James Loxley

Professor of Early Modern Literature

Biography

Background

After completing a PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, Professor James Loxley held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Leeds for three years before taking up an appointment at Edinburgh. He has written a number of books and articles on renaissance poetry and drama, with a particular focus on Ben Jonson and Andrew Marvell, and on the literature of the civil war period. He has also published on the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and on issues in contemporary literary theory, especially the topic of performativity, and the work of Stanley Cavell. In recent years he has led a number of research projects funded by the AHRC and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a Trustee and Board Member of the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust, and an affiliate of the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Research summary

Professor Loxley welcomes research proposals in any area of Renaissance and early modern literature, in particular on poetry and drama. He would also be happy to supervise research on performativity, performance, queer theory and literature, literary mapping, digital literary studies, and the literary and cultural implications of phenomenology and ordinary language philosophy.

Current research interests

Ben Jonson; early modern theatre; queer theory and early modern literature and culture; cultures of work in early modernity; Anglo-Scottish cultural relations in the seventeenth century; the phenomenology of labour and performance.

Project activity

His current and recent projects include:

  • A monograph project on Ben Jonson, theatre and the body
  • Bi-eroticism and bisexuality in history and theory
  • The friendship and kinship networks of Katherine Philips
  • Digital literary heritage
  • An edition of Thomas Dekker's 'The Shoemakers' Holiday' for Arden Early Modern Drama (published in 2024)

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