Dame Olwen Hufton, (born 1938) is a British historian of early modern Europe and a pioneer of social history and of women's history. She is an expert on early modern, western European comparative socio-cultural history with special emphasis on gender, poverty, social relations, religion and work. Since 2006 she has been a part-time Professorial Research Fellow at

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic depa ...

Biography

Born in 1938 in

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, w ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

to Joseph and Caroline Hufton, Olwen Hufton was awarded a scholarship at a local grammar school, and became the only

council house A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 ...

child in her form. From there she went to

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(UCL), where she encountered Alfred Cobban, the great revisionist historian of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. Hufton's academic career began as a lecturer at the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_lab ...

from 1963 to 1966. From Leicester she moved to the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

, where she taught for more than twenty years; and then to

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where from 1987 to 1991 she was the University's first Professor of Modern History and Women's Studies. After four years in America, she returned to Europe in 1991 to become Professor of History and Civilisation at the

European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute and an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established by the member states to contr ...

in Florence. Six years later, in 1997, she returned to Britain to become Leverhulme Professor of History at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. She retired in 2003, and is now Fellow Emeritus of

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ...

. In 2006 she joined

Royal Holloway Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

as a part-time Professorial Research Fellow in the History Department.

Honours and recognition

Hufton is a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...

(1998) and of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

. She was made a

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(DBE) in 2004. She holds honorary fellowships at UCL and

; and honorary degrees from

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...

and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. The

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

hosts a Hufton Postgraduate Reading Group centred on women's history. In 2006, she was presented with a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...

(edited by Ruth Harris and

Lyndal Roper Lyndal Anne Roper (born 1956) is a historian. She was born in Melbourne, Australia. She works on German history of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, and has written a biography of Martin Luther. Her research centres on gender and the Ref ...

, and published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

) entitled ''The Art of Survival: gender and history in Europe, 1450–2000''.

Personal life

Olwen Hufton married Brian Dermot Taunton Murphy (born 27 June 1934) on 3 July 1965; the couple has two daughters.

Publications

* ''Bayeux in the Late Eighteenth Century''. (Oxford, 1967) * ''The Poor of Eighteenth-Century France'' (Oxford, 1974) * ''Women and the Limits of Citizenship in the

'' (Toronto, 1992) * ''The Prospect Before her: A History of Women in Western Europe, I: 1500-1800'' (London, 1995) * ''Europe: Privilege and Protest 1730-1789'' (Oxford, 2000).

External links

British Academy record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hufton, Olwen 1938 births British women historians British writers Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Living people Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Historical Society People from Oldham Date of birth missing (living people) Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Alumni of University College London Academics of the University of Leicester Academics of the University of Reading Harvard University faculty Academics of the University of Oxford Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London