Gillian Evans
{{Short description|British philosopher and academic}}
{{infobox academic
|honorific_prefix = Professor
|honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRHistS}}
|title=Professor of Medieval Theology and Intellectual History
|education=King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham
|alma_mater = St Anne's College, Oxford
University of Reading
Middlesex University
|workplaces = University of Reading
University of Bristol
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
}}
Gillian Rosemary Evans {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRHistS}}{{cite web |title=List of Fellows (February 2024) |url=https://files.royalhistsoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/22170322/Fellows_February-2024.xlsb.pdf |website=Royal Historical Society |access-date=7 December 2024}} is a British philosopher, and emeritus professor of medieval theology and intellectual history at University of Cambridge.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/oct/19/cambridge-university-issues-trigger-warnings-for-shakespeare-lecture|title=Cambridge University issues trigger warnings for Shakespeare lecture|first=Alia|last=Shoaib|work=The Guardian |date=19 October 2017|publisher=|accessdate=19 October 2017|via=www.theguardian.com}}
Evans was educated at King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham, followed by a degree in history from St Anne's College, Oxford, and a postgraduate diploma in education.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/how-a-medieval-philosophy-don-won-her-battle-against-cambridge-for-failing-to-promote-her-1837047.html|title=How a medieval philosophy don won her battle against Cambridge for|author=|date=10 December 2009|website=independent.co.uk|accessdate=19 October 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://homepage.accesscable.net/~dpoirier/tor1996.htm|title=Dr. Gillian R. Evans|author=|date=|website=homepage.accesscable.net|accessdate=19 October 2017|archive-date=3 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603195445/http://homepage.accesscable.net/~dpoirier/tor1996.htm|url-status=dead}} She earned her PhD from Reading University writing about Anselm of Canterbury.
In 2002, Evans was appointed professor of medieval theology and intellectual history at Cambridge University.{{cite web|url=https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/1734|title=Varsity Profile: Professor Gillian Evans|author=|date=|website=varsity.co.uk|accessdate=19 October 2017}} This had followed a long period of successive but denied applications for promotion to professorship. This long period was so notable that a scholar in an overlapping field at the University, Professor Dumville, took the highly unusual step in a University Discussion (formal meetings of Regent House members) of wheeling in a trolleyload of Evans' publications, by way of demonstration of her output.{{cite journal |journal=Cambridge University Reporter |date=21 November 2001 |url=https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2001-02/weekly/5865/29.html |title=Reporter 21/11/01: Report of a Discussion }}
Academic freedom and democracy
Evans is a campaigner for academic freedom and democracy. She is a member of Council for Academic Freedom and Academic Standards and qualified as a barrister to assist academics with grievances against their institutions. She regularly writes and speaks in opposition to managerialist trends in university administration. As an Emeritus Professor, she has continued relentless scrutiny of the administration of the University of Cambridge, submitting forensic contributions to many University Discussions. In a July 2020 discussion she challenged the constitutionality of the response of the University Council to the COVID-19 pandemic arguing that the powers of the Regent House, the sovereign body of the University, "were simply seized and handed over indefinitely by the Council and the General Board".{{cite web|url=https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2019-20/weekly/6587/6587.pdf|title=University of Cambridge Reporter, Report of Discussion, Tuesday 14 July 2020|author=|date=|website=admin.cam.ac.uk|accessdate=25 August 2020}}
==Publications==
- Alan of Lille: The Frontiers of Theology in the Later Twelfth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983) {{ISBN|978-0521246187}}
- The Language and Logic of the Bible: The Earlier Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), {{ISBN|0521263719}}
- The Language and Logic of the Bible: A Road to Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) {{ISBN|0521305489}}
- Bernard of Clairvaux (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) {{ISBN|0195125258}}
- The University of Cambridge: A New History (London: I.B. Tauris, 2010) {{ISBN|9781848851153}}
- The University of Oxford: A New History (London: I.B. Tauris, 2010) {{ISBN|9781848851146}}
- A Short History of Medieval Christianity (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017) {{ISBN|9781784532826}}
- Crown, Mitre and People in the Nineteenth Century Church: The Church of England, Establishment and the State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021) {{ISBN|9781316515976}}
- After North: Two Decades of Change at Oxford University (Oxford: Holywell Press, 2022) {{ISBN|9781399929189}}
References
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Category:People educated at King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham
Category:Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford
Category:Alumni of the University of Reading
Category:Academics of the University of Reading
Category:Academics of the University of Bristol
Category:Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Category:Alumni of Middlesex University
Category:Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of history
Category:Fellows of the Royal Historical Society
Category:British women medievalists
Category:British women biographers
Category:British historians of philosophy
Category:British historians of religion