Professor Gordon Campbell

Research Interests

I am a Renaissance and seventeenth-century specialist with a particular interest in John Milton. My broader interests in cultural history are at present focussed on art and architecture, but also include subjects such as legal history and theology.  My most recent reference books, all for Oxford University Press, are The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance (2003), Renaissance Art and Architecture (2004), The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts (2 vols, 2006) and The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture (2 vols, 2007); the next in this series will be The Grove Encyclopedia of the Northern Renaissance (3 vols, 2009).  My recent work on Milton, also for OUP, includes a collaborative monograph on the Miltonic De Doctrina Christiana manuscript (2007), a new scholarly biography of Milton (2008) and the general editorship (with Thomas Corns) of an 11-volume edition of Milton to be published by OUP; the first volume was published in December 2008. My contribution to the edition will include the theological stratum of commentary on De Doctrina Christiana (Volume 8). At present I am writing a history of the King James Bible (the ‘Authorised Version’) for Oxford University Press, to be published together with an edition of the 1611 Bible as part of the quatercentenary celebrations in 2011.

I have served as Chairman and President of the English Association and as Chairman of the Society for Renaissance Studies; in 2005 I was Honored Scholar of the Milton Society of America. I am a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, a member of the Royal African Society and a member of the Selden Society (for English legal history). I have given papers at scores of academic conferences in England and abroad, including eight International Milton Symposia (London, Cambridge, Florence and Vallombrosa, Bangor, Vancouver, York, Beaufort SC and Grenoble)  and have lectured on educational subjects to bodies such as the Access to Higher Education Conference, the Seminar on China for Local Authorities, the Standing Conference of University Information Officers, the Congress of University Convocations, the Council for University English, the National Association for Teachers of English, the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, the Association of European International Schools, the British Council and the Department of Trade and Industry. I have lectured, examined or reviewed provision at most British universities, and have given talks in more than 200 schools in England and a similar number abroad; named lectures include a Passmore Edwards Lecture at Oxford and a Sir Philip Sidney lecture at Shrewsbury. 2008 was the 400th anniversary of Milton’s birth, and my programme of visiting lectures included the Chalfont St Giles Literary Festival, The Friends of Cambridge University Library, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Leeds, Swansea University, the Morgan Library (New York), the Dr Williams’s Library lecture and collaborative papers at a British Academy conference and a conference in Oxford.  I also helped to organise a birthday party for Milton in the Bodleian Library; the oath forbidding the kindling of fire and flame in the Library (neque ignem nec flammam in bibliothecam) meant that the birthday cake couldl not have candles, but there was certainly celebration.

I have strong international interests. I have worked in Denmark (Århus University) and Canada (University of British Columbia), visited South Africa as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Science Development (Pretoria), examined in India (Aligarh and Calcutta), Luxembourg and Finland (Tampere) and lectured on academic subjects in Bulgaria (Plovdiv, Sofia and Veliko Turnovo), Italy (Matera), Norway (Oslo and Tromsø), Romania (Bucharest, Cluj and Timisoara), South Africa (Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, Western Cape and Witwatersrand), Spain (Alcalá de Henares and Las Palmas), Sri Lanka (Colombo), Turkey (Istanbul) and the USA (Binghamton, Boulder, New York, Princeton, Syracuse). I have also travelled as a representative of the University beyond Western Europe to countries such as Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Bulgaria, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Macao, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, USA and Yemen. Within Europe, I am an active supporter of the European Society for English Studies, and have participated in its conferences in Norwich, Bordeaux, Glasgow, Debrecen, Helsinki, Strasbourg and Zaragoza.  In Spain, I am a member of the Advisory Board of the Sociedad Española de Estudios Renacentistas Ingleses (SEDERI); I have spoken at SEDERI's conferences, and have also attended several of the conferences of the Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos (AEDEAN), for whose journal I serve as a reader. The British Council has sponsored visits to conferences in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Spain and to institutions of higher education in Saudi Arabia and Libya, and I have travelled to Iran as a guest of the Iranian Ministry of Science and Technology.

My work overseas has made me familiar with international issues in higher education, and has brought me into close contact with the British Council, some 80 of whose overseas offices I have visited. I have initiated and/or negotiated split-degree programmes in Hong Kong and Malaysia, a post-graduate Law programme in Cyprus, a World Bank biotechnology project in Indonesia, a teacher-training programme in Brunei, a staff-development programme in eastern Turkey, an FCO shared scholarship scheme in India, a Soros shared scholarship scheme in Hungary and a women's PhD programme in Saudi Arabia. In South Africa I have offered advice on the redressing of historic imbalances through selective funding; in Beirut, where I was the first British academic visitor in fifteen years, I contributed my mite to the process of reconstruction; in the West Bank, throughout the years when schools and universities were closed during the first intifada, I gave assistance to Palestinians in need of higher education. My work in Eastern and Central Europe has included academic and professional lectures, a book scheme in which I sent 6000 new books to 15 libraries in six countries, mediation between universities and organisations such as the British Council, the Soros Foundation, Tempus and the World Bank, and assistance with recognition of professional qualifications (especially Engineering) by EU organisations.

