The King’s Birthday Honours 2024 – BSA Chair Professor Roderick Beaton to be knighted
The BSA is extremely proud to announce that Professor Roderick Beaton, Chair of the BSA Council, has been appointed Knight Bachelor in His Majesty King Charles III’s Birthday Honours. This honour recognises his long and distinguished academic career, which has forged strong links between the people of the United Kingdom and Greece. News of the appointment was first announced by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on the 14th June 2024.
We have always been incredibly proud to have Professor Beaton as BSA Chair. This new honour is hugely deserved and we offer Sir Roddy our heartfelt congratulations!
Professor Beaton said:
This is a fantastic honour for me, and wholly unexpected! I’m proud to have been associated with the BSA for just over half a century. The BSA has always been committed to promoting mutual understanding between the UK and Greece, so this must be no less an honour to the entire BSA community, past and present.
Professor Beaton has served as Chair of the Council of the British School at Athens since February 2022. He has taught at King’s College London from 1981, first as Lecturer in Modern Greek Language & Literature, and from 1988 as Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language & Literature. He headed the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at KCL for 10 years, and went on to become the Director of the Centre for Hellenic Studies. He was made a Fellow of King’s College London in 2018 and is now Emeritus. He was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2013, and was appointed the A.G. Leventis Visiting Professor in Greek at the University of Edinburgh in 2021.
In 2019 he was made Commander of the Order of Honour of the Hellenic Republic, a distinction conferred on him by the President of Greece, Prokopios Pavlopoulos. In 2023 he received honorary citizenship of Greece and an honorary doctorate from the University of Patras.
The UK FCDO announcement stated: “Professor Roderick Beaton is recognised for his long and distinguished academic career, which has forged strong links between the people of the United Kingdom and Greece through pioneering research on Greek literature, culture and history and made him an expert in his field. His books on modern Greece and Greeks, including highly acclaimed biographies of prominent figures in British and Greek history, are widely read in both English and Greek and help build strong, durable cultural and people to people links between the two countries as well as inspiring others to study and research Greek history.”
See the announcement here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-kings-birthday-honours-2024-overseas-and-international-list/notes-on-higher-awards-in-the-kings-birthday-honours-2024-overseas-and-international-list
main image: Professor Beaton speaking at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in May 2024. Credit: Danai Syreggela
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- Left to right: BSA Chair Professor Roderick Beaton, Fitch Lab Director Dr Evangelia Kiriatzi, BSA Director Professor Rebecca Sweetman and HMA Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic Matthew Lodge at the BSA Annual Open Meetings at the Archaeological Society of Athens, February 2024.
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- Professor Roderick Beaton speaking at the Hellenic Parliament for the conference “1821 on the First Page: The Greek Revolution in the foreign and domestic Press”, January 2024
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- Professor Beaton with his book “Οι Έλληνες” at the bookshop Evripidis in Kifisia, Feb 2024 (photo courtesy of Professor Georgia Farinou-Malamatari)