克里斯·威克姆

克里斯托弗·约翰·“克里斯”·威克姆（英语：Christopher John "Chris" Wickham，1950年5月18日—2026年10月9日）是一位英国历史学家，专攻中世纪意大利社会史，牛津大学荣誉退休教授，主要作品有《构建中世纪早期：400—800年的欧洲和地中海》（Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400–800）、《罗马帝国的遗产：400-1000》（The Inheritance of Rome: Europe 400-1000）、《中世纪欧洲》（Medieval Europe）等。

Christopher John Wickham (18 May 1950 – 9 October 2026) was a British historian and academic. From 2005 to 2016, he was the Chichele Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He had previously taught at the University of Birmingham from 1977, rising to be Professor of Early Medieval History from 1997 to 2005.

Early life and education

Wickham was born in Rossett, Wales, on 18 May 1950. He was educated at Millfield, a public school in Street, Somerset, England. From 1968 to 1975, he studied at Keble College, Oxford. He graduated from the University of Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1971. He then remained to undertake postgraduate research and completed his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1975 with a thesis entitled Economy and society in 8th century northern Tuscany.

Academic career

Wickham spent nearly thirty years of his career at the University of Birmingham. He was a Lecturer from 1977 to 1987 and a Senior Lecturer from 1987 to 1989. He was promoted to Reader in 1989, and made Professor of Medieval History in 1993. He was the deputy to John Haldon as head of the School of Historical Studies at Birmingham for several years prior to 2005.

In 2005, he was appointed as Chichele Professor of Medieval History in the University of Oxford and fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. From 2009 to 2012, he also served as chair of the Faculty of History. From September 2015 to the end of the academic year, he was additionally Head of the Humanities Division of the University of Oxford. He retired at the end of the 2015/2016 academic year, in line with Oxford's mandatory retirement policy. Upon retirement, Wickham was appointed Professor of Medieval History on a part-time basis at the University of Birmingham. He was appointed Director of the British School at Rome on 5 November 2020, and held the post until July 2021.

From June 2009 to July 2011, Wickham served as a company director of the Past and Present Society. On 6 July 2013, Wickham was appointed a company director of the Past and Present Society, and he retained this position until July 2021.

Scholarship

His main area of research was medieval Italy – and more specifically Tuscany and central Italy – from the end of the Roman Empire through to the mid-thirteenth century. His emphasis was largely social and economic, though he also studied the legal and political history of the area. More generally, Wickham used a modified Marxist framework to examine how European society changed from late antiquity into the early Middle Ages, and pioneered comparative socio-economic analysis in this period.

In 2005 his work Framing the Early Middle Ages was published, which claims to be the first synthesis of early medieval European history since the 1920s. It is exceptional for its use of hitherto unincorporated evidence from both documentary and archaeological sources, as well as its bold use of comparative methods and rejection of national narratives. It was awarded prizes, including the Wolfson History Prize in 2006, the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 2006 and the American Historical Association's James Henry Breasted Prize in January 2007. He edited Marxist History Writing for the Twenty-First Century, a volume that sees various academics discuss the status and profile of Marxist historiography, and wrote a general history of early medieval Europe, published by Penguin, which examines cultural, religious and intellectual developments of the period not covered in his previous socio-economic study.

Personal life and death

In 1990, Wickham married Leslie Brubaker, a Byzantine scholar.

He was a member of the Labour Party, and was previously a member of the Democratici di Sinistra (Democrats of the Left). He was also active in the Communist Party of Great Britain alongside John Haldon while working at the University of Birmingham.

Wickham died on 9 October 2026, aged 76.