Evelyn has been Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bristol since September 2022. She was also appointed Chair of the Russell Group commencing August 2026.
Evelyn Welch graduated from Harvard University, receiving her PhD from the Warburg Institute, University of London. She was previously Senior Vice-President for Service, People & Planning at King’s College London, where she had previously been Vice-President (Arts and Sciences) and Provost (Arts and Sciences) since 2013. She has taught at University of Essex, Birkbeck College, the Warburg Institute, and held leadership roles at University of Sussex (PVC Teaching and Learning) and Queen Mary, University of London (Dean, Arts and PVC Research and International).
As Professor of Renaissance Studies, she has led major research programmes including ‘The Material Renaissance,’ and ‘Beyond Text: Performances, Sounds, Images’. She was a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator from 2017 to 2022 and has recently published an open-access monograph with Manchester University Press based on this project, ‘Renaissance Skin’. She is the author of numerous other publications, including Fashioning the Early Modern: Creativity and Innovation in Europe, 1500-1800 (OUP 2017) and Shopping in the Renaissance (Yale 2005), which won the Wolfson Prize for History.
Professor Welch has also served as a Trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum and Chair of Trustees of the Dulwich Picture Gallery. She is currently a Deputy Lieutenant of the County and City of Bristol.
