As the third and final part of our series celebrating Women’s History Month 2025, we are delighted to highlight the remarkable achievements of Regent’s alumna, first female Fellow and now Honorary Fellow of Regent’s Park College, and current Head of House at Harris Manchester College, Oxford: Professor Jane Shaw.

Jane first came to Regent’s in 1982 to read for her undergraduate degree in Modern History. Principal Emeritus, Prof Paul S. Fiddes, remembers that from the start Jane had always been deeply interested in Theology. In fact, during her student days at Regent’s, Jane once presented Prof Fiddes with a list of books by feminist theologians whom she thought he ought to know about – a list he still possesses. After graduating, Jane went on to complete a Master of Divinity at Harvard followed by a PhD in History from the University of California, Berkley.

Returning to Oxford, Jane became the first female Fellow of Regent’s Park College in 1994 when she was elected a Research Fellow in Church History, and in 1996 she became a Tutorial Fellow. Up to this point, tutors in Church History had historically always been Baptists with a speciality in Baptist history and heritage. As such, an amendment was introduced to the College Statutes in 1996 enabling Jane’s appointment. This decision was a mark of both the College’s keenness to instate Jane as a Fellow, as well as a commitment to ensure that Fellows could work in other specialised fields in the study of modern history. Since Jane’s appointment, the post has simply been ‘Fellow in History.’

Jane taught at Oxford for the next 16 years, during which time she trained for ministry and was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1997, and as a priest in 1998. Moving to New College, Oxford in 2001, Jane achieved yet another ‘first’, becoming their first female Dean of Divinity.

In 2010, Jane left Oxford to become Dean of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco and later moved to Stanford University as their Professor of Religious Studies and Dean for Religious Life. In 2012, Jane’s fascinating book Octavia, Daughter of God – which unearthed the story of a female Messiah figure living in Bedford in the wake of WWI – won the San Francisco Book Festival History Prize.

In 2018, Jane returned to Oxford as the principal of Harris Manchester College (HMC), taking up the post in October for the start of Michaelmas Term. Under her leadership, the college has moved from 30^th to third in the Norrington Table, and, in keeping with the College’s focus on mature student learning, she has founded, in collaboration with the Rhodes Trust, an innovative new programme for those in mid- and later life who wish to explore the next stage in their career, Oxford Next Horizons.  She retires as HMC’s principal in September of this year and will remain as Professor of the History of Religion in the University. She looks forward to finishing her book on the revival of mysticism in the twentieth century, and to having more time to work on academic projects with colleagues, and to write other books.

In 2019, Jane was made an Honorary Fellow of Regent’s Park College, recognising her as the first Regent’s alumnus and former staff member to be elected to the headship of an Oxford college, and to celebrate her many remarkable achievements. A photographic portrait of her hangs in Helwys Hall, alongside those of Mo Yan, Nobel Laureate, and Violet Hedger, the first female student at Regent’s.