Robert Lethbridge | |
---|---|
Born |
New York City |
24 February 1947
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | University of Kent at Canterbury |
Awards | Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge |
Professor Robert Lethbridge was the seventh Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge from 2005 - 2013 and Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust from 2010 - 2013.
Born in the USA in 1947, Lethbridge took his undergraduate degree at the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1969 before completing a master's degree at McMaster University in 1970 and then a PhD at St John's College, Cambridge in 1975.
As an academic Lethbridge has been associated most prominently with Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he was Fellow from 1973–92 and Senior Tutor from 1982–92. He then moved to Royal Holloway, University of London to take a Chair in French Language and Literature and was successively Head of Department, Dean of the Graduate School and Vice-Principal. In 2005 he returned to Fizwilliam as Master, a position he held until his retirement on 30 September 2013.
He conducts research and teaches postgraduate students in association with Cambridge University's Department of French, where he was a lecturer until 1994. He is now Honorary Professor of Nineteenth-Century French Literature in the University. His main interest is late 19th century France and specifically the relationship between literature and visual arts in that period. In the context of the 2013 Royal Academy exhibition he gave a lecture on Manet and the Writers of his Time.
He has held Visiting Professorships at the University of California at Santa Barbara and at the University of Melbourne and now also holds the position of Emeritus Professor of French Language nd Literature at the University of London.