UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
British Academy awards

A British Academy award may sound like an Oscar, but it is in fact a prestigious grant given to outstanding academics to assist with their research. The purpose of the award is to allow them time to undertake or complete a programme of research, while relieved of their normal teaching and administrative commitments. Two academics at the University of Bristol have just been honoured in this way.

Dr Steven Greer from the Law department has been awarded the one-year 'Thank-Offering to Britain' fellowship. The money for this grant comes from the proceeds of a 'Thank-You Britain Appeal' initiated by the Association of Jewish Refugees, as a mark of gratitude after Britain provided homes for Jews persecuted by the Nazis during the Second World War.

Dr Greer teaches courses on human rights and the award will particularly help his research in this area. His study will examine the failure of the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg to resolve several core issues raised by the European Convention on Human Rights - such as whether human rights standards should be harmonised in member states, or national differences preserved.

Dr Greer said: "I feel truly humbled that money from a source such as this should give me the privileged opportunity of spending a year thinking, reading and writing about these issues."

Professor David Hopkins from the University's English department has been awarded a two-year Research Readership to work on volumes five and six of the Longman edition of The Poems of John Dryden. This is a scholarly undertaking of major proportions and will result in the most complete edition ever prepared of the work of England's most celebrated late-seventeenth-century poet. The first four volumes have already been published.

Professor Hopkins said of his award: "I am absolutely delighted. It should make all the difference to the next few years. And, of course, it's jolly good for the department and the University, as well as for me!"

Both the English and the Law departments at the University of Bristol were awarded Grade Five in a recent government assessment of all research done in British universities. This means that their research quality reached levels of national and international excellence.

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Email: public-relations@bristol.ac.uk
Copyright: 2001 The University of Bristol, UK
Updated: Wednesday, 20-Mar-2002 17:11:44 GMT