St Cross College, Oxford

Professor Lisa DowningProfessor Lisa Downing (DPhil, Modern Languages - French, 1996) has been awarded the 2009 Philip Leverhulme prize.

The Philip Leverhulme Prize is awarded to outstanding scholars under the age of 36 who have made a substantial contribution to their field of study, are recognised at an international level, and whose future contributions are held to be of correspondingly high promise; the prize is worth £70,000.

Professor Downing has received international recognition for her remarkable multidisciplinary research on French discourses of sexuality from the nineteenth century to the present day. She is currently the Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Study of Sexuality and Gender in Europe at the University of Exeter.

Many congratulations Lisa.