Wes Williams

Professor Wes Williams is a University Lecturer in French and Fellow of St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford. He serves as Director of The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) since 2020 and co-founded the Oxford Amnesty Lectures. His academic roles span Renaissance literature, European film, and literary theory.

• Education: MA and DPhil in Renaissance French Writing from St John’s College, Oxford, with postgraduate studies in Germany.

Research Interests focus on Renaissance and early modern literature, particularly pilgrimage writing, travel narratives, and the cultural meanings of monsters. He explores genre, subjectivity, and the politics of literature in early modern Europe. His recent work includes a book on monsters from Rabelais to Racine, intersecting with studies of Shakespeare and Montaigne.

Publications include Pilgrimage and Narrative in the French Renaissance (1999), Monsters and their Meanings in Early Modern Culture (2012), and articles on topics like Corneille’s use of ecphrasis and curiosity in traveler’s tales. His interdisciplinary approach bridges literary analysis, cultural history, and theater.

Theatre Work includes co-writing and directing solo shows with collaborators like Emily Woof, Nick Whitfield, and Ed Gaughan. His recent Saints and Superheroes exemplifies his engagement with narrative construction beyond academia.