Luke O'Sullivan

Dr. Luke O'Sullivan is the Gerard Davis Fellow in Early Modern French at St Hilda's College, University of Oxford. His research focuses on literary and philosophical responses to freedom, uncertainty, and precarity in 16th- and 17th-century French culture, with a particular emphasis on Montaigne’s Essais and its engagements with classical authors like Seneca and Plutarch. He investigates concepts such as precarity (précaire), franchise, and free speech, tracing their contested meanings across political, ethical, and linguistic domains.

His work bridges literary analysis with intellectual history, examining how early modern French authors navigated crises of authority, sovereignty, and legitimacy. He has been supported by a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2018-2020). His teaching spans first-year French literature courses and specialized modules on 16th- and 17th-century authors, including Montaigne, as well as translation pedagogy.

Key research themes include the transformation of legal and philosophical terms like précaire from technical jargon to conceptual tools for understanding political instability, and the interplay between insecurity and communication in early modern discourses of frankness (franchise). His publications reveal how these ideas were contested in religious and political conflicts, offering a radical reinterpretation of precarity’s historical trajectory.