Find a research supervisor in Early Modern Literature

Our research in early modern literature covers the full range of literary and cultural forms, with particular emphases on the poetry and prose of the seventeenth century, including the writings of John Donne, John Milton and Aphra Behn.

We have taken a lead in a number of major editing projects, including editions of Donne’s sermons and Behn’s poetry, and are actively engaged in wider debates around editorial practice and the materiality of the text. Other major strands in our research include the study of the religious cultures of early modern England, including perceptions of paganism, wider work on women’s writing in the period, and studies of the later reception of medieval and early modern writers including Chaucer, Shakespeare and Jonson.

Professor Hugh Adlington

Professor Hugh Adlington

Professor of English Literature

  • John Donne and his contemporaries
  • Seventeenth-century religious poetry and prose
  • John Milton and his contemporaries
  • Early modern print and manuscript culture

Dr Peter Auger

Dr Peter Auger

Lecturer in Early Modern Literature

  • Franco-British literary relations
  • Translation, imitation, and multilingual practices
  • Literary reception and cultural mobility
  • Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century religious poetry

Dr Sheldon Brammall

Dr Sheldon Brammall

Associate Professor in Early Modern Literature

My research interests are in Renaissance English and comparative literature, with focuses on classical reception, translation, epic, and the history of classical scholarship.

Dr Emily Buffey

Teaching Fellow in Early Modern Literature

I teach across the historical spectrum – from the ancient period to the modern – though my main interests lie in the sixteenth century. I am particularly interested in ancient and medieval literary reception in the post-Reformation period, early modern print culture, women’s writing (particularly Aemilia Lanyer and Hester Pulter), literary communities, scribal practices, and the ...

Dr Jennie Challinor

Dr Jennie Challinor

Teaching Fellow in Early Modern Literature

  • Restoration drama and theatre
  • Early modern manuscripts
  • Seventeenth-century literature and culture
  • Court studies

Dr David Griffith

Dr David Griffith

Senior Lecturer in English Medieval Studies

  • Late medieval literature
  • Medieval visual culture
  • Tudor literature
  • Pre-modern drama
  • Epigraphy
  • First World War

Dr Toria Johnson

Dr Toria Johnson

Associate Professor in Early Modern Literature

I teach across the late medieval, early modern, and Restoration periods. My research focuses on the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, early modern subjectivity, and the history of emotions.

Professor Tom Lockwood

Professor Tom Lockwood

Professor of English Literature

  • Early modern literature
  • Romantic literature
  • Reception
  • Poetry
  • Drama
  • Manuscript

Dr Sebastian Mitchell

Dr Sebastian Mitchell

Senior Lecturer in English Literature

  • Eighteenth-century literature and art
  • Romanticism
  • Intellectual history
  • Aesthetics
  • Utopianism
  • Scottish literature

Dr Will Sharpe

Dr Will Sharpe

Teaching Fellow in Shakespeare

My teaching and research interests focus on the early modern period, and Shakespeare in particular, chiefly, in my research, on the textual editing and collaborative authorship of Shakespeare’s plays.

Dr Emily Wingfield

Dr Emily Wingfield

Senior Lecturer

  • Older Scots Literature
  • Romance and Arthurian Literature
  • Women and the Book in the Middle Ages
  • The Trojan Legend/ medieval reception of Classical literature
  • Manuscript Studies and Book History
  • Magic and the Supernatural Chaucer and Chaucer’s Legacy (including Lydgate and Henryson)

Professor Gillian Wright

Professor Gillian Wright

Professor of English and Irish Literature

  • Aphra Behn
  • Restoration literature
  • Early modern women's writing
  • Book history
  • Samuel Daniel