Professor (Dr.) Karen O'Brien joined Durham University as Vice-Chancellor and Warden in January 2022, having led the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford, for five years previously. Prior to joining Oxford, she was Vice-Principal for Education at King’s College London. She has held a number of national and international leadership roles, including serving on the international jury of the Institut Universitaire de France and as chair of the Russell Group Pro-Vice-Chancellors for Teaching and Learning. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and of the English Association, and Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, and of St Cross College, University of Oxford she has published widely on the literature and intellectual history of the Enlightenment. Her first book Narratives of Enlightenment won the British Academy’s Rose Mary Crawshay prize. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service and other media networks. Professor O’Brien has had significant success in fundraising, including being the driving force behind the securing of a £150 million gift for a new Humanities Building and Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford. During her time at Oxford, she has worked to secure endowments for a number of academic posts and projects, including funding from the Dieter Schwarz Foundation to endow the Schwarz-Taylor Chair of German Language and Literature.