From Our Fellows 03, January 2017 by The British Academy published on 2017-01-06T17:02:31Z Welcome to the British Academy’s first ‘From Our Fellows’ podcast of 2017. These short reflections by four Fellows of the British Academy – Catherine Merridale, Rana Mitter, Oriana Bandiera, and Steve Connor – offer us intriguing prospects for the future, but also remind us of how strong is the pull of the past. Catherine Merridale has held a series of posts at British universities, before becoming a full-time writer in 2014. Her latest book is 'Lenin on the Train', and here she describes how she re-enacted Lenin’s momentous journey of 1917. As we start this new year, China seems to be a focus of so much world news. Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford, explains why memories of the Second World War feature prominently in the shaping of China’s current foreign policy. [at 7:30] Oriana Bandiera is Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. Here she tells an encouraging story about how the lot of the poorest women in Bangladesh can be improved. [at 14:42] How do academics decide on their next area of research? Here Steven Connor, Grace 2 Professor of English at the University of Cambridge, offers an intriguing insight into how he has started thinking about ‘knowing’. [at 23:16] Genre Learning