Leicester medieval historian elected as Fellow of the British Academy
Professor Joanna Story at Breedon on the Hill in Leicestershire.
The University of Leicester's Professor Joanna Story has been elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy as a UK Fellow.
A leading expert in Early Medieval History, Professor Story joins the likes of Professor Dame Mary Beard, Professor Sir Simon Schama, and Professor Rana Mitter as historians within this prestigious group of pioneering voices in the humanities and social sciences. The Academy’s Fellowship comprises over 1,700 leading minds in these subjects from the UK and overseas. Founded in 1902, the British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. It invests in researchers and projects across the UK and overseas, engages the public with fresh thinking and debates, and brings together scholars, government, business and civil society to influence policy for the benefit of the public.
Professor Story's research career started with a PhD at Durham University supported by a doctoral studentship from the British Academy. She joined the University of Leicester in 1996, becoming professor in 2011.
Her research centres on the connections between the early English kingdoms and Francia, 600-900 CE, and is characterised by wide-ranging interdisciplinary collaborations with biomolecular and materials scientists, and imaging specialists, alongside deep engagement with the written and visual evidence.
Professor Story currently holds a multi-million pound research grant, selected by the European Research Council and funded by UKRI on Insular manuscripts. This ambitious international project examines books made in the early English and Irish kingdoms and in writing centres in Francia that had been founded by Christian missionaries from the islands during the early medieval period.
These include some of the best-known medieval works of art, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells alongside many hundreds more that preserved and transmitted art and scholarship around Europe in the post Roman centuries.
Professor Story said: "It is a real honour to have been elected an FBA. I started my research career with a studentship from the British Academy, and the foundational work that I did then has underpinned everything that I have done since, in research, teaching and public engagement with medieval history and archaeology."
Professor Story was the lead academic advisor for the British Library’s sell-out exhibition on Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War in 2018/19, and has worked with the British Museum and English Heritage among other local, regional, national and international heritage organisations to communicate the importance and fascination of the middle ages to public as well as scholarly audiences. She is also a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Professor Story also joins other University of Leicester academics elected as Fellows of the British Academy. Professor of History, Clare Anderson was elected in 2023. David Mattingly, emeritus professor of Archaeology, Gordon Campbell, emeritus professor of Renaissance Studies, Christopher Dyer, emeritus professor of English Local History, and Colin Haselgrove, emeritus professor of Archaeology are also British Academy Fellows.
Welcoming the new Fellows, Professor Susan J. Smith PBA, new President of the British Academy, 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.”