York Professor elected as Fellow of the British Academy

Posted on 21 July 2025

The UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences has elected Professor Beth Jefferies in the Department of Psychology to its Fellowship.

This prestigious award for Professor Jefferies is in recognition of outstanding contributions in her field of cognitive neuroscience and the neural basis of memory and language.

On receiving the news of this prestigious Fellowship, Professor Jefferies said “I’m deeply honoured – and genuinely amazed – to have been elected to the British Academy. I’m incredibly grateful to the mentors, collaborators, and students who’ve shaped my thinking and made research such a rewarding journey. I’m really looking forward to contributing to the Academy’s important work supporting research and scholarship in the social sciences and to engaging with fellows from across disciplines.”

The British Academy Fellowship comprises over 1,800 world-leading leading scholars from the UK and overseas.

Welcoming the new Fellows for 2025, 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. 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.