Professor Robert Lethbridge, MA, PhD, was Master of Fitzwilliam College from 2005-2013.

Robert Lethbridge was Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust between 2010-2013. He is Emeritus Hon. Professor of 19th-Century French Literature (University of Cambridge) and Emeritus Professor of French Language and Literature in the University of London. He was first elected as a Fellow of Fitzwilliam in 1973 and held a number of posts in the College including that of Senior Tutor for the decade 1982-92. He is both a Life Fellow and Hon. Fellow of Fitzwilliam.

After his first degree at the University of Kent and an MA at MacMaster University in Canada, he came to Cambridge (St John’s) to study for his PhD. He was a Lecturer in the Department of French before moving to a chair at Royal Holloway, University of London where he was Vice-Principal (Academic). He was Director of the University of London Institute in Paris (previously the British Institute) between 2003-2015 before returning to Cambridge on his election as Master.

Having retired to Scotland, Robert Lethbridge is currently Hon. Professor in the University of St Andrews and still active in research. Recent publications include a critical edition of Émile Zola’s Écrits sur l’art (Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2021) and Zola’s Painters (Cambridge, Legenda, 2022). In 2012 he was appointed by the French government as Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques for his career-length contributions to the cultural history of France.