John Blair (historian)

Updated on Oct 05, 2024

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Name John Blair		Role Historian

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William John Blair, FSA, FBA (born 4 March 1955) is a British historian, archaeologist, and academic, who specialises in Anglo-Saxon England. He is Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. He gave the 2013 Ford Lectures at the University of Oxford.

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Early life and education

Blair was born on 4 March 1955 in Woking, Surrey, England. His father was Claude Blair, CVO, OBE, a museum curator and "one of the foremost authorities on historic European metalwork, especially arms and armour", and his mother was Joan Mary Greville Blair (née Drinkwater). He was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, an independent school in Leatherhead, Surrey. He then studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1976. He remained at Brasenose College to undertake postgraduate research, and completed his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1983. His doctoral thesis was titled "Landholding, Church and settlement in Surrey before 1300".

Academic career

During his doctoral research, Blair was a Junior Research Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1981, he was elected a Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. Since then, he has been a praelector and tutor in history at the college. On 1 October 2006, he was awarded a Title of Distinction by the University of Oxford as "Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology".

Blair gave the 2013 Ford Lectures at the University of Oxford. The lecture series was tiled "Building the Anglo-Saxon Landscape".

Personal life

In 2005, Blair married Kanerva Heikkinen. Together they have two children; one daughter and one son.

Honours

On 5 May 1983, Blair was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). He was elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2008.

Selected works

Blair, John (1991). Early Medieval Surrey: landholding, church and settlement before 1300. Gloucester: Alan Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-86299-780-9.

Blair, John (1994). Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire. Oxford, Stroud and Dover, NH: Oxfordshire Books and Alan Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7509-0147-5.

Blair, John (2000). The Anglo-Saxon Age: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285403-2.

Blair, John (2005). The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822695-6.

Blair, John, ed. (2007). Waterways and Canal-building in Medieval England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921715-1.

Blair, John (2013). The British Culture of Anglo-Saxon Settlement. Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic. ISBN 978-0-9571862-9-3.

Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald, eds. (2014). The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England (2nd ed.). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-470-65632-7.

References

John Blair (historian) Wikipedia

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