Jane Shaw

Jane Shaw grew up in Norwich, England, on the grounds of the Great Hospital, a medieval hospital with its own chapel and cloisters where her father was master. She attended Norwich High School for Girls. She studied modern history at University of Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1985. She completed a PhD in history at the University of California, Berkeley in 1994. She has received honorary doctorates from the Episcopal Divinity School and Colgate University. ==Career==

Shaw taught history and theology at Oxford University for 16 years. Having trained in the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course, she was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1997 and as a priest in 1998. Then, in 2001, she moved to New College, Oxford, where she became the first female dean of divinity, and was elected a fellow. She was made an honorary canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford in 2005, and was canon theologian of Salisbury Cathedral from 2007 to 2012. In 2010, Shaw left Oxford to take up the position of dean of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. In February 2018, Shaw was announced as the next principal of Harris Manchester College, Oxford. She took up the appointment on 1 October 2018. Under her leadership, the college achieved record-breaking academic standing at the University of Oxford, ranking 3rd among all colleges in the Norrington Table in 2022. She retired as Principal on 30 September 2025. She is additionally professor of the history of religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, and a pro-vice-chancellor without portfolio of the University of Oxford. Shaw took up the position of chair of the board of the Pitt Rivers Museum in 2022, and chair of the management board of the Rothermere American Institute in 2020. She has held appointments as an honorary chaplain and honorary canon of Christ Church, Oxford, director of the Oxford University Summer Programme in Theology, and canon theologian of Salisbury Cathedral. She was a governor of a British boys' public school, Winchester College. She was a director of the Prophecy Project, and is a trustee of the Panacea Society. Shaw is Non-resident Long-term Fellow for Programmes in Cultural and Intellectual History at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden. ==Writing==

Shaw's academic writing focusses on modern religion, the arts, gender, and the impact of technology on society. Her book Gen Z, Explained, was an interdisciplinary study of Generation Z (18 to 25 year olds). As an historian, she focusses on lived religion, which Robert Orsi describes as "the volatile and unpredictable nature of religious creation". Miracles in Enlightenment England showed how the experience of miracles in Enlightenment England challenged the elites. Her book Octavia Daughter of God won the 2012 San Francisco Book Festival History Prize. It described the life of a female Messiah figure, Mabel "Octavia" Barltrop, who lived in Bedford, England, and founded the Panacea Society in the early twentieth century. The book was commended for showing how, and under what circumstances, a religion grows. The literary critic, John Carey, writing in The Sunday Times, praised the book: "Shaw recounts the Panaceans' history with humour, sympathy and understanding". In The Mystical Turn, a series of five programmes on BBC Radio 3, Shaw explored the relationship between spirituality and mysticism in the works of Russian artist Kandinsky and his contemporaries. She writes for the Financial Times and Prospect magazine. ==Activism==

Shaw has combined the work of a church historian with participation in the life of the Anglican churches and campaigning for the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate. She writes for The Times and the Guardian on issues pertaining to politics, religion, and the arts. Shaw was an original member of a thinktank, the Chicago Consultation, advocating for LGBT Christians, and she has worked with V-Day on behalf of women who are victims of violence. In 2013, she joined the board of the NGO Human Rights Watch in California. == Selected publications ==