UW–Madison professor named fellow of British Academy

William Courtenay, University of Wisconsin–Madison Hilldale Professor and Charles Homer Haskins Professor Emeritus of History, has been elected a corresponding fellow to the British Academy.

The British Academy is the United Kingdom’s national academy for humanities and the social sciences, and corresponding fellows are scholars outside the U.K. who have gained international standing in their areas of research. As many as 15 scholars are elected corresponding fellows each year.

Courtenay is a distinguished scholar on medieval intellectual history, medieval philosophy and theology, the history of such medieval universities as Oxford and Paris, paleography (the study of ancient and medieval handwriting) and codicology (the study of manuscripts).

He came to UW–Madison in 1966. Courtenay was chair of the Department of History from 1985–88 and chair of the Department of Classics from 1999–2001.