Two Edinburgh academics elected to the British Academy for 2013

The new fellows are Professor David Fergusson, Professor of Divinity, and Professor Lindsay Paterson, Professor of Education Policy.

The British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the promotion of the humanities and social sciences. It is an independent, self-governing body of more than 900 Fellows.

At its Annual General Meeting on 18 July the British Academy elected 42 new Fellows from 18 different UK universities, each of them a highly distinguished academic, recognised for their outstanding research and work across the humanities and social sciences.

The humanities and social sciences celebrate the study of what it means to be human and how we relate to the world around us. They can also help us tackle many of the challenges faced in this country and the world as a whole. Our new Fellows, from across the UK and world, are world-class experts in the humanities and social sciences and can play a vital role in sustaining the Academy's activities – helping select researchers and research projects for funding support, contributing to policy reports and speaking at the Academy's public events.

Professor David Fergusson is the Principal of New College. Prior to his time at Edinburgh, he worked for several years as a parish minister in the Church of Scotland and was Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Aberdeen. Later this year, he will deliver the Birks Lectures at McGill University, Montreal and the Hulsean sermon at the University of Cambridge.

Professor Lindsay Paterson is a Professor of Education Policy in the School of Social and Political Science. Since the late 1980s he has worked on topics in educational sociology, education policy and Scottish politics. He has served on the Research Resources Board of the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and has been an adviser to the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee, to several government departments, and to all five political parties represented in the Scottish Parliament.

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.