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Liberal Arts Professor Jason Kelly Named as Society of Antiquaries Fellow

News Categories: History | International | Research

Jason Kelly

The Society of Antiquaries of London has elected Jason Kelly, associate professor of British history in the IU School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, as a fellow.

The society’s Royal Charter of 1751 charges the group with “the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries.” Created in 1707, the Society of Antiquaries of London currently has more than 2,900 members, including experts in architecture, art and architectural history.

Kelly’s membership in the society comes as a result of significant achievement in the study of antiquaries and the field’s history. The professor’s latest book, The Society of Dilettanti: Archaeology and Identity in the British Enlightenment, was published in 2010 by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Yale University Press. The book examines the influence the Dilettanti had on British archaeology and museums during the Enlightenment. Kelly, the president of the Midwest Conference on British Studies, is also the author of a forthcoming critical edition of the James Russel manuscripts for the Walpole Society.

The Society of Antiquaries is based at Burlington House in London, where the society’s library, museum and art collection are housed. The society also owns and manages Kelmscott Manor, the home of writer, designer and socialist William Morris, from 1871 until his death in 1896.

Published on: January 19, 2012