British Academy Names Indian Americans Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Named as Corresponding Fellows

Pratap Bhanu Mehta (thebritishacademy.ac.uk photos)

India-West Staff Reporter

The British Academy has elected 84 new Fellows in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the SHAPE subjects – the social sciences, humanities and the arts, with two Indian Americans named among this year’s Corresponding Fellows: Princeton University professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Columbia University professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

Also named was India-based professor Sukanta Chaudhuri of Jadavpur University.

The expertise of this year’s Fellows ranges from the cognitive processes underpinning multilingualism, to the forms of social change associated with the introduction of IVF and other reproductive technologies and the contemporary role of religion in Western society, the academy said.

Fifty-two Fellows were elected from UK universities, with a further 29 – Corresponding Fellows – elected from universities in the US, Australia, India, Russia, Italy, France, Singapore, Poland, China, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Sweden, the Republic of Ireland and Hungary, it said.

“As the new president of the British Academy, it gives me great pleasure to welcome this new cohort of Fellows, who are as impressive as ever and remind us of the rich and diverse scholarship and research undertaken within the SHAPE disciplines – the social sciences, humanities and the arts. I am very much looking forward to working with them on our shared interests,” the new president of the British Academy, Julia Black, said.

“The need for SHAPE subjects has never been greater. As Britain recovers from the pandemic and seeks to build back better, the insights from our diverse disciplines will be vital to ensure the health, wellbeing and prosperity of the UK and will continue to provide the cultural and societal enrichment that has sustained us over the last eighteen months. Our new Fellows embody the value of their subjects and I congratulate them warmly for their achievement,” Black added.

Founded in 1902, the British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. It is a Fellowship of over 1,400 of the leading minds in these subjects from the UK and overseas.