Central Office Staff

Adam Hughes
Chief Executive Officer

Adam is Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Historical Society. He is responsible for the overall direction of the Society’s professional office, working closely with the President, the Trustees, the Academic Director and central office team. Key areas of particular focus include governance and leadership, membership, external relations, fundraising, financial planning and management, infrastructure/operations, and strategy.

Prior to joining the Royal Historical Society Adam was Director of Operations at the Biochemical Society and Portland Press, and before then held roles within publishing and communications. Academically he has a background in Anthropology and the History of Film and Visual Media.

Phone: +44(0) 20 3821 5214

Dr Philip Carter
Academic Director

Philip is Academic Director at the Royal Historical Society. He is responsible for the academic and research elements of the Society’s programme, and works closely with both the RHS Council and central office team. Philip’s remit includes policy and advocacy work, events, prizes, publishing and publisher relations, digital and communications, institutional partnerships, and the Society’s Library and Archive.

Prior to joining the RHS in 2021, Philip was Director of Digital and Publishing, and a Senior Lecturer in British History, at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London (2016-21), and Senior Editor for the Dictionary of National Biography at Oxford University (2010-16), where he now holds an associate editorship.

Trained as a historian of Hanoverian Britain, Philip’s current research looks at the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century development of national centres for History, including the Royal Historical Society and the Institute of Historical Research, where he has been a Senior Fellow since 2021. Philip is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (2002) and of the Society of Antiquaries (2023).

Phone: +44(0) 20 3821 5222

Lisa Linossi
Membership and Grants Officer

Lisa is the Membership and Grants Officer at the Royal Historical Society. Her key areas of focus include administration of fellowship and membership applications to join the Society, management of membership renewals, requests for research support funding and responsibility for the Society’s data management.

Lisa is also secretary to the Society’s Membership and Research Support committees. Academically, she has a background in Art History and completed her Master of Arts degree at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, prior to joining the RHS.

Phone: +44(0) 20 3821 5377

Sabiqah Zaidi
Communications and Operations Administrator

Sabiqah joined the Society as our Communications and Operations Administrator in May 2022, having worked as a part-time administrator for the RHS since mid-2021. In her role Sabiqah is supports management of the Society’s membership and awards programmes, member relations, communications and running of the RHS office. Prior to joining the RHS, Sabiqah worked in legal and local government administration.

Sabiqah is currently studying part-time for a BA in History at Birkbeck, University of London.

Phone: +44(0) 20 3880 5278

Dr Emily Betz
Events Officer

Emily is the Events Officer at the Royal Historical Society. She is responsible for planning and organising the Society’s events, including lectures, workshops, and conferences. Prior to joining the RHS, Emily worked in the events industry here in London and abroad in California.  

Emily recently finished her PhD in Early Modern History at the University of St Andrews. Her current research looks at the perceptions of melancholia in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain. 

Phone: +44 (0)20 3880 5219