Karen O'Brien

Karen Elisabeth O'Brien , is a British academic administrator and literary scholar, specialising in the Enlightenment and eighteenth-century European literature. Since 2022, she has served as Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University (being the first woman to hold this office).

Elected a Fellow of University College, Oxford in 2016, O'Brien was Professor of English Literature and Head of the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford until 2021.

Prior to her time at Oxford, O'Brien served as a Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Birmingham She took her doctoral degree (DPhil) at St Cross College in 1986 with a thesis on English literature, after having completed her undergraduate studies at University College, Oxford, graduating MA. She has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge.

Selected works