Qualifications

MA Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic (Cambridge); PhD (Cambridge)

Academic background

I was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1989–93 I was a Research Fellow then Fellow and Tutor at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In 1993–2007 I then served as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Sheffield. In 2007 Queen Elizabeth II appointed me to the Regius Chair of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford.

Undergraduate teaching

The courses I teach include History of the Western Church, 1050–1350 and the English Church and Mission, 597–754. 

Research interests

My research focuses on medieval monasticism, particularly Anglo-Saxon monasteries and women in religion. I have wider interests in the early medieval Church and society and the invention of the English, and in historiography and historical theory. An edition of the Anglo-Saxon Charters of Bury St Edmunds Abbey prepared with Kathryn A Lowe is forthcoming with the British Academy. I am currently completing a major study of the life and work of the Venerable Bede. 

Featured publications

Veiled Women: the Disappearance of Nuns from Anglo-Saxon England (2 vols, Ashgate, 2000)

Monastic Life in Anglo-Saxon England c. 600–900 (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Æthelstan: the First King of England (Yale University Press, 2011)

The Oxford History of Historical Writing, II 600–1400, ed. with Chase F. Robinson (Oxford University Press, 2012)

The Sage Handbook of Historical Theory, ed. with Nancy Partner (Sage Publications, 2013)

Bede’s Church, Jarrow Lecture 2012 (St Paul’s Church, Jarrow, 2013)

Featured News

COLLEGE |

Oxford head launches 500th Anniversary Lectures at the Royal Society

On Thursday 8 May, Professor Irene Tracey CBE FRS FRCA FMedSci MAE, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and an Honorary Student of Christ Church, delivered a speech to London’s Royal Society entitled ‘The Critical Role of Higher Education in Shaping Tomorrow’s World’. The first in a series of lectures taking place across the globe to mark the 500th Anniversary of the founding of Christ Church, Professor Tracey began the presentation with a question: ‘What does the next 500 years look like?’

Professor Irene Tracey delivers the first Anniversary Lecture
COLLEGE |

A decade of transforming educational opportunity

Yesterday we were delighted to celebrate over ten years of support provided by a local learning centre to young people in Oxford. The centre, operated by the national charity IntoUniversity in collaboration with Christ Church and the University of Oxford, was officially launched in Blackbird Leys in February 2014 and has since supported more than 5,800 young people from the local area through academic support sessions, workshops, mentoring and university visits.

Celebrating 10 years of IntoUniversity Oxford South East