I have long had a particular interest in the Islamic world, to which I have made well over a hundred visits in the course of the last 25 years. I am the founding chair of the British Universities Iraq Consortium (BUIC), in which capacity I have recently visited Baghdad, and co-chair of a consortium of British universities (known as UK4Saudi) active in Saudi Arabia; work with both countries has involved chairing meetings at ministerial level.  I have worked as a consultant for the British government, for which I drafted a cross-governmental strategy for the support of education in the Islamic world, and I have twice participated in the Two Kingdoms Dialogue with Saudi Arabia. I regularly contribute to radio programmes (usually news) on the Middle East.

Current Postgraduate Supervision

I have supervised research students on topics ranging from Richard Hooker and Milton and Boiardo to Scandinavian drama and modern travel writing; I have also supervised dissertations that consist of editions (Joseph Mede, Clement Paman, Moses Wall).

Recent Publications

(1) Books
(2) Journals and Serials
(3) Advisory and Consultant Editorships
(4) Milton (chapters, articles, notes)
(5) Other Authors and Subjects
(6) Professional Publications

(1) Books since 1995

(editor), John Milton, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (Random House, Vintage Classics series, London, 2009), 384 pp

(co-author with Thomas Corns), John Milton: Life, Work and Thought (Oxford University Press, 2008), xvi + 476 pp.

(general editor) Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture (2 vols, Oxford University Press, 2007) Vol 1: xlvi + 674pp + 16-page colour insert; Vol 2: viii + 808pp + 16-page colour insert; also published as an e-book

(author), John Milton (VIP Collection, Oxford University Press, 2007), 96pp

(co-author with Thomas Corns, John Hale and Fiona Tweedie), Milton and the manuscript of ‘De Doctrina Christiana’ (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007), 240 pp, 5 halftones, 10 figures, 3 tables; also published as an e-book

(general editor and part-author) Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts (2 vols, Oxford University Press, 2006). Vol 1: xxxvi + 556pp + 16-page colour insert; Vol 2: x + 646pp + 16-page colour insert; also published as an e-book

(author) Renaissance Art and Architecture, Oxford University Press, 2004, xl + 320 pp.

(author) The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance, Oxford University Press, 2003, xlviii + 863 pp; also published as an e-book

(editor) Andrew Marvell, Selected Poems, Everyman, 1997, xvi + 111 pp.

(author) A Milton Chronology, Macmillan, 1997, xii + 255 pp; published in USA by St Martin's Press

(editor) second edition of W. R. Parker, Milton: A Biography, Oxford University Press, 1996, 2 vols., xxiv + 1,539 pp.

(editor) John Milton, Selected Poems, Everyman, 1996, xix + 104 pp.

(editor) Ben Jonson, The Alchemist and other Plays, Oxford University Press, 1995, xxviii + 530 pp; reprinted 1998 and 2001; published electronically by Questia (2001).

(editor) John Milton, Complete English Poems, Of Education, Areopagitica (J. M. Dent and Sons, 1990, xxxiii + 620 pp); revised paperback edition with new supplementary material, 1993, xliv + 628 pp (6 reprints to 2000)

(editor and translator, with N. M. Postlethwaite) Edward King, Milton's "Lycidas": Poems and Documents, special issue of Milton Quarterly (vol. 28, no. 4, December 1994, 33 pp, numbered 77 - 111); Addenda et Corrigenda vol. 29 no. 3, October 1995, p. 93.

(2) Journals and series since 1995

(general editor) The Review of English Studies, Clarendon Press, Oxford, vol. 48 (1997) et seq; from 2003 published five times a year  <www3.oup.co.uk/revesj>

(general editor with Thomas Corns), The 1671 Poems: ‘Paradise Regain’d’ and ‘Samson Agonistes’, ed. Laura Knoppers, volume 2 of The Complete Works of John Milton (Oxford University Press, 2008)

(series editor) Essays and Studies, Boydell and Brewer, vols 49-54.
49 (1996) Poetry and Politics, ed. Kate Flint
50 (1997) Translating Literature, ed. Susan Bassnett
51 (1998) Romanticism and Gender, ed. Anne Janowitz
52 (1999) Postcolonial Theory and Criticism, ed. Laura Chrisman and Benita Parry
53 (2000) Reading the ‘New’ Literatures, ed. Susheila Nasta
54 (2001) The Gothic, ed. Fred Botting

(editor) Renaissance Studies, Oxford University Press, vols. 1 (1987) to 10 (1996).

(3) Advisory and Consultant Editorships

(consultant editor) Everyman's Library (1991-96).            

(editorial associate) South African Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies (from 1992).

(member, Board of Advisors) Milton Quarterly (from 1993).

(senior advisory editor) Early Modern Literary Studies (from 1994)

(member, Advisory Board) Journal of the Spanish Society for English Renaissance Studies (from 1994).

