Henrietta Harrison

Henrietta Katherine Harrison, (born 1967) is a British historian, sinologist, and academic. Since 2012, she has been Professor of Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford. She was previously a junior research fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford (1996–1998), a lecturer in Chinese at the University of Leeds (1999–2006), and a professor at Harvard University (2006–2012).

Early life and education Harrison was born in 1967 in London, England. She was educated at St Paul's Girls' School, an independent school in Hammersmith, London.

Academic career She was a junior research fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford (1996–1998), a lecturer in Chinese at the University of Leeds (1999–2006), and a professor of history at Harvard University (2006–2012). Since 2012, she has been Professor of Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford. She has also been a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford since 2015, and was previously a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford (2012–2015).

Harrison works mainly on the social and cultural history of China from the Qing through to the present, especially rural north China, links between transnational and local history, religion, diplomacy and revolution.

Honours and recognition In 2014, Harrison was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Her book, The Perils of Interpreting, won the 2022 Kenshur Prize for best book in Eighteenth-Century Studies, and was shortlisted for the 2022 Cundill Prize and the 2023 Wolfson History Prize.

Selected works