Sidney Fellow awarded University of Cambridge honorary degree

The University has been conferring honorary degrees for some 500 years. One of the earliest recorded was in 1493, when the poet John Skelton was honoured.

Joining Professor Katznelson in being recognised for outstanding contributions in their fields were ninety-nine-year old Joyce Reynolds, former Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, physiologist Dame Frances Ashcroft, genome editing pioneer Professor Emmanuelle Charpentier, President of the Royal Society, Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, poet and literary scholar Sir Michael Edwards, and historian Professor Robert Evans.

Professor Katznelson received the degree of Doctor of Letters. He has been Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History at Columbia University since 1994 and, since 2012, president of the Social Science Research Council. During the 2017-18 academic year he has been a Visiting Fellow at Sidney and Pitt Professor of Amercian History and Institutions in the Faculty of History. His book, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (Liveright, 2013), has been awarded the Bancroft Prize in history, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award in political science, the Sidney Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, and the J. David Greenstone Book Prize in history and politics.

The College congratulates Professor Katznelson on this impressive achievement.