(editorial adviser) Blackwell Anthologies (from 1995)

(adviser) Oxford Companion to English Literature, sixth edition, ed. Margaret Drabble (Oxford, 2000)

(consultant editor) Oxford Chronology of English Literature, ed. Michael Cox (Oxford, 2002)

(member, Editorial Board), Milton Encyclopedia, ed. Thomas Corns (Yale University Press, 2007)

(member, Editorial Board), Palgrave Author A-Zs (from 2002)

(member, Board of Advisers), Atlantis (since 2005)

(4) Milton (chapters, articles, notes since 2000)

(with Thomas Corns), ‘De Doctrina Christiana: An England that might have been’, forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of Milton, ed. Nicholas McDowell and Nigel Smith (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Five entries in The Milton Encyclopedia, ed. Thomas Corns (Yale UP, 2009): God, God the Father, God the Son, Holy Spirit, Trinity

‘”To the shore of Tripoli”: Milton, Islam, and the attacks on America and Spain’, in Fundamentalism and Literature, ed. Catherine Pesso-Miquel and Klaus Stierstorfer (Palgrave, 2007), pp. 7-19

Ten entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004):

John Milton (38, 333-49)
Charles Diodati (16, 252)
Alexander Gil the Elder (22, 154-55)
Alexander Gil the Younger (22, 155-56)
Edward King (31, 611-13)
Sir Christopher Milton (38, 331-32)
John Milton the Elder (38, 332-33)
Edward Phillips (44, 106-09)
John Phillips (44, 117-19)
Nathaniel Tovey (55, 99)                                          

‘Milton and the water supply of Cambridge’, in Essays for Alexander Shurbanov, ed. B Sokalova and E Pancheva (Sofia, 2001), pp. 38-43, reprinted in revised form in South African Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 15 (2006 for 2005), 121-26.

‘The Life Records’, in A Companion to Milton, ed. Thomas Corns (Blackwell, 2001), pp. 483-98.

'Shakespeare and the Youth of Milton', in Milton Quarterly 33 (1999), pp. 95-105; reprinted in Seventy Years of English and American Studies in Bulgaria, ed. Zelma Catalan et al (Sofia, 2000), pp. 170-79 and in a variant version as 'Obelisks and Pyramids in Shakespeare, Milton and Alcalá', in Sederi 9 (1999), 217-32.

 (5) Other authors and subjects (since 2000)

Three entries in The Classical Tradition, edited by Anthony Grafton, Glenn Most and Salvatore Settis (Harvard University Press, 2009): Amazons, Argonauts and Circe.

Eleven entries in the Oxford Companion to the Garden, ed. Patrick Taylor (OUP, 2006): Leon Battista Alberti, Bartolomeo Ammanati, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Donato Bramante, Giambologna, Pirro Ligorio, Pacello Mercogliano, Medici family, Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli, Niccolò Tribolo and Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola.

‘God: a Literary and Pictorial History’ in Transactions of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society 97 (August 2003), 21-25.

‘Dates of adoption of the Gregorian calendar in Europe’, in A Handbook of Dates for students of British History, ed. C.R. Cheney (second edition, revised by Michael Jones, Cambridge, 2000), pp. 236-41 [with André Dubois, who covered Switzerland]

Contributor, Oxford Companion to English Literature, ed. M. Drabble (Oxford, 2000); comment on c. 1200 entries, including 60,000 words of new text, mostly on classical and modern European; new entries on Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, Sir Wilfred Thesiger, the Qu’ran etc.

(6) Professional Publications since 1995

‘Anglo-Iranian Co-operation in Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges’, in UK and Iran Collaboration in Higher Education and Research: Achievements and Challenges, ed. Shahriar Shahidi (Tehran, 2005), 57-63.

‘Making British Universities Businesslike’, in Financial Times on Sunday (Sri Lanka) 30 March 2003; printed in abbreviated form as ‘The University and the Corporate: an analogy’ in The Business Standard (Sri Lanka), 28 March 2003.

'International Dimensions of Quality in Education' in Proceedings of the Conference on Quality in English Language Teacher Education (Budapest, 1996), 9-16.

TQA: The Chair's Report, English Association (1995).

Teaching and Administration

Teaching I have taught in all areas of English literature from medieval to modern. At present my undergraduate teaching is focussed on English Renaissance Literature; I also run a special subject seminar on Ibsen.

Administration  I have worked as the University's International Relations Adviser since 1983, and now have special responsibility for the Middle East and special interests in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Indian sub-continent. I have recently served on the University’s Council, and am now an active member of university committees that deal with honorary degrees, international relations and appointments to the academic and administrative staff. I am also one of the University’s two public orators. Beyond the university, I completed 25 years as a moderator at University College Northampton (now University of Northampton), and at present serve on the advisory board of the Faculty of Arts at University of Warwick and on the International Advisory Committee of the Markfield Institute of Higher Education, the educational arm of the Islamic Foundation. I am an honorary patron of the Milton Cottage Trust and a Trustee of Peckleton Arts.

Internet Links

English Association
Society for Renaissance Studies
European Society for the Study of English
Royal Historical Society
Royal Asiatic Society

Society of Antiquaries