Karen O'Brien | |
---|---|
25th Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University | |
Assumed office January 2022 | |
Preceded by | Stuart Corbridge |
Personal details | |
Alma mater | University College,Oxford St Cross College,Oxford |
Salary | £353,000 (2022–23) [1] |
Karen Elisabeth O'Brien FRSA is a British academic administrator and scholar of English literature,specialising in the Enlightenment and eighteenth-century literature. [2] Since 2022,she has been Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University [3] (the first woman to hold the office),having previously been Professor of English Literature and Head of the Humanities Division,University of Oxford,and a Fellow of University College,Oxford. [4] [5]
Prior to her time at Oxford,she was a pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Birmingham [2] and then Vice-Principal for Education at King's College London. [3] [4] 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 was awarded her doctoral degree (DPhil) by St Cross College,Oxford in 1986 for a thesis on English, [7] after having completed her undergraduate studies at University College. [8] She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts,and an Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse,Cambridge. [9]
Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. An important feature of de Merton's foundation was that this "college" was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows.
Sir James Fitzjames Duff was an English academic and Vice-chancellor of Durham University.
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Dame Professor Averil Millicent Cameron, often cited as A. M. Cameron, is a British historian. She writes on Late Antiquity, Classics, and Byzantine Studies. She was Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History at the University of Oxford, and the Warden of Keble College, Oxford, between 1994 and 2010.
Peter James Marshall is a British historian known for his work on the British Empire, particularly the activities of British East India Company servants in 18th-century Bengal, and also the history of British involvement in North America during the same period. He is not to be confused with his contemporary, the other P. J. Marshall, who chronicled the history of public transport in the British Isles.
Durham University is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to open in England for more than 600 years, after Oxford and Cambridge, and is thus the third-oldest university in England. As a collegiate university, its main functions are divided between the academic departments of the university and its 17 colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide teaching to students, while the colleges are responsible for their domestic arrangements and welfare.
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Brian Westerdale Downs was an English literary scholar and linguist. He served as Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, from 1950 to 1963 and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1955 to 1957. From 1950 to 1960, he was the Professor of Scandinavian Studies at Cambridge.
Evelyn Algernon Valentine Ebsworth, was a British chemist and academic. He was the Crum Brown Professor of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh from 1967 to 1990, and Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University from 1990 to 1998.
Stuart Edward Corbridge, FRGS is a British geographer and academic specialising in geopolitics, development studies, and India. From September 2015 to July 2021, he was Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University. From 2013 to 2015, he was Provost and Deputy Director of the London School of Economics. He was also Professor of Development Studies at LSE.
Margot C. Finn, is a British historian and academic, who specialises in Britain and the British colonial world during the long nineteenth century. She has been Professor of Modern British History at the University College, London (UCL) since 2012. Finn was previously the President of the Royal Historical Society and a trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Sir Frederick George Thomas Holliday, was a British marine biologist, academic, academic administrator, and businessman. He was Acting Principal of the University of Stirling from 1973 to 1975, Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University from 1980 to 1990, and Chair of Northumbrian Water from 1993 to 2006.
April Mary Scott McMahon is a British academic administrator and linguist, who is Vice President for Teaching, Learning and Students at the University of Manchester.
Judith Ruth Buchanan is a British academic specialising in Shakespeare and film studies. Since October 2019, she has been Master of St Peter's College, Oxford. Since January 2023, she has been a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.