Sheilagh Ogilvie


Sheilagh Catheren Ogilvie, FBA is a Canadian historian, economist, and academic, specialising in economic history. Since 2004, she has been Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge.

Early life and education

Ogilvie was born on 7 October 1958 to Robert Townley Ogilvie and Sheilagh Stuart Ogilvie. She was brought up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She was educated at Grantown Grammar School, a state school in Grantown-on-Spey, Scotland, and at Queen Elizabeth High School in Calgary, Alberta. She studied modern history and English at the University of St Andrews, graduating with a first class undergraduate Master of Arts degree in 1979. She undertook postgraduate research in history at Trinity College, Cambridge, and completed her Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1985. Her doctoral thesis was titled "Corporatism and regulation in rural industry: wollen weaving in Wurttemberg, 1590-1740". She later studied for a Master of Arts degree in social sciences at the University of Chicago, which she completed in 1992.

Academic career

From 1984 to 1988, Ogilvie was a research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1989, she joined the Faculty of Economics of the University of Cambridge as an assistant lecturer in economic history. She was promoted to lecturer in 1992, and made a Reader in Economic History in 1999. In 2004, she was appointed Professor of Economic History. Between 2013 and 2016, she additionally held a Wolfson/British Academy Research Professorship.
Ogilvie has held a number of visiting appointments. From 1993 to 1994, she was a visiting fellow at the Czech National Archive in Prague, and a guest dozent in the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Vienna. From 1994 to 1995, she was a visiting fellow at the Centre for History and Economics of King's College, Cambridge. In 1998, she was a visiting fellow at the Center for Economic Studies of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Honours

In 2004, Ogilvie was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Selected publications