Helen Thompson is an English academic who teaches politics at Cambridge University, where she is a professor of political economy and a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.
She has been working in Cambridge since 1994 and is currently a member of the Department of Politics and International Studies. One of her research interests has been the 2008 financial crisis.
Her current research interests are the political economy of energy and the history of the democratic, economic, and geopolitical disruptions of the current century.
She has co-hosted the Talking Politics podcast with David Runciman and the UnHerd podcast These Times.
In 2024, the New Statesman named Thompson 48th in The Left Power List 2024, the magazine's "guide to the 50 most influential people in progressive politics".