John Haldon


John F. Haldon is a British historian, and Shelby Cullom Davis '30 Professor of European History, Professor of Byzantine History and Hellenic Studies, as well as Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University.

Early life and education

Haldon is from Northumberland, UK. He received his Bachelor’s Degree, from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, his Master’s Degree from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany and his PhD from the University of Birmingham, in the UK. Haldon also studied Modern Greek at the University of Athens. He initially wanted to study Roman-British history and work on post-Roman Britain, but eventually changed his field of study.

Career

From 1980-1995, he was Junior Professor at the University of Birmingham. From 1995 to 2000, he was Department Chair at the University of Birmingham. From 2000 to 2005, Haldon served as the Dean of Faculty at the University of Birmingham. He was a Senior Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, Washington, DC from 2007-2013 and has been Professor of Byzantine History and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University since 2009. Haldon has also served as the Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of European History at Princeton since 2005 and the Director of Graduate Studies for the Princeton History Department Since 2009. In addition, he has served as the Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies. He is the author and co-author of over 25 books including The empire that would not die: The paradox of eastern Roman survival, 640 – 740, A tale of two saints: the passions and miracles of Sts Theodore 'the recruit' and 'the general', A Critical Commentary on the Taktika of Leo VI and Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era: A History, with Leslie Brubaker.
His current projects include a re-examination of the relationship between environment and social and political change in the Byzantine world; research on some aspects of institutional and administrative history of the seventh-eighth centuries; preparation of an English translation of and critical commentary on the tenth-century text De Thematibus; research into the origins and development of the so-called Second Iconoclasm; work on comparative state formation in pre-modern societies. He is also in the initial stages of a major project on the history of the Eurasian world ca 400-800.

Awards and honors