Christopher Hill, Professor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge and formerly the head of the university’s Department of Politics and International Relations, this afternoon received the decoration of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy), presented to him by the Italian Ambassador, Pasquale Terracciano, on behalf of the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella.
In 1992-93, as Jean Monnet Fellow, he spent two years at the European University Institute of Florence. He helped develop teaching and research collaborations with academic institutions such as the University of Siena, the University of Catania and the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca. In 2006 he became the first foreign keynote speaker at the Italian Association of Political Sciences’ Standing Group on International Relations.
In 2011 he was a speaker at a conference on the diplomacy of globalisation, held to mark the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy and attended by President Giorgio Napolitano.
Over the course of an academic career spanning several decades, he supervised numerous Italian students and researchers, including Professor Filippo Andreatta and Professor Elisabetta Brighi. Upon retiring he was made professor emeritus by the University of Cambridge and was recently named Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Bologna centre of John Hopkins University.
On accepting the decoration, Professor Christopher Hill remarked: “I feel European”.
