Professor Christopher McKenna

I am currently University Reader in Business History and Strategy at the Said Business School, a Fellow of Brasenose College, and Co-Director of the Global History of Capitalism Project in the Oxford Centre for Global History within the History Faculty.

I am particularly interested in the historical development and strategy of professional firms, and their role in shaping global business over the last two centuries. My current book project is a global history of white-collar crime from the South Sea Bubble to the present, tentatively titled Partners in Crime.

In my teaching, I am piloting a series of historical business case studies, linked to the material culture of global trade, to be distributed freely online. Before coming to Oxford, I did my undergraduate degree in economics at Amherst College, my doctorate in History at Johns Hopkins, and I have held research fellowships at Yale, Georgetown, and Harvard.