Dr Jill Lewis has been elected to serve on the Council of the Royal Historical Society.
The primary purpose of the Royal Historical Society is to uphold professional standards in the discipline and to represent the views of its 3000 British and overseas Fellows to both the government and the general public. It is the oldest professional body of historians in the country, having been established in 1868 when the Historical Association for Great Britain was granted a Royal Charter. The Society seeks to widen the discussion of historical research in the public arena and promote excellence in scholarship by offering grants and awards, as well as a number of prizes, for scholars in the early stage of their careers and providing funding for conferences, including those run by and for post-graduate students. It is the ‘guardian of historical scholarship in the country’ and, in this role, makes representations to government bodies and to funding councils on behalf of its members in particular and the discipline in general, as well as working closely with archivists and librarians to maintain and improve the national collections. The Society’s Council has twenty-four members, including twelve Councillors who are elected by the Fellowship for a period of four years.