Professor Robin Hickey is Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, responsible for the academic leadership of the faculty's schools, and Professor of Law at the School of Law.  

His research focuses on property law, particularly on foundational concepts of property such as “ownership” and “possession,” and their application to contemporary challenges including modern slavery, cultural heritage restoration, and the problem of food waste. 

Professor Hickey joins 73 other new Fellows elected from 39 UK organisations, comprising 35 Higher Education Institutions, as well as think tanks, non-profits, civil service, and from countries beyond the UK including Australia, the Czech Republic, Finland, and Ireland.  

Speaking about his election, Professor Robin Hickey commented: “It is an honour to be elected as Fellow of the Academy in recognition of my research, and to join this prestigious community of esteemed academics and practitioners.  

“I look forward to working with the Academy to help address the local and global challenges we face to improve lives and decision-making.” 

The Academy of Social Sciences is a distinguished community of world-leading social scientists from academia, the public, private and third sectors, who work together to address major challenges in society, locally and globally, such as climate change adaptation, food inequalities, and ethical issues in global peace and security.  

President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s, Professor Sir Ian Greer said: “I warmly congratulate Robin on his election to the Academy for his outstanding academic contributions to the social sciences. These Fellowships not only recognise excellence in research but also the impact of that research. I am very proud that Queen’s University scholars are yet again recognised by the Academy."  

President of the Academy of Social Sciences, Will Hutton FAcSS said: “I’m delighted to welcome these leading social scientists to the Academy’s Fellowship this spring. Their substantial contributions have furthered knowledge and our understanding in tackling a wide range of societal challenges including working with Indigenous communities in the Arctic to better understand climate risk, memory retrieval processes in legal contexts, social inequalities, economic policy and tackling hate crime. We look forward to working with them to further promote the important role the social sciences play in our daily lives.”    

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Media enquiries to Zara McBrearty on email: z.mcbrearty@qub.ac.uk