence Dreyfus and Jacqueline Rose are amongst signatories to a letter to The Independent today, calling for the Natural History Museum to withdraw from a research project in collaboration with an Israeli firm, which is located in an illegal settlement in the Palestinian West Bank. 

Albert Weale is Vice-President (Public Policy) of the Academy. He is delivering an inaugural lecture at UCL on 31 January at 6.30pm, entitled 'Public Policy and the Democratic Intellect'. He is also chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, which has just published a report marking its 20th anniversary.  

Professor Gordon Campbell has been given the 2012 Longman - History Today Trustees Award for lifetime contribution to history. Previous recipients include Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch and the ODNB.

International equality expert Professor Christopher McCrudden, from Belfast, has been appointed to the school of law at Queens University Belfast.  Professor McCrudden has joined Queens from Oxford to spearhead the universitys work on human rights and equality law.

Professor of History at Princeton University, Linda Colley, gave evidence to the Select Committee for Political and Constitutional Reform, which is considering 'mapping the path to codifying - or not codifying - the UK's constitution.'

British democracy is in crisis with almost three quarters of the electorate dissatisfied with Parliament and cynical about politicians, says a new report Building a new politics? published by the British Academy.The reports author, Professor of Politics and Governance at the University of Southampton, Gerry Stoker, says the majority of the electorate feel they have no influence over the way the country is run and criticises the Coalitions reform plans as inadequate.  He explains:In the late 1950s, almost three quarters of British citizens felt that national decisions were within their span of influence, but todays electorate feel powerless and mistrustful ...

Talking about his new book What Are Universities For? Professor Collini will provide a spirited and compelling argument for rethinking the way we see our universities and the purposes they serve at the LSE on 28 February.

In the news again, Professor Mary Beard has been shortlisted for the Hatchet Job of the Year Award for her review of Rome by Robert Hughes in the Guardian. While praising the Shock of the New author's 'sharp observation and trenchant one-liners' in the latter half of the book, the first half is 'riddled with errors and misunderstandings' says the classics professor.

As the biopic The Iron Lady goes on general release, classics professor Mary Beard gives her view in the Guardian on whether Margaret Thatcher is a feminist icon.

Professor Margaret McGowan will give the Leopold Delisle lectures entitled  'Sources livresques et albums d'images:  La Danse a la Renaissance', at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in March 2012.

Whilst condeming the actions of a minority of young people during the summer riots, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warned against being 'suspicious and hostile' towards young people. In his New Year's Day message he suggested 'we should just be asking how we make friends with our younger fellow citizens - for the sake of our happiness as well as theirs.'

The exhibition The Horse: Ancient Arabia to the Modern World, curated by Keeper of the Department of the Middle East, Dr John Curtis, will be open at the British Museum from 24 May until 30 September. The display will trace the animal's story across thousands of years of human history and include paintings by George Stubbs, carvings from Saudi Arabia and pure gold harness decorations.  

Contrary to the views of some commentators, Lord Bragg has suggested that social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook may improve the literacy of a new generation.  'We think [social networking] has supplanted letter writing,' he told The Times, 'but....up comes new techonology and the written word is one of the things that uses it'. Lord Bragg has recently completed a radio series entitled The Written Word about the history of writing.