We are delighted to announce Professor Christopher Kelly as the fifty-second Master of the College. Professor Kelly’s admission took place on ​3rd October in the College Chapel.  

Professor Christopher Kelly is a classicist and historian with a wide range of interests in the ancient world: these include government and power, its use and abuse, the society, religion and culture of the Roman Empire from Augustus to Justinian, the rise of Christianity, and Edward Gibbon and the Grand Tour. His books include Ruling the Later Roman Empire (Harvard, 2004), The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2006), The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome (Norton, New York, 2009) and four edited volumes: Unclassical Traditions I: Alternatives to the Classical Past in late Antiquity; Unclassical Traditions II: Perspectives from East and West in late Antiquity; Theodosius II: Rethinking the Roman Empire in late Antiquity; and Keith Hopkins: Sociological Studies in Roman History (Cambridge, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2017). He was an editor of the Cambridge Classical Journal from 2000 to 2006; is currently editor of the Journal of Roman Studies; and immediate past President of the Cambridge Philological Society.

He was an undergraduate at the University of Sydney (where he read history and law), a graduate at Trinity College and Drapers’ Research Fellow at Pembroke College. He is a past President of the Cambridge Union Society. He has been a Fellow of Corpus since 1994 (as Senior Tutor 2000–2004; as President 2016–2017) and continues as Keeper of the College Pictures and Fine Furniture.

His wife, Shawn Donnelley, is a Guild Fellow in Corpus. She is President of Strategic Giving, a Chicago-based firm providing consultation on philanthropy. She is a member of the executive committee of the Chicago Community Trust and on the boards of the Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern Memorial Foundation, American Associates of the National Theatre and is a past chairman and current life trustee of the Goodman Theatre. She previously served ten years on the boards of United States Artists and Loyola University New Orleans. She was an undergraduate at Loyola University New Orleans and has an MA from Emerson College.

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(Photograph: Professor Christopher Kelly and Dr Christopher Brookes in the  College Chapel before the admission ceremony).