Michael Silk, Professor of Classical and Comparative Literature, at King's College London, has been elected as a Fellow of the British Academy.
The British Academy, established by Royal Charter in 1902, champions and supports the humanities and social sciences. It aims to inspire, recognise and support excellence and high achievement across the UK and internationally.
Each year, the British Academy elects to its Fellowship up to 38 outstanding UK-based scholars, who have achieved distinction in any branch of the humanities and social sciences. The prime criterion for election is academic distinction as reflected in scholarly research activity and publication. Only one or two scholars a year are elected in most fields.
The Academy has over 900 Fellows, encompassing psychologists, economists, historians, lawyers, theologians, criminologists and many others. Their expertise can shed light on major topical issues, ranging from climate change to radical extremism.
Illustrious group
Professor Silk joined the Classics Department at King’s as a Lecturer in 1970. He became Reader in 1985 and Professor of Greek Language and Literature in 1991, a position he held until 2006. Since 2006 he has been Professor of Classical and Comparative Literature, teaching within the thriving new Comparative Literature programme. Between 2000 and 2003 he had a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, and between 2003 and 2007 spent half his time as Visiting Professor of Greek and Comparative Literature at Boston University in the USA.
Honoured to be elected to the Fellowship, Professor Silk said,
'I feel it a kind of vindication of the intellectual and academic open-endedness that has always been at the heart of my efforts within Classics – to relate classical literature to literature as a whole – and which is currently reflected, at King’s, in my position within the Comparative Literature programme.'
Professor Silk joins an illustrious group of 17 King’s academics who are BA Fellows.
Notes to editors
King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (
Times Higher Education 2008) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries, and more than 5,700 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.
King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit:
www.kingshealthpartners.org.