Career
He is a former Principal of Linacre College, Oxford, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and Professor of Early Modern Social History in the University of Oxford. He was a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford from 1973 until 1996. He served as Junior Proctor during the academic year 1986/7 and Chairman of the General Board 1995/6.
On 1 October 1996 he took office as Principal of Linacre College.
He retired in September 2010. He was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor in 1997, becoming in 2000 Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Services and University Collections).
In 1999 he was appointed Professor of Early Modern Social History. Slack was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1990.