Trevor Pears honoured with Birkbeck fellowship
Trevor Pears Honoured with Birkbeck Fellowship
Philanthropist Trevor Pears has been honoured with a Fellowship of Birkbeck, University of London. A Fellowship is the highest honour that Birkbeck bestows, in recognition of service to the College. Past recipients include Nobel Prize winner Sir Aaron Klug, the late Lord Wolfson and Lord Moser KCB, CBE. Trevor was welcomed to the Fellowship of the College at a graduation ceremony on 24 March 2011.
Trevor is Executive Chair of the Pears Foundation, which in October 2010 made a £1.5million investment to fund the establishment of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck. The Institute is founded on the principle that the study of antisemitism is vital to the study of racism, prejudice and xenophobia more broadly. Under the Directorship of Professor David Feldman the Institute is a centre of innovative interdisciplinary research and teaching, and provides an unaffiliated source of public policy advice, as well as hosting regular public lectures and events.
The Institute works closely with the world-renowned Wiener Library, a major archive and the world’s oldest institution for the study of antisemitism, which will relocate from its current home to adjoin the Institute in Russell Square this year, as well as with the Holocaust Education Development Programme, at the Institute of Education, which the Pears Foundation set up to improve teaching about the Holocaust in British schools.
The Master of Birkbeck, Professor David Latchman CBE, said: “We are delighted to welcome Trevor Pears as a Fellow of Birkbeck. The Pears Institute, established in October 2010 with a generous investment from the Pears Foundation, has enabled the College to draw together the expertise in the field of antisemitism and intolerance, from a wide range of disciplines across our Schools and Centres and to provide a strong foundation for research, teaching and contributions to public policy and debate. We are proud to host the Institute at Birkbeck, and grateful to Trevor and Pears Foundation for their generous support and ongoing partnership and involvement.”
Trevor Pears said: “I am deeply honoured to have been made a Fellow of Birkbeck. I am delighted that we have established the Institute at Birkbeck as it is a vibrant centre of academic excellence with a multi-disciplinary approach and a reputation for world class research.’’
More information on Fellows of Birkbeck College is available here.