British Academy Honors Pair of Political Journalists
The British Academy is honoring political journalists Zeinab Badawi and Dame Frances Cairncross among a number of individuals awarded for their services to the humanities and social sciences. The announcement was made on August 20.
Badawi, Cairncross, William Dalrymple, Andreas Gestrich and John Hemming will each receive the President’s Medal. This medal rewards outstanding service to the cause of the humanities and social sciences and covers a broad range of activities, including insightful journalism contributing to public understanding, use of research in policymaking, and public leadership.Badawi’s medal, for examples, recognizes her international contributions to broadcast journalism, for holding power to account and for advocating for women’s education in the Sudan and other countries. Dame Frances receives her award for the pioneering way she has used economic and social science research in environmental, media, public policy and technology journalism.
Economist Cairncross DBE, FRSE, FAcSS and a former chair of Economic and Social Research Council for six years ending 2007, was honored for her contributions to economic journalism. She worked for The Economist for 20 years, the last five, from 1999 to 2004, as managing editor.
Dalrymple FRSL, FRGS, FRAS, FRSE was cited for his literary achievements and for co-founding the Jaipur Literary Festival; Gestrich for his contribution to the study of German and Continental European history; and Hemming for his work in the field of the colonial history and ethnography of Brazil and Peru, and the promotion of the protection of endangered societies.
The academy will present a posthumous British Academy Medal to the late Miriam Griffin for her lifetime’s contribution to Roman history and ancient thought through books such as Nero: the end of a dynasty and Seneca on society. The British Academy Medals are awarded for landmark academic achievement in any of the humanities and social science disciplines. Other medals will go to Timothy Bruce Mitford, FSA for East of Asia Minor: Rome’s Hidden Frontier, Vols I & II and to Catherine Whistler for Venice and Drawing, 1500-1800: Theory, Practice and Collection.
Other prizes awarded for subjects focused on the social sciences include:
- The Wiley Prize in Economics in 2018 will be awarded to Dr Mirko Draca (University of Warwick and Theme Lead for “The Changing Nature of Work” within the Economic Data Science programme at The Alan Turing Institute) for his promising early-career work in economics, especially for his work on the effect of Chinese imports. The prize, worth £5,000, is awarded annually for achievement in research by an outstanding early-career economist and is sponsored by the publisher, Wiley.
- The Brian Barry Prize in Political Science in 2018 is awarded to Zeynep Pamuk (St John’s College, University of Oxford) for her essay, “Justifying Public Funding for Science.” The academy, in partnership with Cambridge University Press and the British Journal of Political Science, awards this prize in honor of Brian Barry FBA, a founding editor of the journal.
- The Wiley Prize in Psychology in 2018 is awarded to Dr Sarah Lloyd-Fox (Birkbeck, University of London and University of Cambridge) for her outstanding empirical and methodological contributions to the study of infants. This annual prize provides an award of £5,000 in recognition of excellence in research in psychology. It alternately rewards lifetime achievement by an outstanding international scholar (as in this year) and promising early career work by a UK-based psychologist.
- The Leverhulme Medal and Prize in 2018 will be awarded to David W. Harvey FBA (Graduate Center of the City University of New York) for demonstrating the importance of the social sciences in understanding the modern complexities of capitalism, urbanism and questions of social justice. Awarded triennially in partnership with The Leverhulme Trust, this medal and £5,000 prize honors significant contribution to knowledge and understanding in a field within the humanities and social sciences.
For a full list or 2018 winners, click here.