Sussex psychology professor receives Leverhulme Fellowship to write biography
Professor of Social Psychology, Rupert Brown, has received a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust to write a biography of leading social psychologist, Henri Tajfel.
Professor Rupert Brown accepts the 'lifetime achievement' Henri Tajfel medal in July 2014 in recognition of his contributions to social psychology over five decades.
The three year award will allow Prof Brown to conduct a programme of archival, oral historical and theoretical research about Tajfel – who supervised his PhD at Bristol University in the 1970s.
In 2014, Prof Brown received the Henri Tajfel medal – the lifetime achievement award of the European Association of Social Psychology. The Association was itself founded by Henri Tajfel in 1966.
Prof Brown says: “Henri Tajfel was arguably the single most influential European social psychologist of the last 50 years. He was a Polish Jew who escaped the Holocaust by the fortunate accident of being in France at the outbreak of the Second World War - the rest of his family perished at the hands of the Nazis. This personal background had an abiding influence on his work.
“In his relatively short academic career he had an enormous impact on social science and I intend the book to be the story of his life, a critical appreciation of his work, and an assessment of his legacy to future scholars.
“It is a huge privilege to be afforded this opportunity to engage in this project, which is very different from anything I have undertaken previously. I am simultaneously excited and daunted by the prospect.”
Since 1925, the Leverhulme Trust has provided grants and scholarships for research and education and is currently one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing approximately £80m a year.