Academics elected Fellows of the British Academy

Posted on Thursday 18 July 2019

Professor Nicky Milner and Professor Gregory Currie are among 76 distinguished scholars to be elected to the prestigious fellowship in recognition of their work in the fields of Archaeology and Philosophy. 

They join The British Academy, a community of over 1400 of the leading minds that make up the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. As well as a fellowship, the British Academy is a funding body for research, nationally and internationally, and a forum for debate and engagement.

Department of Archaeology

Professor Milner is Head of the Department of Archaeology. Her research has changed understanding of British and northwest European prehistory, in particular, the character of pre-farming Mesolithic hunter-gatherer (forager) societies. Her research has been rooted in archaeological practice, making full use of new technologies, in imaging, geochemistry and field archaeology. Professor Milner is also being recognised for her modern interdisciplinary approach to archaeology, her skills in combining humanistic and scientific approaches in the analysis of the deep past, and her formidable leadership and management qualities. 

Professor Milner said:

"I am absolutely delighted to have been elected to the British Academy. It is a huge honour and I look forward to working with other Fellows in promoting the humanities and social sciences."

Department of Philosophy

Professor Currie from the Department of Philosophy, is a leading scholar in aesthetics who has had an important impact in several fields. His book An Ontology of Art helped to create the subdiscipline that goes by that name, and he has made a lasting and original contribution to the understanding of fiction. His book Image and Mind helped to found the movement for the cognitive study of film, and Recreative Minds was the first book-length treatment of the claims of simulation theory. His Imagining and Knowing is due out with Oxford University Press in 2021. He has a long-standing interest in cognitive science which he has used to reshape the agenda in both aesthetics and associated areas of the philosophy of mind.

Of his election to the Fellowship, Professor Gregory Currie, said:

"I am delighted to be elected to the Academy and want to pay tribute to the University of York and especially to my colleagues in Philosophy who have made my six years here so far among the most exciting and productive in my academic life."