James Grantham Turner

James Grantham Turner is the James D. Hart Chair and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in 18th-century British literature, gender and sexuality studies, Renaissance and Early Modern studies, narrative and the novel, poetry, and drama. His research bridges literature and art history, focusing on sexuality, gender, ecology, and classical antiquity. He holds degrees from Oxford University (B.A., 1968; M.A., Cert.Ed.; D.Phil., 1977) and has taught at institutions including Oxford, Sussex, Northwestern, and Michigan before joining Berkeley in 1990.

Turner’s recent work includes The Villa Farnesina: Palace of Venus in Renaissance Rome (2022), winner of the PROSE Award in Art History, and Eros Visible: Art, Sexuality and Antiquity in Renaissance Italy (2017). His research explores interdisciplinary histories of sexuality, combining European literature, social history, and art. He has contributed to major exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Victoria, and the Getty Museum.

Awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, NEH, and ACLS, Turner’s scholarship spans over 100 articles and books. He has served on editorial boards for PMLA, Eighteenth-Century Studies, and others. His recent conference papers include discussions on Milton’s cosmology and Renaissance erotic art. He currently teaches at Berkeley and maintains office hours in Wheeler Hall.

Turner’s research also intersects with global sexualities, food studies, and classical mythology. His work emphasizes cross-cultural analysis, from Italian Renaissance palaces to Enlightenment-era libertinism. He continues to explore intersections of art, literature, and sexuality across pre-modern Europe.