Historical Association Honorary Fellows 2022

Each year we aim to recognise a number of individuals whose support for their subject in all walks – education, heritage, community, public history and in academic history – is truly outstanding. As a charity with a small staff the Historical Association relies on members of the history community as volunteers to run education workshops and courses, offer advice to colleagues, run community events through our local branches and write for and edit our many in-house publications. There are also those who regularly support history in other ways – not always directly through the HA – and those who talk to our branch audiences.

Our Honorary Fellows are nominated through the HA’s branches and committees and every year the final selection is a difficult job – this year was no exception.

We are delighted to welcome the following individuals as our 2022 Honorary Fellows:

Sharon Aninakwa
Stuart Boydell
Tony Bradman
Damienne Clarke
Mary Feerick
Professor Terry Haydn
Alison Hales
Dr Alison Kitson
Dr Kennetta Hammond Perry
Hugh Richards
Mike Short
Professor Becky Taylor
Richard Walker
Philip Woods

The Fellowships will be formally awarded at the HA Awards evening on 7 July with the guest speaker Professor David Olusoga who is this year’s recipient of the Medlicott Medal for History.

A few comments from this year’s recipients on receiving the Fellowship and about the HA:

Sharon Aninakwa
I am extremely honoured to be receiving this award! To be able to collaborate and work with the HA and be recognised by the HA is an incredible privilege for which I am very grateful.

Stuart Boydell
HA membership for me personally is the community. The wealth of knowledge, expertise and dedication that radiates from members is wonderful. As a teacher, being a member of the HA is a bit like having a security blanket! You know that there will be resources, ideas, and people that you can turn to when you need support with your history provision.

Tony Bradman
It’s definitely a career high! I’ve always loved history and recognition of my work by such a prestigious body as The Historical Association is really important to me.

The Historical Association works hard to raise the profile of history in education and the wider community, and that alone is worth the price of the subscription. But it’s also at the heart of the history community and brings is all together. What’s not to like for your average history obsessive?

Damienne Clarke
I feel really honoured to receive this award and very humbled that I have been recognised in this way. It is a privilege to be able to do the history work I do and I hope that I am able to continue to promote a love of history learning for many years to come.  

Mary Feerick
I am extremely touched as restarting the Bristol Branch in 2017 with our committee members has been a really rewarding experience and I think this award is tribute to all our members especially for their loyalty during the Covid period.

As branch secretary I have got to meet some amazing historians, specialists for all sorts of periods of history and different types of  historians from political to economic and social to military and listen to some fantastic lectures.  I have also met so many people in the Bristol area who have discovered history as an interest whatever they studied at school or did as a job. 

Professor Terry Haydn
The Historical Association is a force for good in society. Like the NHS, the BBC, and Museums, it is one of the great British institutions. It is an inspiring and worthy community of practice.

I came late to the HA. It is probably my biggest professional regret. I would have been a much better teacher if I had been actively involved in the HA at an earlier stage in my career.

Dr Alison Kitson
I look at the other people who have received this award for their work in history education and who I respect enormously and feel genuinely humbled to be included.  People don't generally work in education for the recognition or honour they might get out of it and this makes an HA fellowship a very special thing. 

Dr Kennetta Hammond Perry
It is a tremendous honour to be recognised by the Historical Association. The organisation is a real champion for historical education and their work very much aligns with my own belief that history and historical thinking has an important place in formal education, but also in the wider society.

Hugh Richards
It means a huge amount. Hard to explain, but it genuinely feels like a mistake! It seems to me that there are many, many others out there who should be me on the list. So, it’s totally unexpected, and all the more wonderful for it.

The HA has exposed me to so much I would never have thought of in a million years that now enriches the tiny corner history education I am responsible for. More importantly, I have made so many wonderful friends and connected with many more colleagues via my participation in the HA. I have been mentored and supported by HA folk in some tricky times too.

Mike Short
I joined the HA thirty years ago when a group of history teachers from Wiltshire schools asked me to be their chairman when government funding became available for special projects. Teaching History and attendance at HA conferences informed my own practice, including my work as an adviser, until my retirement fourteen years later. In retirement involvement in my local branch, Bath, has enabled me to meet and listen to many distinguished and inspiring historians, to gain privileged access to historic homes and museums, and to form many new friendships.

Professor Becky Taylor
I really enjoy the connection the HA allows, and in fact actively facilitates, between academic historians, teachers and the wider public.

To other academic historians I would flag up the multiple opportunities being involved in the HA offers for those wanting to see their research and expertise have impact outside of the academy through sharing their work with history teachers. To history teachers, I would point to the HA as the perfect place to access the newest research to help add new perspectives on their classroom topics.

Richard Walker
An understanding of history is vital to understanding our current society.