Five Exeter academics awarded British Academy funding

The five have been given British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships, which enable early-career academics to conduct a significant piece of research leading to publication over a period of three years.

The Exeter academics and their projects are:

• Camille Coye – Phonemic use and its development in vocal communication of chestnut-crowned babblers
• Adam Horsley – Libertine literature and criminal justice in early 17^th Century France
• Julia Leikin – In the spirit of the laws: The Russian Empire in the international order, 1700-1856
• Yuexin Rachel Lin – Turning guests into hosts: Cross-cultural identities in the Russian Far East, 1900-1925
• Catherine Owen – Civic participation from discourse to action in non-democracies: Russia and China in comparative perspective

“I am very proud to see five of our most promising young scholars at Exeter recognised by the British Academy,” said Professor Nick Talbot FRS, Deputy Vice Chancellor for research.

“These are highly prestigious Fellowships, which are only awarded to absolutely outstanding researchers.

“I am looking forward to seeing the careers of these academic colleagues progress with this excellent support.”

This year the British Academy has awarded a record 85 Postdoctoral Fellowships to outstanding early-career scholars, an unprecedented 64% of whom are women.

More awards have been made thanks to a £10m boost in funding from the government’s Global Talent Fund for an extra 40 fellowships, enabling the British Academy to make the most awards in the scheme’s 30-year history.

Alun Evans, chief executive of the British Academy, said: “We are delighted to welcome the largest ever cohort of Postdoctoral Fellows.

“It is particularly exciting to recognise the achievements of so many women at early-career level. This is a promising trend – both for our disciplines and academia as a whole – as Postdoctoral Fellows often go on to stellar academic careers.”