Newman fellowship launched at University of Cambridge

A new John Henry Newman Research Fellowship has been launched at St Edmund’s College, the only Catholic college at the University of Cambridge, in memory of the late Newman scholar Ian Ker.

The fellowship was launched at the college’s St Edmund’s Day feast on 14 November, after a vespers service in which St John Henry Newman’s hymns were sung and medical researcher Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz gave an address discussing the challenges of applying the vision of Newman’s The Idea of a University to modern academic institutions.

This Junior Research Fellowship will be a three-year postdoctoral position in Catholic Studies open to scholars who have recently completed their doctorate in literature, history, history of art, theology, or philosophy. Candidates will be encouraged, although not required, to engage with Newman’s life, thought, or influence in their work.

The fellowship is now open for applications until 2 January 2026 and will start in the autumn of 2026. Professor Chris Young, the Master of St Edmund’s College, sees the fellowship as the beginning of a wider vision of making St Edmund’s, the only Catholic college at the University of Cambridge, an international hub for Catholic Studies.

In his speech at the launch, he said, “As a Belfast Protestant of Brethren upbringing, medievalist and historian of modern sport, I had little previous cause to engage with Newman. That changed on the arrival of Dr Ker’s bequest and indeed a copy of Dr Ker’s biography. What excited me about Newman was how his grappling with traditions I knew so well, personally and intellectually, resonated and explained things I had only previously intuited.”

Professor Young quoted Pope Leo’s statement in Drawing New Maps of Hope, the document released ahead of Newman’s being declared Doctor of the Church and co-patron of education on 1 November, that Newman’s words are “an invitation to renew our commitment to knowledge that is as intellectually responsible and rigorous as it is deeply human”.

Professor Young continued, “Whichever way you approach Newman – with curiosity, in a spirit of critical engagement, as a source of guidance and inspiration, or any combination of these – he is not just the man of the moment, but, through his influence on educational and religious thinking, a man for all our moments. How deeply gratifying, therefore, to launch the John Henry Newman Research Fellowship in Catholic Studies.”

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