Katherine Jane Humphries,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FBA (born 9 November 1948), is a Fellow of

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

with the

Title of Distinction The University of Oxford introduced Titles of Distinction for senior academics in the 1990s. These are not established chairs, which are posts funded by endowment for academics with a distinguished career in British and European universities. Howeve ...

of professor of economic history. Her research interest has been in economic growth and development and the industrial revolution. She is the former president of the

Economic History Society The Economic History Society (EHS) is a learned society that was established at the London School of Economics in 1926 to support the research and teaching of economic history in the United Kingdom and internationally. The society also acts as a ...

and the current vice-president of the

Economic History Association The Economic History Association (EHA) was founded in 1940 to "encourage and promote teaching, research, and publication on every phase of economic history and to help preserve and administer materials for research in economic history". It publi ...

Early life

Humphries gained her economics degree from

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sid ...

, in 1970; she went on to

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

to do both her masters and then her doctorate which she completed in 1973.

Career

Her professional life began at

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

, first as an assistant professor (1973–1979), then as an associate professor (1979–1980). She was lecturer at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and later a fellow of Newnham College (1980–1995). In 1993, during her period at Newnham College, Humphries was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Population and Development within Harvard University's School of Public Health. Humphries returned to Newnham College as reader in economics and economic history in 1995, she then took up a post as reader in economic history and fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford in 1998. In 2004, she was awarded a

as professor of economic history at All Souls. In 2012, Humphries was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...

(FBA), the United Kingdom's

national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the humanit ...

for the humanities and social sciences. After retiring from Oxford, she became Centennial Professor of

Economic History Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and ins ...

at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

in 2018.

Edited journals

Humphries has sat on the editorial boards of a number of peer-reviewed journals. She is currently on the editorial boards of ''

Gender, Work and Organization ''Gender, Work & Organization'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal. The journal was established in 1994 and is published by John Wiley & Sons. It covers research on the role of gender on the workfloor. The editors-in-chief are Alison Pul ...

'', and ''

Feminist Economics Feminist economics is the critical study of economics and economies, with a focus on gender-aware and inclusive economic inquiry and policy analysis. Feminist economic researchers include academics, activists, policy theorists, and practition ...

''.

Honours

On 29 January 2016 Humphries received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from the Faculty of Educational Sciences at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. In 2018 she received an

from

Sheffield University , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

. Her 2019 article 'Unreal Wages? Real Income and Economic Growth in England, 1260-1850', co-authored with Jacob Weisdorf, was awarded the 2019

Royal Economic Society The Royal Economic Society (RES) is a professional association that promotes the study of economic science in academia, government service, banking, industry, and public affairs. Originally established in 1890 as the British Economic Association, ...

Prize.

Selected bibliography

Books

* * * * * * *

Chapters in books

Journal articles

* * * * * * * * * * * * *Humphries, Jane; Weisdorf, Jacob (June 2015). "The Wages of Women in England, 1260–1850". ''

Journal of Economic History ''The Journal of Economic History'' is an academic journal of economic history which has been published since 1941. Many of its articles are quantitative, often following the formal approaches that have been called cliometrics or the new economi ...

''. 75 (2): 405-447. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050715000662 *Humphries, Jane; Weisdorf, Jacob (May 2019). "Unreal Wages? Real Income and Economic Growth in England, 1260-1850". ''

Economic Journal ''The Economic Journal'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics published on behalf of the Royal Economic Society by Oxford University Press. The journal was established in 1891 and publishes papers from all areas of economics.The edito ...

''. 129 (623), 2867-2887. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uez017

References

External links

Profile: Jane Humphries
Faculty of History, University of Oxford {{DEFAULTSORT:Humphries, Jane 1948 births Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge British historians Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Cornell University alumni Academics of the University of Oxford Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Feminist economists Historians of economic thought Living people University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty British women historians Presidents of the International Association for Feminist Economics