Ann M. Blair

Ann M. Blair serves as the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard University, where she has established herself as a leading authority on early modern European intellectual and cultural history since joining the faculty in 1996. Her academic journey includes degrees from Harvard University (A.B. 1984, summa cum laude), University of Cambridge (M.Phil. 1985), and Princeton University (Ph.D. 1990). Her groundbreaking research focuses on the cultural and intellectual history of early modern Europe, particularly the methods of scholarly information management and the history of reading practices. Blair's major works, including "The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science" (1997) and "Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age" (2010), have transformed our understanding of how early modern scholars managed the information explosion of their time. Her achievements have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship (2002), Guggenheim Fellowship (2014), and Harvard College Professorship (2009). As a mentor and scholar, she received the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award (2014) and was named University Professor at Harvard (2015), while continuing to investigate topics in intellectual history and the history of pedagogical and scholarly practices that resonate with contemporary information management challenges.