Ann Blair

Ann Blair is the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor in the Department of History at Harvard University, a position that recognizes her as one of the university's most distinguished scholars. She earned a B.A. summa cum laude in History and Science from Harvard College in 1984, an M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge in 1985, and a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University in 1990, with a dissertation on Jean Bodin's Universae naturae theatrum. Blair began her academic career as Assistant Professor at the University of California, Irvine from 1992 to 1996. She joined Harvard in 1996 as Assistant Professor of History and of History and Literature, was promoted to John L. Loeb Associate Professor in 1999, full Professor in 2001, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History in 2005, and named Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor in 2015. She served as Chair of the History Department from 2020 to 2022 and as Director of Undergraduate Studies. Blair is also an affiliate of the Department of History of Science and has held visiting positions at institutions such as the Ecole Normale Supérieure and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Blair specializes in the cultural and intellectual history of early modern Europe, with emphasis on France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the history of the book and reading, scholarly information management, note-taking practices, reference works, and the role of amanuenses. Her major publications include The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science (Princeton University Press, 1997); Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age (Yale University Press, 2010); and L'Entour du texte: la publication du livre savant à la Renaissance (Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2021). She has co-edited volumes such as Note-Taking in Early Modern Europe (with Richard Yeo, 2010), Physico-theology: Religion and Science in Europe 1650-1750 (with Kaspar von Greyerz, 2019), and Information: A Historical Companion (with Paul Duguid, Anthony Grafton, and Anja-Silvia Goeing, 2021). Blair has received numerous honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship (2002), Guggenheim Fellowship (2014), Radcliffe Institute Fellowship (2014-15), Harvard College Professorship (2009), Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award (2014), election to the American Philosophical Society (2009), and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Mellon Foundation. She has delivered prestigious lectures, including the Rosenbach Lectures at the University of Pennsylvania (2014), Panizzi Lectures at the British Library (2019), and Lyell Lectures at Oxford (2023), and organized conferences on book history and note-taking at the Radcliffe Institute. Blair serves on editorial boards for journals such as the Journal of Modern History and Erudition and the Republic of Letters.

Professional Email: amblair@fas.harvard.edu