Karen O'Brien | |
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25th Vice Chancellor and Warden of Durham University | |
Assumed office January 2022 | |
Preceded by | Stuart Corbridge |
Personal details | |
Education | University College,Oxford (BA) St Cross College,Oxford (MA,DPhil) |
Karen Elisabeth O'Brien FRSA ,is a British academic administrator and literary scholar,specialising in the Enlightenment and eighteenth-century European literature. [1] Since 2022,she has served as Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University (being the first woman to hold this office). [2] [3]
Elected a Fellow of University College,Oxford in 2016, [4] O'Brien was Professor of English Literature and Head of the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford until 2021. [5]
Prior to her time at Oxford,O'Brien served as a Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Birmingham [1] and then Vice-Principal for Education at King's College London. [2] [5] O'Brien's scholarly work focuses on the British,American and French Enlightenments,and on British literature more generally between 1660 and 1820. [6] She took her doctoral degree (DPhil) at St Cross College in 1986 with a thesis on English literature, [7] after having completed her undergraduate studies at University College,Oxford,graduating MA. [8] She has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts,and an Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse,Cambridge. [9]