Paul Davis

Paul Davis is Professor of English in the Department of English Language and Literature at University College London (UCL), where he has served since 1997, advancing to Reader in 2009 and Professor in 2018 after fellowships at Cambridge institutions.

His academic formation at the University of Cambridge includes:

• Bachelor of Arts (1990)
• Master of Philosophy (1991)
• Doctor of Philosophy (1994)

Davis's research centers on five interconnected domains:

• Poetry from Charles I's accession to the French Revolution
• Restoration literature and culture
• Classicism and classical reception with emphasis on translation/imitation
• Manuscript verse culture in seventeenth/eighteenth-century court circles
• Textual editing methodologies

His recent publications reveal deep engagement with Joseph Addison's classical criticism, John Wilmot (Earl of Rochester)'s scribal networks, and the transmission of classical texts through Restoration England, consistently bridging manuscript studies, print culture, and literary theory across 36 documented outputs.

Professor Davis mentors doctoral candidates on specialized topics including Royalist poetry warfare, Milton's domestic imagery, Ovid's reception, and women poets' classical engagements within eighteenth-century contexts.

He currently leads two major editorial initiatives: the five-volume Oxford edition of Addison's Non-Periodical Works (general editor, with Poems and Translations volume editorship) slated for 2024 publication, and co-editing George Herbert's The Temple for Oxford's Complete Works of Herbert (completion expected 2026).