Anthony (Tony) Harris

Anthony Harris returned to higher education in 2007 after founding and exiting from an international software business via a management buy-out. The company was the recipient of four Queen’s awards for industry and numerous other industry accolades. He subsequently read English at Oxford as a mature student, where he became interested in medieval literature and the application of the sciences to improve our understanding of early texts.

His PhD at Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College) considered time, the medieval calendar, and the calculation of the date of Easter (computus). His PhD looked particularly at the complex mathematics and astronomy which surrounds the science of computus and analysed and explained it in a way designed to be understandable by scholars of the humanities without a background in the sciences. Prior to this his MA (Res) in Medieval Studies at the University of Reading focused on scientific readings of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.

At Clare Hall Anthony is conducting research on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the humanities, further work on early mathematics and astronomy, and enhancing his publication record. He is extremely involved in the digital humanities and is a technical research officer for the Kemble Anglo-Saxon charters website on behalf of the British Academy & Royal Historical Society, is a technical research advisor for the Revised Regesta regni Hierosolymitani Database Project and has presented several conference papers in digital humanities related fields. For academic years 2024/25 and 2025/26 he will be a British Academy Neil Ker Memorial Fund Award Holder progressing a digital humanities manuscript research project at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. In Q1 2025 he is a Fulbright all-disciplines scholar at Harvard University progressing another manuscript related digital humanities project.

Anthony is a visiting academic at the Department of Computer Science and Technology where he supervises for ecommerce, ebusiness, and optimising compilers. He also teaches early modern and medieval literature at Regent’s Park College (Oxford), has taught Chaucer at ICE (Cambridge) and, as an exited entrepreneur himself, mentors and lectures for the ‘Accelerate’ entrepreneurial programme at the Judge Business School. He is an active business angel in the Cambridge and London eco-space, has invested in nearly fifty companies, is a member of Cambridge Angels, and sits on the board as treasurer. He invests in and mentors several other early-stage companies and is a non-executive director of such diverse start-ups as ScaleXP (finance SAAS), and Flit Bikes (electric folding bikes). In terms of his charitable work, Tony is the Honorary Treasurer of Regent’s Park College (Oxford) and sits on the finance committee of Kellogg College (Oxford). As well as being a research fellow at Clare Hall, he is also a visiting fellow of Kellogg College, a research fellow of Regent’s Park college, and a fellow of the higher education academy (FHEA).