Kirralee Nicolle
9 June 2022
A Ridley dean and church history lecturer has been honoured for making an original contribution as a historian.
Ridley College dean of the Anglican Institute Reverend Canon Dr Rhys Bezzant was recently awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society.
Dr Bezzant said that Australia has a comparatively small presence in historical scholarship, and the fellowship offers meaningful connections to historians across the world.
The fellowship was typically offered to those “who have made an original contribution to historical scholarship, typically through the authorship of a book, a body of scholarly work similar in scale and impact to a book, the organisation of exhibitions and conferences, the editing of journals, and other works of diffusion and dissemination grounded in historical research,” according to the Royal Historical Society.
Dr Bezzant said the fellowship offered many privileges, including participation in a global network of historians, invitations to public lectures and access to historical documents.
He said that church history was typically underrepresented in these kinds of forums.
He said the opportunity affirmed Ridley’s commitment to teaching church history, which was an unusual feature for an Australian theological college.
“Very few theological colleges in Australia employ church historians who only teach church history,” Dr Bezzant said.
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