Professor Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, from the University’s Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, has been elected as a Fellow of the British Academy.

The British Academy is the UK’s national body for the humanities and social sciences – the study of people, culture and societies, past, present and future.

Each year the organisation elects just 42 outstanding UK-based scholars who have achieved distinction in humanities and social sciences.

Election is a mark of distinction as only a very small number of scholars in any field are elected.

Fellows, who number just over 1000, include philanthropist and former Science Minister Lord Sainsbury, former president of the Royal Society Sir Paul Nurse and the first woman chair of the US Federal Reserve Janet Yellen.

Professor Ram-Prasad said: “I am delighted that this honour is in recognition of research that I have mostly done at Lancaster over the past 18 years.

“I have benefitted from the collegiality of my inter-disciplinary department and the support of many people across the university over the years.”

“I hope the fellowship contributes to the excellent work in the humanities done at Lancaster.”

Professor Ram-Prasad is an expert in Indian philosophy focusing on Sanskrit and Pali, comparative philosophy of epistemology, metaphysics and phenomenology; classical Indian religions, especially Hindu theology in Sanskrit and Tamil, and comparative Hindu-Christian studies.

He explained: “I focus on classical Indian texts from across 2000 years, to engage with contemporary discussions in such areas as the understanding of consciousness, knowledge and emotions; conceptions of God and the highest goals of humanity; the deeply ecological nature of our subjectivity; and social and political imagination.”