| Description | CDR sound recording of an interview with Professor Michael Billig, MBPsS Loughborough University for the British Psychological Society's Oral History project.
The interview was conducted by Julie Perks in 2008.
The following summary is by way of introduction to the full recording held at BPS HoPC London.
Performers:
Michael Billig (MB)
Julie Perks (JP)
Topics:
Track 1
JP asks if there are any early life experiences which influenced MB's decision to study psychology and philosophy.
MB's talks of his early schooldays, his interest in political philosophy and in answer to JP's question his choice to study in Bristol University.
MB then talks of his experiences as a philosophy/psychology student at Bristol University, his tutor Henri Tajfel, Tajfel's theories on psychology, his time as assistant to Colin Fraser, his experimental work on group behaviour, categorization leading to discrimination, perception versus linguistic models and categorization theories.
MB continues to talk of Henri Tajfel, including Tajfel's role as his PhD supervisor and Tajfel's search for the explanation of genocide.
MB speaks of his move to Birmingham University, the Department at Birmingham, his working relationship with Peter Broadhurst and his IQ differences with Jensen and Eysenck.
MB gives his reasons for moving to Loughborough University (Social Sciences Department (1985)) his friends at Birmingham Ray Cochrane and Doug Carroll and his collaboration with Ray Cochrane on a quantitative paper.
MB talks of colleagues and friends at Loughborough University including; Derek Edwards, Mike Gane and Alan Baddeley.
MB continues to talk about Loughborough, his views on Loughborough colleagues and Loughborough's multi-discipline department, Graham Murdock, Peter Golding, Ruth Lister, Jonathan Potter, Liz Stokoe and the influence of quantitative work on teaching.
MB talks of the importance of BPS course accreditation.
In answer to JP's question MB talks of his love of reading and names his literary influences as Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Reid, John Locke, some French thinkers before talking of Hannah Arendt's book 'Banality of Evil'
MB gives his predictions for the future of psychology including; an increased number of students, the probability of more neurophysiological discoveries and new disciplines in social psychology.
MB talks about publishing, including research for his book 'Fascists', the vanity of writing books, the academic need to publish and changes in academic publishing.
JP asks MB if he has anything else to add for the record.
MB talks of the profound influence of Henri Tajfel and speaks of Tajfel's generosity concerning MB's first book ' Intergroup relations' before speaking of Maurice Ludmer (Birmingham) Editor of 'Searchlight'.
Track 1 ends
c 56 mins
Track 2 begins
Topics:
MB speaks of the growth of psychology and the increased numbers of students, the interest in the self and personality, wider cultural reasons for the growth of psychology and how we live in a psychological era.
Track 2 ends
c 4 mins
A Video interview of Professor Charles Antaki Loughborough University in conversation with Professor Michael Billig, Ref: PHO/002/01/01 (1999), is available upon request.
Total Running Time: c 60mins
Summary by Mike Maskill, BPS Archivist. |
| RunTime | On one CDR disk, running time c 60 minutes |
| AdminHistory | Date of Birth: 08/09/1947
Place of Birth: London
University and Professional Training:
University of Bristol, BA Joint Honours, Philosophy and Psychology, 1968
University of Bristol, PhD Dept.of Psychology
Professional career:
Research Assistant to Professor H. Tajfel Dept.of Psychology University of Bristol, Summer 1968
Research Assistant to Dr C.Fraser, Dept.of Psychology, University of Bristol, 1968-1969
Postgraduate Student and Research Assistant to Professor H.Tajfel, University of Bristol, 1969-1972
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dept.of Psychology, University of Bristol 1972-1973
Lecturer, Dept.of Psychology, University of Birmingham, 1973-1984
SSRC funded Research Fellow, Dept.of Psychology, University of Birmingham, 1980-1981
Professor of Social Sciences, Dept.of Social Sciences, Loughborough University 1985-
Head of Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, 1986-1990
Visiting Professor, Dept.of Rhetoric and Communication, Temple University, Philadelphia, 1991
Distinguished Visiting Professor, Dept.of Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1992
Visiting Professor, Dept.of Developmental Psychology, University of Rome, La Sapienza, 1996
Visiting Fellow, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge, 2006
Other Honours and Awards:
Erik H.Erikson Award, International Society for Political Psychology, 1983
Gustavus Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America, 1996
Rock 'n' Roll Jews shortlisted for Wingate Prize, 2001
Involvement with BPS and/or other societies and organisations:
Keynote/Plenary speaker at Social Psychology Section of BPS (twice), (nd)
Keynote/Plenary speaker at History and Philosophy Section of BPS (three times), (nd)
C.S.Myers Lecturer, BPS Annual Conference 2002
Member of Editorial Board for British Journal of Social Psychology |