A historian has formally joined the ranks at Oxford University.

Dr Tom Johnson succeeds Professor Ian Forrest as the Catto Fellow in Medieval History at Oriel College.

The historian has a fellowship from the British Academy and was officially inducted as a Fellow on Wednesday, October 16.

“I am delighted to be starting a new position as associate professor and tutorial fellow in medieval history at Oriel College,” he said.

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Dr Tom Johnson has returned to Oxford. (Image: Oriel College)

“I'll miss my wonderful colleagues at York but I'm excited to begin this new chapter and to work in the Bodleian again.”

He is also finalising a non-fiction book, The Reckoners, about a fishing village on the Suffolk coast, near where he grew up in Ipswich.

Dr Johnson has joined Oriel College from the University of York where he was a senior lecturer in late medieval history.

He published his first book, a history of how ordinary people thought about the law and used legal ideas in 15th century England, in 2019.

His work mainly focuses on how ordinary people lived in early modern Britain, and he has written on a broad range of topics for the London Review of Books, including the laws of shipwreck, occult magic and historical counting systems.

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Prof Forrest, Dr Johnson’s predecessor, left Oriel in 2023 to take up the senior role of head of humanities at the University of Glasgow.

He, in turn, preceded Professor Jeremy Catto, who taught at the College from 1970 until his retirement in 2006.

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