Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in Comparative European Literature

1994 – 1995 George Steiner

1995 – 1996 Martha C Nussbaum, Professor of Law and Ethics, The University of Chicago

1996 – 1997 Gabriel Josipovici, Professor of English, School of European Studies, University of Sussex

1998 – 1999 Amos Oz, Professor of Hebrew Literature, Ben Gurion University of Negrev, Israel

1999 – 2000 Roberto Calasso, Author and Publisher, Adelphi Edizioni, Milan

2001 – 2002 Umberto Eco

2002 – 2003 Nike Wagner (Michaelmas Term 2002) and Robert Alter (Trinity Term 2003), Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley

2003 – 2004 Mario Vargas Llosa

2004 – 2005 Sander Gilman, Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago

2005 – 2006 Michele Le Doueff

2006 – 2007 Wolf Lepenies

2007 – 2008 Bernard Schlink

2008 – 2009 Marjorie Perloff

2009 – 2010 Roger Chartier

2010 – 2011 James Wood

2011 – 2012 Ali Smith was awarded the CBE in 2015. Her Humanitas lectures formed the basis of her book Artful (2012) which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths prize.

2012 – 2013 Don Paterson

2014 – 2015 Javier Cercas. The third and fourth lectures in the series can be viewed online on the Weidenfeld-Hoffman Trust website.

2015 – 2016 Dame Marina Warner

2016-2017 Sean O’Brien

2017-2018 Elif Shafak

2018-2019 Durs Grünbein

2022-2023 Juan Gabriel Vásquez