Ian Archer

Fellow and Tutor in Modern History
Academic Director, The H B Allen Centre

Dr Ian Archer is a leading authority on the history of early modern London, a stalwart of the SCR and a much loved and highly respected Tutor.

Former student Max Rushden affectionately recalls; “Ian is not only a brilliant teacher, but someone who embodies College life. There won’t be a Keble historian who doesn’t have fond recollections, not just of the teaching, but more of the company of a good man.”

Born on the outskirts of Manchester and educated at the local state grammar school, Ian came up to Oxford to read History at Trinity College in 1978. He migrated to Cambridge in 1986, but returned to Oxford in 1991, when he joined Keble as a Tutorial Fellow, and has been here ever since.

He has published a variety of books and articles and also co-wrote Past and Present, a history of Keble. He was Sub-Warden here from 2007–2012, Tutor for Graduates from 1995 to 1998 and Dean of Degrees from 1999 to 2002. He is President of the SCR and a staunch supporter of many student societies, and was a Senior Member of the LGBTQ+ for five years.

He was one of the History Faculty’s first Schools Liaison Officers and a keen advocate for access. He is a governor at the London Academy of Excellence, which has had a transformative effect on the prospects of young people in Newham.

Dr Archer was the Academic Director of the Royal Historical Society’s Bibliography on British and Irish History, and the Society’s Literary Director for nine years. He was made an Honorary Vice-President of the Society in 2016.

He is a committed advocate of the University of Georgia at Oxford programme, for which he has taught since 1992. He was appointed Academic Director of the new H B Allen Centre in 2018—a post he will hold until September 2021.