He was a Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge from 1973 to 1992 and Senior Tutor at the same college from 1982 to 1992. He then moved to Royal Holloway, University of London, where he was employed as a professor of French Language and Literature and successively as Head of department, Dean of the Graduate School and Vice-Principal. In 2005 he returned to Fitzwilliam College as its Master,[1] holding the post until he retired in 2013.[2] During his mastership, Fitzwilliam moved from 13th place to 20th place (out of 29) in Cambridge University's intercollegiate Tompkins Table.
Until 1994 he lectured and worked as a researcher at Cambridge University's Department of French, and is currently an Honorary Professor of Nineteenth-Century French Literature at the university. His main interest is late 19th century France and specifically the relationship between literature and visual arts in that period.[1] At the 2013 Royal Academy exhibition he gave a lecture on Manet and the Writers of his Time.[3]
Between 2001 and 2006 he was Honorary President of the Society of Dix-neuvièmistes, a group founded in Dublin in 2001, mainly comprising British and Irish academics with an interest in 19th century France.[1] In 2012 he was appointed a Commander of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, chivalric order established in 1955 for services to French culture and scholarship,[4] having been an Ordinary member since 1988.
In 2012, after the Boat Race between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge was disrupted by a protester against elitism, Lethbridge criticised left-wing politicians for criticising Cambridge University. He called critics "lazy" and "uninformed", and told the Daily Telegraph that there was a problem with a mindset which "doesn't want anyone to fail".
[5] In response, critics accused him of being "arrogant", having "vile manners", and "never (having) done a stroke (of work)".[6]
