Educated at the University of Birmingham and the University of Nottingham, where she completed her PhD, Professor Helen Laville returned to Birmingham to begin her academic career as a lecturer in its Department of American and Canadian Studies. She was promoted to Head of Postgraduate Studies and Head of Department, before taking on the role of Head of the School of English, Drama and American and Canadian Studies in 2013. In 2016 Helen became the PVC for Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. Since 2020 Helen has been the Provost at Kingston University. This was newly created position, which provides a single point of leadership for all academic endeavour at the institution. As Kingston University Provost, Professor Laville leads a particularly important portfolio encompassing learning and teaching, research and innovation, and business partnership and engagement activities. Widely published in the field of post-war American history, Professor Laville‘s research interests span gender, international relations, civil rights and Cold War film.