Christopher Orchard

Christopher Orchard is Professor of English in the Language, Literature, and Writing Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania's College of Arts, Humanities, Media, and Public Affairs. His academic work spans early modern British literature and contemporary geopolitical literature, with particular focus on the intersection of drama, politics, and adaptation.

His research centers on English Civil War and Republican literature (1640s-1650s), examining how parliamentary and royalist ideologies shaped dramatic production and reception. He investigates how writers used translations of classical works (Virgil, Sophocles, Aesop) for political messaging during periods of crisis. His contemporary scholarship analyzes post-9/11 literature across global contexts from New York to Afghanistan, with emphasis on adaptation theory as both analytical framework and pedagogical practice.

His recent publications include the 2023 monograph Printed Drama and Political Instability in Mid-Seventeenth-Century Britain (Routledge), numerous articles on Renaissance writers including Katherine Philips and Ben Jonson, and a forthcoming essay on The Tempest adaptations. His scholarly trajectory reveals consistent engagement with how literature responds to political upheaval across historical periods.

Professor Orchard holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford (1994) and maintains active research in both early modern and contemporary literature, frequently connecting historical patterns of crisis response to modern geopolitical challenges through the lens of dramatic adaptation.