Since 2019, she has been King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.

She was then Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Chair of Irish Letters at Princeton University from 2015 to 2019, before moving to Cambridge.

[2][3][4] In 2016, Wills was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy (HonMRIA).

[6] In 2008, Wills was awarded the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for her book That Neutral Island: A cultural history of Ireland during the Second World War (2007).

[7] In 2018, she was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for her book Lovers and Strangers: An Immigrant History of Post-War Britain (2017).