22 July 2025
Arts & Humanities academics awarded British Academy Fellowship
In 2025, 58 UK Fellows, 30 International Fellows and 4 Honorary Fellows have been elected to the British Academy Fellowship.
Professor Erica Carter and Professor David Papineau are the new British Academy Fellows.
Professor Erica Carter is Professor of German and Film at the Department of Film Studies at King’s and founding Chair of the UK German Screen Studies Network. She has published and lectured extensively on German and British cinema, cultural studies and cultural history.
Professor Erica Carter leads Activating the Exile Archive project – one of many offering cultural and community responses to the war in Sudan, aimed at preserving the work of one of the country’s most prominent cultural figures – artist, experimental filmmaker and public intellectual Hussein Shariffe.
'This is a great honour for me personally. But I’m especially delighted for the colleagues with whom I’m working on endangered film heritage in countries including Sudan, Egypt, and Ghana. Preserving cultural heritage and ensuring access for the communities to whom it rightly belongs is a key contemporary challenge. This Fellowship will help me take that work forward with global partners,' said Professor Carter.
Professor David Papineau is a Professor of Philosophy of Science at the Department of Philosophy. He joined King's in 1990 and has written widely on epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophy of science and mind.
'I am pleased and honoured to have been elected to the Academy—not least because of the recognition it brings to the world-leading Department of Philosophy at King’s that has nurtured and supported my work for thirty-five years,' said Professor Papineau.
Welcoming the new 2025 Fellows, the new President of the British Academy Professor Susan J Smith said:
“One of my first acts as the incoming President of the British Academy is to welcome this year’s newly elected Fellows. What a line-up! With specialisms ranging from the neuroscience of memory to the power of music and the structural causes of poverty, they represent the very best of the humanities and social sciences. They bring years of experience, evidence-based arguments and innovative thinking to the profound challenges of our age: managing the economy, enabling democracy, and securing the quality of human life.
“This year, we have increased the number of new Fellows by nearly ten percent to cover some spaces between disciplines. Champions of research excellence, every new Fellow enlarges our capacity to interpret the past, understand the present, and shape resilient, sustainable futures. It is a privilege to extend my warmest congratulations to them all.”
Founded in 1902, the British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. It is a Fellowship consisting of over 1,800 world-leading leading scholars in these subjects from the UK and overseas. Current Fellows include the classicist Professor Dame Mary Beard, the historian and China expert Professor Rana Mitter and philosopher Professor Baroness Onora O’Neill, while previous Fellows include Dame Frances Yates, Sir Winston Churchill, Seamus Heaney and Beatrice Webb. The Academy is also a funder of both national and international research, as well as a forum for debate and public engagement.
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Professor of German and Film
Professor of Philosophy of Science