Professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 Colin Craig Kidd MA

Master of Arts (Scotland)

A Master of Arts in Scotland can refer to an undergraduate academic degree in humanities and social sciences awarded by the ancient universities of Scotland – the University of St Andrews, the University of Glasgow, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh, while the University of...

, D.Phil, F.R.Hist.S

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

, F.S.A.Scot

Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body in Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum, Chambers Street, Edinburgh...

, FRSE

Royal Society of Edinburgh

The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...

, is a historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 specialising in American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 history. He is currently Professor of Intellectual History and the History of Political Thought at Queen's University Belfast, where he has worked since leaving the University of Glasgow

University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

 in 2010.

Professor Kidd is holder of the prestigious British Petroleum Prize Lectureship in the Humanities and currently teaches in the department's division of Scottish History. He has held this position since 2003, and previous to which, held the post of Reader

Reader (academic rank)

The title of Reader in the United Kingdom and some universities in the Commonwealth nations like Australia and New Zealand denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship...

 in the same department. He is a fellow of All Souls College Oxford and a regular contributor to the London Review of Books

London Review of Books

The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...

, where he commentates on topics such as current affairs, economics and politics, as well as reviewing literary works. Kidd was an undergraduate at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Gonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...

, before winning the Prize Fellowship at All Souls, Oxford University to complete his D.Phil. Kidd says he chose to become a historian after being inspired by the 18th century literature of Laurence Sterne

Laurence Sterne

Laurence Sterne was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics...

. Prior to arriving in Belfast , Professor Kidd held fellowships at Glasgow, Oxford and Harvard Universities.

His own literary works include: "Subverting Scotland's Past: Scottish Whig Historians and the Creation of an Anglo-British Identity 1689-1830" (first published 1993); "British Identities Before Nationalism: Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600-1800" (1999) "The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000" (2006) and "Union and Unionisms: Political Thought in Scotland, 1500-2000"(2008). All of these are published by Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...

.