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Visiting Fellowships are offered to people of distinction for their outstanding achievements beyond normal academic circles. They include eminent figures in law, politics, culture, the arts and media, business and public service.

Visiting Fellows participate in College life by giving talks and lectures, and by interacting with and inspiring our students. They may also conduct their own research in the University of Cambridge during the tenure of their Fellowship.

Visiting Fellows are nominated by a Fellow or Emeritus Fellow of the College.

• Chris Boardman
• Baroness Ruth Hunt
• Bishop Rosemarie Mallet
• Philippe Sands
• Céline Sciamma
• Lemn Sissay
• Osman Yousefzada

Chris Boardman, former British racing cyclist, Commissioner of Active Travel England

Chris Boardman is one of Britain’s most successful British racing cyclists. Between 1992 and 2000 he attended and medalled at major Games winning Britain’s first gold for 72 years at Barcelona in 1992. He also wore the leaders’ yellow jersey at the Tour de France on three separate occasions, took three world titles and broke several world records. He was awarded an MBE for services to sport.

Since retirement from professional cycling, Chris has served in various roles with British Cycling helping set up and lead the Research and Development branch for the British Olympic Cycling team that went on to scoop 14 medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and become the most successful of all time. The research and development group were nicknamed the "Secret Squirrel Club" and they played a significant part in creating that unprecedented sporting prosperity.

Chris has also worked as a cycling commentator and launched his own range of cycles and accessories, Boardman Bikes.

More recently he has worked in walking and cycling advocacy roles, becoming Greater Manchester's walking and cycling commissioner in 2017, Greater Manchester's Transport Commissioner in 2021 and is now Commissioner of Active Travel England which aims to ensure 50 per cent of journeys in towns and cities are walked or cycled by 2030.

Baroness Ruth Hunt, Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green, Co-Director of Deeds and Words

Ruth is a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords where she carries out the normal duties of a peer and advocates for LGBT+ inclusion. Ruth is also Co-Director of Deeds and Words, which she runs with her partner Caroline. Deeds and Words exists to play a small part in helping organisations and communities build cultures that work better, to tackle the challenges faced in society.

Before joining the Lords and Deeds and Words, Ruth was the CEO of Stonewall, the UK’s largest LGBT+ organisation. Ruth worked at Stonewall for 14 years, holding a range of positions and working to change attitudes to LGBT+ people.

Ruth attended Oxford University, where she was President of the Student Union and she holds honorary doctorates from Exeter and Keele University and an honorary fellowship from Cardiff University. Ruth is also a Marshall Memorial Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Bishop Rosemarie Mallett, Bishop of Croydon

The Right Rev'd Dr Rosemarie Mallett was born in Barbados but has lived much of her life in the UK. She has worked in West and East Africa as well as back in the Caribbean as an academic and researcher. She returned to the UK to study for her PhD. After working as an academic sociologist for twelve years, she trained for ordained ministry. Since 2005, she has served in various roles in the Diocese of Southwark, based in South London and East Surrey, as Parish Priest, Diocesan Director, and Archdeacon, and she now serves as the Bishop of Croydon.  

Rosemarie is a Trustee of several Diocesan and national para-church organisations, including the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education and Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI). From 2010 to 2021, Rosemarie served on the General Synod of the Church of England, as one of the Synod Chairs for 5 years, and on several Archbishop's Council committees, including the Women in the Episcopate Steering Committee and the Pastoral Advisory Group. 

Rosemarie is a Fellow of the Westminster Abbey Institute. 

Philippe Sands KC, Professor of Law at University College London and Samuel and Judith Pisar Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School

Philippe Sands KC is Professor of Law at University College London and Samuel and Judith Pisar Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is a practising barrister and appears as counsel before the International Court of Justice and other international courts and tribunals. He sits as an arbitrator in international investment disputes and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

He is author of Lawless World (2005) and Torture Team (2008) and numerous academic books on international law, and has contributed to the New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, the Financial Times, the Guardian, and The New York Times.

His most recent books are East West Street: On the Origins of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide (2016) (awarded the 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize, the 2017 British Book Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and the 2018 Prix Montaigne) and The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive (2020), also available as BBC and France Culture podcasts. His latest book is The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy (2022).

Philippe is President of English PEN and a member of the Board of the Hay Festival of Arts and Literature. 

Céline Sciamma, screenwriter and film director 

After receiving a degree in French literature, Sciamma studied screenwriting at the national film school in Paris. There she wrote Naissance des pieuvres that would turn into her feature directorial debut, Water Lilies, in 2007, selected for the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard). Sciamma’s 2011 film Tomboy won numerous accolades, including the Teddy Jury Award at the Berlinale. In 2014, her film Bande de filles (Girlhood) premiered at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Two years later, she scripted Quand on a 17 ans (Being 17) by André Téchiné and Ma vie de Courgette (My Life as a Courgette), an animated film by Claude Barras that attracted considerable audience and critical acclaim, won numerous awards and received an Oscar nomination. Sciamma returned to directing in 2019 with Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), earning her Best Screenplay at Cannes. In 2021, she directed Petite maman, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2023 she directed her first documentary short film - “This is how a child becomes a poet” - about poet Patrizia Cavalli’s house.

Osman Yousefzada, interdisciplinary artist and writer

Osman Yousefzada is a British-Pakistani interdisciplinary artist and writer, engaging with the representation, rupture and reimagining of the migration experience. He works across moving image, installation, sculpture, textile, and performance, referring to the socio-political issues of today. Osman’s practice is led by modes of storytelling, merging autobiography with fiction and ritual.

Osman is a research practitioner at the Royal College of Art, London. His work has been shown at notable international institutions including: Whitechapel Gallery, London; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Wapping Project, London; Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio; Ringling Museum, Florida; Lahore Museum, Pakistan; Design Museum, London; Lahore Biennale, Pakistan; and Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh. 

Osman’s practice has been described as "defiant", where the participating bodies throughout his work are presented as part objects that refuse to identify or conform. Most recently, his series of solo interventions titled ‘What Is Seen & What Is Not’ was shown at the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington, London. Across three site-specific works, this presentation responded to the 75th anniversary of Pakistan and explored themes of displacement, movement, migration, and climate change.

In his memoir, The Go-Between (2022), set in Birmingham in the 1980s and 1990s, alternative masculinities compete with strict gender roles while female erasure and honour-based violence are committed, even as empowering female friendships prevail. This first book was long listed for the Polari Prize and reviewed by Stephen Fry as "one of the greatest childhood memoirs of our time".