WHO WE ARE

The day-to-day running of the CDBU is managed by an executive committee:

Gordon Campbell FBA (chair) is professor of Renaissance studies at the University of Leicester. He is a former chair of the Society for Renaissance Studies and of the English Association. His interest in international issues in higher education has been shaped by visits to universities in some 70 countries.

Dorothy Bishop FBA FRS is professor of developmental neuropsychology at the University of Oxford and a Wellcome Trust principal research fellow. She conducts a programme of research into developmental language disorders. She also has an interest in communication of science and academic issues via social media.

John Dainton FRSA FRS is emeritus professor of physics at the University of Liverpool.

Tim Horder is an emeritus fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, and senior research fellow at the Oxford University Medical School working on embryology and evolution. He edits the Oxford Magazine, an independent magazine edited by and for members of the university.

Howard Hotson is professor of early modern intellectual history at the University of Oxford, a fellow of St Anne’s College, and director of the international and interdisciplinary research Project Cultures of Knowledge.  His views on higher education policy are informed by a longstanding historical interest in the conditions that generate and sustain traditions of intellectual innovation and cultural creativity.

Stephen Huggett is professor of pure mathematics at the University of Plymouth. He is also the general secretary of the London Mathematical Society.

James Ladyman is professor of philosophy at the University of Bristol with a particular interest in the philosophy of physics.

Peter Scott has been professor of higher education studies at the Institute of Education, University of London, since 2010. Prior to this he was the vice-chancellor of Kingston University, following on from his role as pro vice-chancellor for external affairs at the University of Leeds. He was also professor of education and director of the Centre for Policy Studies in Education. Before going to Leeds in 1992, he spent 16 years as editor of Times Higher Education

Anne Sheppard is professor emerita of ancient philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has twice served as head of classics at Royal Holloway and has also been an academic staff member of the college’s council and in that capacity participated in a review of the college’s statutes.

Rowan Tomlinson is lecturer in the School of Modern Languages at the University of Bristol. She is a specialist in the cultural, literary, and intellectual history of the European Renaissance and her research covers French, Latin, Neo-Latin, and Italian writers. She is especially interested in the interactions during the long sixteenth century between the literary and other disciplines (natural history, philosophy, philology). Parallel research interests include the history of education and access to cultures of humanism and the liberal arts by those outside Renaissance institutions and seats of power, interests which reflect her concerns with and campaigning about the politics and policies of higher education today.

David Wolton is a publisher and long-term charity organiser.

We also have a board of trustees responsible for the governance of the CDBU. They are:

Professor Karin Barber
Lord Bew
Rt Hon Sir David Edward
Simon Head
Dr Tim Horder
Professor Howard Hotson
Lord Morgan
Dame Jinty Nelson
Sir Peter Scott
Sir Keith Thomas
David Wolton

The CDBU was founded in November 2012. We have a long and distinguished list of 66 founding members, which includes Nobel prize winners, members of the House of Lords, several former vice-chancellors and cabinet members, and many world-famous scientists and literary figures.

Click here to see the full list.