Robert Lethbridge

Robert Lethbridge (born 24 February 1947) is a United States-born British academic who was Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge from 2005 to 2013 and Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust from 2010 to 2013.

Career Born in New York City in 1947, Lethbridge received a bachelor's degree at the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1969, a master's at McMaster University in Canada 1970, and a PhD at Cambridge University in 1975.

He was a Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge from 1973 to 1992 and Senior Tutor at the same college from 1982 to 1992. He then moved to Royal Holloway, University of London, where he was employed as a professor of French Language and Literature and successively as Head of department, Dean of the Graduate School and Vice-Principal. In 2005 he returned to Fitzwilliam College as its Master, During his mastership, Fitzwilliam dropped from 13th place to 20th place (out of 29) in Cambridge University's intercollegiate Tompkins Table.

Until 1994 he lectured and worked as a researcher at Cambridge University's Department of French, and is currently an Honorary Professor of Nineteenth-Century French Literature at the university. His main interest is late 19th century France and specifically the relationship between literature and visual arts in that period.

He has held Visiting Professorships at the University of California at Santa Barbara and at the University of Melbourne and is also an Emeritus Professor of French Language and Literature at the University of London. having been an Ordinary member since 1988.

In 2010-2013 he was Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust. In response, critics accused him of being "arrogant", having "vile manners", and "never (having) done a stroke (of work)".

Publications Source: Maupassant: Pierre et Jean (1984) Zola and the Craft of Fiction (ed 1990) Artistic Relations, Literature and the Visual Arts in Nineteenth-Century France (ed 1994) Editions of novels by Guy de Maupassant (2001) and by Émile Zola (1995, 2000, 2001)