Michelle O'Callaghan

Michelle O'Callaghan is a Professor of English Literature at the University of Reading, part of the School of Humanities. Her research focuses on early modern literature and culture, including print and manuscript culture, literary networks, poetic forms, and women’s writing. She has authored influential monographs such as The Shepheards Nation: Jacobean Spenserians and Early Stuart Political Culture (2000) and Crafting Poetry Anthologies in Renaissance England (2020). She co-edits the Palgrave Macmillan series Early Modern Literature in History and leads the Mapping the Early Modern Inns of Court project. Her work integrates digital humanities, exemplified by the Verse Miscellanies Online digital edition.

Teaching includes modules like EN3TBS: The Bloody Stage: Revenge and Death in Renaissance Drama and EN2EM: Early Modern Texts and Cultures. She actively supervises postgraduate research in early modern studies. Notable collaborations include co-authoring Early Modern Women and the Poetry of Complaint with Sarah Ross and Rosalind Smith.

Research highlights include exploring literary networks through material culture and investigating women’s voices in early modern poetry. She is affiliated with the Early Modern Research Centre and contributes to interdisciplinary projects bridging literature, history, and digital scholarship.