Dr John Colley

John works on early modern literature (c.1500–1700). His current research focuses on drama, especially early modern university drama. This corpus encompasses the circa 120 plays that were written by and for students and academics in Oxford and Cambridge circa 1540 to 1640. John also has a special interest in classical reception: he is interested in how the translation and imitation of ancient Greek and Roman texts can reshape our understandings of cultural authority and dramatic form from the Middle Ages to the present.

John joined Hertford in 2026. Previously he was Research Fellow in English at St John’s College, Cambridge. Before that, he studied for his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Oxford, mostly at Jesus College.

At Hertford, John mainly teaches second- and third-year papers on literature in English between 1550 and 1760, including Shakespeare. He has also taught for the first-year ‘Introduction to Literature’ paper (Prelims Paper 1B). He occasionally teaches topics for the second-year paper on literature in English from 1350 to 1550.