Presidency of The Modern Humanities Research Association

Each year, the Association chooses as President a scholar of international repute who delivers the Presidential Address immediately after the AGM. The Association is delighted to welcome Professor John Woodhouse as President for 2008.

John Woodhouse, FBA, is Emeritus Professor of Italian at Oxford, and Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Society for Italian Studies, the MHRA Committee, and the Executive Committee of the Society for the Study of Medieval and Modern Languages.

Professor Woodhouse has always enjoyed a wide range of research interests, motivated by a pragmatic approach, particularly aimed at revising the fortune of individual texts and authors, and by a sceptical attitude towards accepted or fashionable critical theory and tradition. He has published books on Calvino, Castiglione, and D'Annunzio, amongst others. He is at present attempting a reappraisal of the life and work of Giacomo Simone (James) Leoni, an early pioneer of anglo-palladian architecture, and the Presidential Address, 'Venice's European Diaspora: The Case of James Leoni (1685-1746)', was delivered at the Association's registered office, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London SWIY 5AF, on Friday 9 May 2008 and will be printed in the October 2008 issue of the Modern Language Review.

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Presidency of The Modern Humanities Research Association

Presidential Address 2008