Professor James Knowles

Experience

Educated at a comprehensive school, and the universities of London and Oxford, Professor Knowles has previously been Executive Dean and Vice-Principal of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, Professor of Renaissance Literature and Culture and Vice-Dean (Research) at Brunel University, London, and Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature and Head of the School of English at University College, Cork.

Professor Knowles’ own research has focused on the court masque and its political, theatrical and social contexts, especially in Ben Jonson’s masques and entertainments.

His writing and research also cover topics including sexuality and gender in the early modern period and in contemporary writing; space, spatiality and cultural geography; the new histories of the book, including the queer history of the book; and manuscript studies and codicology.

He has been a Leverhulme Trust research fellow and has held grants and fellowships from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the British Academy, the Huntington Library, California and the Ransom Library, Texas.