Education
MA Harvard University, 1964
PhD Harvard University, 1968
Research Interests
Trained in Tudor-Stuart English history, Barbara Harris’s research and writing in the last two decades has focused on English aristocratic women in the period 1450–1550. Following a series of articles on the subject, she published English Aristocratic Women, 1450–1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers (Oxford University Press, 2002). She was awarded Mellon Emeritus Fellowship in 2008. Her current project, called “The Fabric of Piety: Aristocratic Women and Care of the Dead, 1450–1550,” is looking at the same group of women in another context: as patrons of building in churches. The first article appeared in the Journal of British Studies in April 2009. From 1990–1993, Harris was president of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians. She is past president of the North American Conference of British Studies.