Professor Rylance, who is also currently chair of the Research Councils UK executive group, assumed leadership of the AHRC in 2009, having previously been head of the School of Arts, Languages and Literatures at the University of Exeter. Prior to that, he was dean of arts and letters at Anglia Ruskin University
Announcing his reappointment until the end of August 2017, universities and science minister David Willetts said Professor Rylance had made “a significant and valuable contribution to the work of the AHRC”.
Sir Alan Wilson, chair of the AHRC, said: “Rick has proved himself to be an enormous asset for AHRC and, more broadly, the Research Councils UK in the last four years. The council will benefit hugely from his strategic drive and his commitment to a creative future for arts and humanities research.”
Professor Rylance, whose research background is in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature, said: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first term and look forward to developing the achievements of arts and humanities researchers during my second.”
