John Blair (historian)

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.

Early life and education

Blair was born on 4 March 1955 in Woking, Surrey, England.^[1] His father was Claude Blair, CVO, OBE, a museum curator and "one of the foremost authorities on historic European metalwork, especially arms and armour",^[2] and his mother was Joan Mary Greville Blair (née Drinkwater).^[1] He was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, an independent school in Leatherhead, Surrey.^[1] He then studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1976.^[1] He remained at Brasenose College to undertake postgraduate research, and completed his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1983.^[1][3] His doctoral thesis was titled "Landholding, Church and settlement in Surrey before 1300".^[4]

Academic career

During his doctoral research, Blair was a Junior Research Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford.^[3] In 1981, he was elected a Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford.^[1][3] Since then, he has been a praelector and tutor in history at the college.^[1] On 1 October 2006, he was awarded a Title of Distinction by the University of Oxford as "Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology".^[5]

Blair gave the 2013 Ford Lectures at the University of Oxford.^[6] The lecture series was tiled "Building the Anglo-Saxon Landscape".^[7]

Personal life

In 2005, Blair married Kanerva Heikkinen. Together they have two children; one daughter and one son.^[1]

Honours

On 5 May 1983, Blair was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).^[8] He was elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2008.^[9]

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