Julia Black appointed British Academy president-elect

Black wants more women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds in positions of influence

Julia Black has promised to make the British Academy “accessible to people from all walks of life” after she was confirmed as the next president of the learned society—only the second female leader in the academy’s 118-year history.

Black, who is currently the academy’s strategic director for innovation and a professor of law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, will replace historian David Cannadine in the role in July 2021 for a four-year term.