Announcements

Geographer Gardner to Head Academy of Social Sciences

September 28, 2018 1485

The Royal Geographic Society commissioned this portrait by Alastair Adams (a former president of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters) to commemorate the retirement of Rita Gardner after almost 22 years as director.

The longtime director of the Royal Geographical Society, Rita Gardner CBE, will be the new chief executive of the United Kingdom’s Academy of Social Sciences. She fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Stephen Anderson after more than 10 years; he will leave the academy early next year. Gardner will assume her new post on January 28.

“I am confident,” said Roger Goodman, the academy’s chair, “that Rita can take the academy forward and build on the outstanding achievements of our current executive director Stephen Anderson, who has rebuilt the academy’s financial model and transformed the academy into a properly representative organization speaking out regularly and authoritatively on behalf of the social sciences.”

Gardner is a fellow of the academy and was a trustee and member of the academy’s council from 2013 to September 2018. “I have worked closely with the academy, from the inside and outside, over many years and know at first-hand how much its work is valued by the social science community and beyond,” she said. “Thanks to the achievements of Stephen Anderson, the Academy is in very good shape and it will be a privilege to lead it in the next stage of its development.”

Gardner was director of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) from 1996 to May 2018. Before becoming the almost two-century-old learned society’s first female director ever, she was the first woman honorary secretary and co-led the society’s Nepal Field Research Programme and was editor of the Geographical Journal.

In announcing her appointment, the academy noted Gardner’s extensive experience in advisory, trustee and committee roles, including personal adviser for geography to Lord Adonis (Schools Minister, Department for Children, Schools and Families); chair of the Exhibition Road Cultural Group; non-executive director or the British Antarctic Survey; and member of the ‘Finch’ Review Group on Open Access to Scholarly Publications. Her early academic career saw her teach geography from 1979 to 1996 at London University after studying at Oxford University and UCL.

The Academy of Social Sciences is the national academy of academics, learned societies and practitioners in the social sciences and is composed of 1,313 individual fellows44 learned societies, and a number of affiliates. It also sponsors the Campaign for Social Science.


Related Articles

New Initiative Offers Grants for Canadian Research on Research
Announcements
November 5, 2024

New Initiative Offers Grants for Canadian Research on Research

Read Now
Tom Burns, 1959-2024: A Pioneer in Learning Development 
Impact
November 5, 2024

Tom Burns, 1959-2024: A Pioneer in Learning Development 

Read Now
Alondra Nelson Named to U.S. National Science Board
Announcements
October 18, 2024

Alondra Nelson Named to U.S. National Science Board

Read Now
Lee Miller: Ethics, photography and ethnography
News
September 30, 2024

Lee Miller: Ethics, photography and ethnography

Read Now
‘Settler Colonialism’ and the Promised Land

‘Settler Colonialism’ and the Promised Land

The term ‘settler colonialism’ was coined by an Australian historian in the 1960s to describe the occupation of a territory with a […]

Read Now
Research Assessment, Scientometrics, and Qualitative v. Quantitative Measures

Research Assessment, Scientometrics, and Qualitative v. Quantitative Measures

The creation of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) has led to a heated debate on the balance between peer review and evaluative metrics in research assessment regimes. Luciana Balboa, Elizabeth Gadd, Eva Mendez, Janne Pölönen, Karen Stroobants, Erzsebet Toth Cithra and the CoARA Steering Board address these arguments and state CoARA’s commitment to finding ways in which peer review and bibliometrics can be used together responsibly.

Read Now
Paper to Advance Debate on Dual-Process Theories Genuinely Advanced Debate

Paper to Advance Debate on Dual-Process Theories Genuinely Advanced Debate

Sage 929 Impact

Psychologists Jonathan St. B. T. Evans and Keith E. Stanovich have a history of publishing important research papers that resonate for years.

Read Now
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments