IOE academic elected to the British Academy

Professor Unterhalter is one of five UCL academics who have received the honour this year. The other four professors are Professor Meg Russell (UCL Political Science), Professor Essi Viding (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences), Professor Christopher Pinney (UCL Anthropology) and Professor Rick Rawlings (UCL Laws).

They are among 86 distinguished scholars to be elected to the prestigious fellowship this year.

Fifty-two Fellows were elected from UK universities and 30 Corresponding Fellows were elected from overseas. The Academy also announced four new Honorary Fellows.

They join a community of over 1,500 leading minds that make up the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Professor Elaine Unterhalter is Co-Director of the Centre for Education and International Development at the IOE. 

She has more than 25 years’ experience working on themes concerned with gender, race and class inequalities and their bearing on education. Her specialist interests are in the capability approach and human development and education in Africa, particularly South Africa. Professor Unterhalter’s current concerns are with education, poverty and global social justice. 

Her books include Measuring the Unmeasurable in Education published in 2018 and Gender, Schooling and Global Social Justice won first prize in the Society of Education Studies book awards in 2008.

Professor Unterhalter said: “I'm overwhelmed, as everyone is, by the terrible pandemic we have seen spread across the world in the past few months. One thing that is clear as everyone tries to adapt to our changing world is the importance of education in responding to this crisis. I hope we can take this moment to think together about how we appreciate education, the opportunities it can offer, and the insights it can build for better societies which we need now more than ever.”

Links

• View Professor Elaine Unterhalter’s research profile
• Read Professor Unterhalter’s article ‘An other self? Education, foreignness, reflexive comparison and capability as connection’
• Centre for Education and International Development
• Department of Education, Practice and Society
• The British Academy