Professor Peter Burke

Photo of Professor Peter Burke

MA (Oxon and Cantab), Hon PhD (Brussels, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Lund and Zurich), FBA, Member of the Academia Europaea, FRHistS

Life Fellow
Emeritus Professor of Cultural History

Biography

Peter is a Life Fellow, having been elected as an Official Fellow in 1979. He was Professor of Cultural History (now Emeritus), and supervised Emmanuel undergraduates and research students in History. He is a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society. He has also held the positions of Fellow Librarian and Fellow Archivist at the College.

Peter a Londoner, who converted a schoolboy enthusiasm for the Middle Ages into research on the Renaissance and the seventeenth century. National service in a Malay regiment in Singapore awoke his interest in Anthropology. He read History at St John's College, Oxford, moving to St Antony's College to begin research. He was appointed a lecturer at the University of Sussex when it began (1962) and remained for 16 years before moving to Emmanuel.

On moving to Emmanuel, he was glad to return to teaching in very small groups (usually one–to–one, although his experience in Sussex was that two students at a time was more lively!). For the undergraduate History course, Peter taught European History, History of Political Thought, the General Paper, Specified subjects on Images as Sources and on Historical Anthropology, and Special Subject of Louis XIV. He also supervised PhD students from about fourteen countries. As Professor of Cultural History, his work focused on Europe 1500–1700. In retirement, he prefers to study problems rather than periods and follow them wherever they lead, usually into the present.

Research

Peter is currently writing a book on the history of European connoisseurship, 1500–present, continuing a series of books on the history of knowledge(s). His latest books are a history of ignorance (2023) and a history of polymaths (2020).

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