Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Italian literature and culture; history of the reception of classical rhetoric, 13th to 16th centuries; gender history and women’s writing
Elected 2022
Petrarch, early Italian Renaissance and the classical tradition
English Literature, especially of the Renaissance (Nashe, Shakespeare and Spenser); Anglo-Irish literary relations; travel and colonial writing; literature and politics; class; national identity; biography
Literature & culture of the 'long Romantic period', with a focus on empire, nation & travel writing. My recent focus is Scottish literature & thought 1750-1850, with a special emphasis on Robert Burns & his poetic & intellectual circle.