Birmingham academics elected by British Academy

Academics from the University of Birmingham have been elected to the British Academy in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the humanities and social sciences.

Professor Lyndsey Stonebridge FBA, from the School of English, Drama and Creative Studies, has been made Vice President for Public Engagement, and Professor Ian Apperly has been elected as a Fellow.

Stonebridge, a world-leading interdisciplinary scholar and public advocate for the arts and humanities and a Fellow of the British Academy since 2023, will lead the organisation's efforts to connect the humanities and social sciences with the wider public and champion the Academy's research and insights to diverse audiences. In her academic life, she works across traditional disciplines, bringing literary and historical insights to law and political theory and is a regular journalist and broadcaster, notably writing on themes of justice, refugees, and the work of Hannah Arendt.

In 2020, she published a collection of essays, Writing and Righting: Literature in the Age of Human Rights, which drew on her journalism and her work with two major international research projects, Refugee Hosts and Rights4Time. Her acclaimed 2024 book, We Are Free to Change The World, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in political writing.

Professor Lyndsey Stonebridge from the University of Birmingham said: “Facts and imagination are key to our work in the social sciences and humanities, and to the functioning of a plural and creative society. The British Academy is committed to ensuring that the SHAPE disciplines are at the heart of public conversations and debates about our present and the future.

“It’s a real honour to be taking on the role of Vice President for Public Engagement at this crucial juncture.”

Mindreaders – and social understanding

Experimental Psychologist Professor Ian Apperly has been elected to the British Academy in recognition of his studies into social understanding, its cognitive and neural basis, how it develops, and why it varies between people. This has led to an interest in neurodiversity, and other sources of variability in how people understand one another. He is the author of over 100 journal articles, and the 2010 book, entitled “Mindreaders: The cognitive basis of theory of mind”.

Professor Apperly is the founding director of the Centre for Developmental Science at the University of Birmingham, having come to study for a PhD in developmental psychology in Birmingham in 1995. He has been awarded the Margaret Donaldson Prize by the British Psychological Society, and the EPS Prize by the Experimental Psychology Society.

Professor Ian Apperly from the University of Birmingham said: “I'm delighted to be among the fellows elected to The British Academy this year. Science is a collaborative enterprise, and all my work reflects the skills, ideas, and effort of a wonderful set of colleagues and students who I've been lucky enough to work with, as well as the collaborative environment in Birmingham.”

Apperly is among 58 new Fellows elected in 2025 from 25 universities across the United Kingdom, alongside 30 International Fellows from universities in the United States, Ireland, South Africa, Singapore, China, Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Cyprus. Four Honorary Fellows have also been elected in recognition of their exceptional achievements in music, art, journalism and librarianship.

Current British Academy Fellows include classicist Professor Dame Mary Beard, the historian and China expert Professor Rana Mitter and philosopher Professor Baroness Onora O’Neill. The Academy also counts Professor David Olusoga, Baroness Brenda Hale, and Professor Gary Younge among its Honorary Fellows.