Our People

Dr Anthony Harris

Fellow, Visiting Fellow

Director of Studies in Computer Science at Emmanuel College

PhD (Cambridge); MA (Oxford); MA (Res) (Reading)

Dr Anthony (Tony) Harris is a Visiting Academic at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, and Director of Studies in Computer Science at Emmanuel College, where he is also a Fellow and teaches Middle English and Medieval Studies. He is a Graduate Tutor and Associate at Clare Hall, mentors and lectures on the Accelerate entrepreneurial programme at the Cambridge Judge Business School, and holds visiting and honorary positions at Kellogg College and Regent’s Park College, Oxford. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Dr Harris specialises in digital humanities, with research spanning medieval manuscripts, early scientific texts, and the application of AI to the humanities. He is Technical Research Officer for the Kemble Anglo-Saxon Charters website (British Academy & Royal Historical Society) and Technical Research Advisor for the Revised Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani Database Project. He is currently a British Academy Neil Ker Memorial Fund Award holder (2024–26), supporting a digital manuscript project at the Bodleian Library. In 2024–25 he was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University, where he advanced digital humanities projects and was appointed Associate in Medieval Studies.

Before academia, Dr Harris had a thirty-year career in the IT industry as an entrepreneur and technologist. He co-founded Software 2000 in 1989, serving as Technical Director. The company’s innovations in OEM printer drivers and high-speed imaging pipelines transformed desktop colour inkjets and digital copiers worldwide. His work earned multiple honours, including four Queen’s Awards for Export, the Prince of Wales Award for Technology, and recognition as a twice-named finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Following a management buy-out in 2007, he returned to higher education, completing degrees at Oxford and Reading and a PhD in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College).

His doctoral thesis examined the mathematical lexis of computistical tables (used to calculate the date of Easter), alongside the development of software tools to analyse and construct such tables. His current research explores AI in the humanities, the intersections of language, mathematics, and astronomy in medieval culture, and the scientific underpinnings of early texts. He is developing a textbook on the medieval calendar and has several further publications in preparation.