Establishment of the Jonathan Cooper Professor of the History of Sexualities
11 October 2022
We are delighted that a new professorship of the history of sexualities has been established in Oxford University’s History Faculty in association with Mansfield College.
The Jonathan Cooper Chair of the History of Sexualities will lead and expand the study and teaching of LGBTQ+ History at Oxford and become the first fully endowed specialist post of this type in the UK. It has been made possible by a £4.9 million gift from Professor Peter Baldwin and Dr Lisbet Rausing, who are historians and Co-Founders of the Arcadia Fund.
The Chair has been named in honour of Jonathan Cooper OBE, a barrister with expertise in international human rights law and the role of public law in upholding them, who died suddenly in September 2021. Mr Cooper was an inspiring advocate and activist for LGBTQ+ rights across the globe and a commentator on issues such as trans rights, conversion therapy and the rights of people living with HIV.
