Jonathan Patterson

Dr Jonathan Patterson is a Departmental Lecturer in French and Honorary Faculty Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages. He specializes in early modern French literature, focusing on intersections between literature and cultural forces such as law, bureaucracy, and economics. His research examines how literary works engage with societal issues like morality, legal frameworks, and power structures. Patterson’s two major monographs, *Representing Avarice in Late Renaissance France* (2015) and *Villainy in France, 1463–1610* (2021), explore greed and villainy as cultural phenomena, respectively, analyzing their manifestations through legal, literary, and historical lenses.

His current research investigates the relationship between administration and literature in pre-eighteenth-century France, emphasizing ‘bottom-up’ perspectives of bureaucratic writing. Teaching responsibilities include undergraduate French language and literature courses, as well as graduate supervision in early modern topics. Patterson actively engages in outreach initiatives, such as coordinating the UNIQ Summer School in French and advising on UK Language Policy through the Oxford Policy Engagement Network. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

His publications span journal articles, book chapters, and educational resources, including contributions to *French Studies*, *Renaissance Quarterly*, and *Bibliothèque d’humanisme et Renaissance*. Key themes include legal anthropology, textual analysis of early modern authors like Rabelais and Montaigne, and interdisciplinary approaches to literature and society.