James Purdon

Dr James Purdon is a Senior Lecturer in the School of English at the University of St Andrews. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and previously served as a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. His research focuses on intersections between 20th/21st-century literature, technology, media, and politics, with specialties in modernist studies, Cold War culture, and visual arts. He has authored/co-edited books such as Modernist Informatics, The Art of Identification, and Naomi Mitchison: A Writer in Time. He co-edits the Technographies book series with David Trotter and Steven Connor. Purdon has supervised PhD student Sandro Eich and contributes to interdisciplinary research through collaborations with the Centre for the Critical Reimagining of Human Rights and other institutes.

Education: BA (University of Cambridge), MPhil (University of Cambridge), PhD (Harvard University). His scholarly work appears in journals like Essays in Criticism and Modernist Cultures, alongside mass-market publications such as The Times Literary Supplement. Recent projects include studies on Naomi Mitchison’s literary legacy and Cold War-era intellectual networks.