King's College London

Professor Arthur Burns, Professor of Modern British History in the Department of History, has been elected a Vice President of the Royal Historical Society from November 2012. Professor Burns, formerly Literary Director and a council member of the Society since 2008, will have particular responsibility for the Society’s work in relation to education, both in universities and in schools. Professor Burns’ election builds on the long-standing commitment of the King’s History Department to advancing the work of the Society, having provided two of its most recent presidents, Prof. Peter Marshall (1997-2001) and Prof. Dame Jinty Nelson (2001-5).

Founded in 1868, the Royal Historical Society is the most significant British learned society concerned with the study of the past, with more than 3,000 Fellows and Members from across the world. The Society aims to maintain professional standards within the discipline, and to represent the discipline in consultations with government, funding councils and the professional custodians of the nation's material heritage such as the National Archives. It sponsors lectures and conferences, and publishes both monographs and the Camden record series, as well as its Transactions and the annually updated Bibliography of British and Irish History. It also offers a considerable range of small grants to postgraduate scholars and two generous awards to enable those engaged in PhD research to complete doctorates of high scholarly distinction.