Professor Mary Beard has criticised plans to use the names of famous male academics as part of an enormous development project.

Professor Beard’s alarm regards proposals to use the surnames of thirteen Noble Prize winners to name streets forming part of the development, of which only one is female.

The popular Classics professor told Varsity that naming the streets in this manner is a “pretty permanent” indicator of “priorities and perceived importance”.  

The streets belonging to the development will be named according to three themes: physical features of the site; suggestions put forward by the local community; and the surnames of Nobel Laureates, who have a connection to the university.

Beard added that sometimes “institutional conservatism takes over and it is useful to call it out" and that these names are “a marker and part of a wider package”.

She argued that the University had previously seemed to recognise this when they prominently announced the use of two distinguished female scientists for street names.

The North West Cambridge Development, funded by the university, is an enormous £1 billion project aimed at “attracting and retaining world class staff and researchers”. It will include 3,000 homes and accommodation for 2,000 students.

Charlotte Chorley, CUSU’s Women’s Officer, told us that while she “appreciates the desire to honour the esteemed tradition of scholars at the university”, the use of Nobel Laureates does not recognise the “prominent part” women have played in the university’s “diverse and rich history”.

She added that the plans honour “a very specific type of success, in a very specific area of academia, which seems at odds to the amazing strides women have made over the years.”

Beard did note that we shouldn’t “go to the stake over street names” and emphasised in her comments to Varsity that women face bigger obstacles in regard to their careers.

Biky Wan, a representative for the development’s office, defended the plans. In a statement to Varsity, she said that the use of Nobel Prize winners is not an “exclusive theme” and that the university is still collecting names.

Wan also said that the university and development team have “actively sought more names from eminent contributors, particularly women, and also from the arts and humanities”.

The North West Development website currently shows that many of the community suggestions for street names have been based on eminent women.

However, Beard, in her blog post, writes that this only redresses the problem “a bit” and that “we could do even better”. 

A university spokesperson has yet to respond to Varsity's request for comment.