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Karen Elisabeth O'Brien FRSA is a British academic administrator and scholar of English literature, specialising in the Enlightenment and eighteenth-century literature. Since 2022, she has been Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University (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.

Prior to her time at Oxford, she was a pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Birmingham and then Vice-Principal for Education at King's College London. O'Brien's scholarly work focuses on the British, American and French Enlightenments, and on British literature more generally between 1660 and 1820. She was awarded her doctoral degree (DPhil) by St Cross College, Oxford in 1986 for a thesis on English, after having completed her undergraduate studies at University College. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge.

Selected works

• O'Brien, Karen (1997). Narratives of enlightenment: cosmopolitan history from Voltaire to Gibbon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521465335.
• O'Brien, Karen (2009). Women and Enlightenment in eighteenth-century Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521773492.
• Garside, Peter; O'Brien, Karen, eds. (2015). English and British fiction: 1750-1820. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199574803.
• O'Brien, Karen; Young, Brian, eds. (2018). The Cambridge companion to Edward Gibbon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107035119.

References

1. "Durham University Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 July 2023" (PDF). Durham University. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
2. ^ "Professor Karen O'Brien". Humanities Division. University of Oxford. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
3. ^ "Durham appoints new Vice-Chancellor and Warden". Durham University News. Durham University. 5 May 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
4. ^ "Professor Karen O'Brien". Faculty of English. University of Oxford. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
5. Ffrench, Andrew (20 May 2016). "Head of humanities appointed at Oxford University". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
6. "Karen O'Brien". The RSA. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
7. "Alumna Professor Karen O'Brien appointed Vice-Chancellor and Warden at Durham University". St Cross College. University of Oxford. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
8. "Karen O'Brien". University College. University of Oxford. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
9. "Professor Karen O'Brien biography". Durham University. Retrieved 8 March 2022.

• Academics of the University of Oxford
• Fellows of University College, Oxford
• Academics of King's College London
• Academics of the University of Birmingham
• British academics of English literature
• Intellectual historians
• Vice-chancellors and wardens of Durham University
• British literary historians
• British academic administrators
• Living people
• Alumni of St Cross College, Oxford