Lesley Abrams

Lesley Jane Abrams, (born 1952) is a retired academic historian. She was a Colyer-Ferguson Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, between 2000 and 2016, and Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Oxford from 2015 to 2016.
Career.
Lesley Jane Abrams was born in 1952 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Toronto between 1969 and 1973, and was then a British Commonwealth Scholar at St Hilda's College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1975. She then completed a Master of Arts (MA) degree at the Centre for Medieval Studies in Toronto in 1979 and took her doctorate of philosophy (PhD) there in 1991. Between then and 1995, she lectured in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge University, and then lectured at Aberystwyth University until 2000, when she was appointed Colyer-Fergusson Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford. In 2015, she was appointed a Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Oxford, and retired from teaching the following year.
Abrams also lectured at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1996 and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Works.
Abrams has carried out research into the conversion of northern European peoples to Christianity in the early medieval period, focusing on the English and Scandinavians. More broadly, she has studied many aspects of Scandinavian history in this period, ranging from military activity to overseas connections and settlements. Her published works include: