Toby Wilkinson

Academic career

Wilkinson's first academic position, from 1993 to 1997, was as Lady Wallis Budge Research Fellow in Egyptology at Christ's College, Cambridge. From 1997 to 1999, he was Leverhulme Special Research Fellow at the University of Durham. After this he decided to change direction from academia.

Wilkinson returned to Cambridge and became a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge in 2003. He set up the college's development office, focusing on communications, fundraising and external relations, and served as director of development from 2003 to 2010. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Egyptian History. He is an honorary research fellow in the Department of Archaeology, University of Durham. In July 2011, he became head of the International Strategy Office at the University of Cambridge. In this position, he developed the university's international strategy and helped facilitate international collaborations.

In 2017, he became Deputy Vice Chancellor (External Relations) at the University of Lincoln. In January 2021, he moved to the South Pacific to become Vice Chancellor of Fiji National University. However, in August 2021, it was announced that he was to step down in December 2021 due to "personal family reasons", and he subsequently returned to the United Kingdom. In March 2022, it was announced that he would return to Clare College, Cambridge as Fellow for Development: he took up the appointment on 3 May 2022.

Honours

In 2011, Wilkinson won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize, awarded to the best work of non-fiction of historical content, for his book The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt: the History of a Civilisation from 3000 BC to Cleopatra.

On 3 March 2017, Wilkinson was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.