Sarah Foot

Sarah Rosamund Irvine Foot, born on 23 February 1961, is an English Anglican priest and historian specializing in early medieval history. She has held the position of Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford since 2007 and was appointed Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, effective 1 July 2023.

Foot is the daughter of military historian M. R. D. Foot and his second wife, Elizabeth. She completed her early education at Withington Girls' School in Manchester in 1979. She studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, within the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic. Her coursework included instruction from Rosamond McKitterick and Simon Keynes, culminating in the Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic tripos in 1983. She received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1984; her BA was subsequently promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) in accordance with Cambridge University tradition. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in 1990, with a thesis titled "Anglo-Saxon Minsters, AD 597 – ca. 900," supervised by Rosamond McKitterick.

From 1989 to 1990, Foot was a research fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a fellow and tutor at the same college. In 1993, she joined the University of Sheffield as a lecturer and was promoted to senior lecturer in 2001. In 2004, she was appointed to the chair of Early Medieval History at Sheffield.

On 22 February 2007, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Foot to the Regius Chair of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford, marking the first time a woman held this position. As Regius Professor, she was responsible for leading research, developing graduate studies, and contributing to the broader work of the Oxford faculty of theology. The chair is associated with a canonry at Christ Church, and at a ceremony on 6 October 2007, Foot was installed as a residentiary canon of the cathedral. She served as a lay canon of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford from 2007 to 2017.

During her tenure as canon, Foot felt called to ordination. She trained for Holy Orders through the Oxford Ministry Course at Ripon College Cuddesdon. She was ordained as a deacon on 1 July 2017 by Bishop Steven Croft of Oxford and as a priest on 21 December 2017 by Bishop Colin Fletcher of Dorchester. Since 2017, she has been a residentiary canon at Christ Church Cathedral and served as a non-stipendiary minister there until 2019.

In March 2023, her appointment as Dean of Christ Church was approved by King Charles III. She assumed the role on 1 July 2023 and was formally installed during a service on 8 July. The dean is both the head of Christ Church college and the cathedral of the Diocese of Oxford.

Her research focuses on Anglo-Saxon England, with particular interests in monasteries, women and religion, and the Cistercians. She has explored the history of the early medieval church and society, the historiography of the English, and historical theory. In 2001, she received a major grant to study the remains of Cistercian abbeys in Yorkshire. She authored a biography of Æthelstan, recognized as the first king of all England. Current projects include the study of charters from Bury St Edmunds Abbey. Foot contributed to a BBC Radio 4 program on St Cuthbert in January 2021 and is an editor of the Oxford History of Historical Writing.

In her personal life, Foot married Geoffrey Schrecker in 1986; the couple divorced in 1999, and they had one son. She remarried in 2002 to Michael Bentley, Emeritus Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews.

Foot was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) in 2001. She served as president of the Ecclesiastical History Society from 2011 to 2012.

Selected works include "Handbook of Historical Theory" (2012), "Æthelstan: The First English King" (2011), "Monastic life in Anglo-Saxon England, c. 600–900" (2006), and "Veiled Women" (2000).