List of Honorands 2011-12

Honorands for January 2012

Our winter Presentation Ceremonies will see awards bestowed upon the following:

Brian Ferneyhough

A pioneer in both composition and music theory, Brian Ferneyhough is among the most influential composers and musical thinkers of our time, and has been celebrated with honours including the Mendelssohn Scholarship (1968) and, in 2007, the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for lifetime achievement. He has been William H.

Bonsall Professor in Music at Stanford University, California since 1999, and enjoys an international reputation as a university-based composer who has managed to advance his own creative discipline within an academic context. His orchestral, chamber, choral, vocal and piano works have been performed throughout the world, and have been praised for their “breathtaking energy and spontaneity”.

Chris Jenks

Sociologist Chris Jenks has researched and published widely around the subjects of equality of opportunity, and the sociology of education, culture, and childhood; ‘The Sociology of Childhood’ (1982) offered a fresh appreciation of the social factors that make up our knowledge of children and childhood, and is considered to be a seminal work. In 1971 he started lecturing at Goldsmiths, and was appointed Professor of Sociology in 1996.

Promotions to Pro-Warden Research (1997) and then Senior Pro-Warden (1998) led to him overseeing impressive Research Assessment Exercise results for Goldsmiths in 2001. In 2004 he joined Brunel University to spearhead their research strategy, and he remains Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the institution to this day.

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Fred D’Aguiar

Fred D’Aguiar is one of the finest poets and novelists of his generation, producing writing that draws on his experiences growing up in Guyana and Britain during the 60s and 70s. He went to secondary school in South London and attended evening writing workshops at Goldsmiths, before publishing his first collection of poetry, the critically acclaimed ‘Mama Dot’, in 1985. It won the Guyana Poetry Prize, as did ‘Airy Hall’ (1989).

In 1994 he wrote ‘The Longest Memory’, which won both the Whitbread First Novel Award and the David Higham Prize for Fiction. He has taught English and creative writing in the United States since 1992, and is currently a Professor at Virginia Tech.

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Gary Hume

Artist Gary Hume graduated from Goldsmiths in 1988, immediately receiving international attention and acclaim as part of the Young British Artists (YBAs) crowd, and for his ‘doors series’ – life-sized paintings of hospital doors that blurred the boundary between image and object. His work – characterised by bold colours, simplified forms and a melancholy quality – is highly collectible, and has been displayed at solo and group shows and exhibitions around the world.

In 1996 he received a Turner Prize nomination, the following year he was awarded the Jerwood Painting Prize, and in 1999 he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale.

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Geoffrey Crossick

Professor Geoffrey Crossick was Warden of Goldsmiths from 2005 to 2010, overseeing key developments to the College including improvements to income generation, and great successes in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. In September 2010 he took up the role of Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, where he leads the organisation and strategic development of the University.

His expertise in and experience of academia and research – he has been Chief Executive of the Arts and Humanities Research Board, seeing it through to research council status, and Professor of History and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Essex – have led to him playing an important role in national debates about the relationship between universities and the creative industries, and about higher education policy making.

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James Lingwood

James Lingwood, with Michael Morris, has been Co-Director of Artangel since 1991. The organisation has built an international reputation for its pioneering approach to producing contemporary art projects, and has been credited with taking art out of the confines of the gallery into unusual and unexpected spaces. He has produced several ground-breaking projects including Rachel Whiteread’s Turner Prize-winning sculpture ‘House’ and Roger Hiorns’s blue crystal grotto ‘Seizure’, and films by Steve McQueen, Douglas Gordon and Matthew Barney.

Described as a ‘new tastemaker’, Lingwood also works independently for international museums, most recently curating a retrospective of German photographer Thomas Struth at the Whitechapel Gallery. He is also a Trustee of The Art Fund and The Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

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Michael Morris

Michael Morris has, with James Lingwood, been Co-Director of Artangel since 1991. Set up four years previously, the organisation evolved considerably under their leadership, and in 1992 they began commissioning extraordinary works of art in ordinary places, pioneering a new way of collaborating with artists and engaging audiences. His role is that of producer, enabling and encouraging the artists he works with.

He was previously Director of Performing Arts at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and in 1988 established his own production company, Cultural Industry. He is an artistic adviser to arts organisations including the Manchester International Festival and a member of Tate Modern Council.