Shearer West

Shearer West
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham
Assumed office
October 2017
Preceded by Sir David Greenaway
Personal details
Alma mater University of St Andrews
College of William and Mary
Salary £361,181 (2022–23)
Academic background
Thesis The theatrical portrait in eighteenth century London (1986)

Shearer Carroll West is a British-American art-historian, academic and university administrator. West is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham since October 2017 and formerly deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield.

West was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to education.

Biography and career

West holds an undergraduate degree in art history and English from the College of William & Mary, in Virginia, and a PhD in art history from the University of St Andrews.

She was previously head of the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford, director of research at the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and head of the School of Historical Studies at the University of Birmingham.

Selected publications

  • The Image of the Actor: Verbal and Visual Representation in the Age of Garrick and Kemble, Palgrave MacMillan, 1991. ISBN 0312057385
  • Fin De Siecle: Art and society in an age of uncertainty, The Overlook Press, 1994.
  • The visual arts in Germany 1897-1940: Utopia and Despair, Rutgers University Press, 2001. ISBN 0813529115
  • Portraiture, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004. (Oxford History of Art)