Dr Alice Prochaska, Principal of Somerville College, was appointed a Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford on 23 April in a ceremony conducted at the office of the Vice-Chancellor.
Dr Prochaska was appointed to the position alongside Professor Dame Hermione Lee, President of Wolfson College. The two appointments take the number of Pro-Vice-Chancellors without portfolio to nine.
A brief Latin ceremony provided the opportunity for Dr Prochaska to affirm her commitment to the University and her new role within it, with the Latin words “Do fidem” (“I swear”). Also present for the ceremony were Dr Kate Blackmon, Senior Proctor, Dr Hubert Ertl, Junior Proctor, and Dr Paul Martin, Assessor.
From 1992 to 2001 Dr Prochaska served as Director of Special Collections at the British Library before taking up the position of University Librarian at Yale University, Connecticut, a post she remained in until her appointment, in 2010, as Principal of Somerville College, the College at which she had earned a BA and D Phil in History.
Dr Prochaska has broadcast and lectured extensively and a full list of her publications can be found here. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and holds Honorary Fellowships at the Institute of Historical Research and Royal Holloway, University of London. She also serves as a trustee of the Institute of Historical Research and is chairman of the Sir Winston Churchill Archives Trust.