Roger Kain - Biography#

The focus of Roger’s research is the history of maps and mapping for which he has obtained substantial funding, enabling employment of his principal collaborator, Dr Richard Oliver, continuously since 1987. Books published in the last 15 years include: Cadastral Maps in the Service of the State (University of Chicago Press, 1992 and winner of the Newberry Library Kenneth Nebenzahl Prize), The Tithe Maps of England and Wales (Cambridge University Press, 1995 and winner of the Library Association’s McColvin Medal), Historical Atlas of South-West England (Exeter University Press, 1999), English Maps: a History (British Library, 2000), The Enclosure of Maps of England and Wales, 1585-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 2004), and England's Landscape: The South West (English Heritage 2006). British Town Maps: a history (British Library).

Externally, Roger Kain has served as Secretary and Chair of the Institute of British Geographers Historical Geography Research Group and was Chair of the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference in 2002, President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Geography Section in 2004, and a member of the DfES Higher Education Research Forum. He was a member of the UUK and HEFCE/AHRC working groups on research assessment after 2008 and a founder-member of the Research Information Network Advisory Board. Roger has chaired the British Academy’s Human Geography and Social Anthropology Section, was founder chair of its Research Grants Committee, and from 2002-10 was the Academy’s Treasurer and a Vice-President. He is a member of HEFCE's Research Committee, the AHRC Council and British Academy Research Committee.

Academic and professional activities