Ann Blair was appointed the Carl H. Pforzzheimer University Professor at Harvard, effective January 1. University Professorships are Harvard’s highest faculty honor. Holders of these prestigious positions can teach and conduct research in any of Harvard’s schools. There are currently 24 scholars who are University Professors at Harvard. When Dr. Blair takes her new post, she will be the fifth woman among the 24 University Professors.
Dr. Blair has been serving as the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at Harvard, specializing in the cultural and intellectual history of early modern Europe. Professor Blair joined the faculty at Harvard University in 1996 and was promoted to full professor in 2001. Earlier in her career, she served on the faculty at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Blair is the author of The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science (Princeton University Press, 1997) and Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age (Yale University Press, 2010).
Dr. Blair is a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University. She earned a master’s degree in the history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University in New Jersey.