Nicholas McDowell

Professor Nicholas McDowell is a leading scholar in early modern literature and thought at the University of Exeter, with a focus on 1500-1800 British and European contexts. His work bridges literary innovation and historical upheaval, particularly the English Civil Wars and their cultural legacy.

• PhD in English from the University of Oxford (2000)
• Former Research Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
• Visiting Fellow at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study and CRASSH, Cambridge

Research Themes:
His scholarship centers on John Milton, Cavalier Poets, and Jonathan Swift, analyzing how literature navigates political and religious change. He explores translation, dissent, and the tension between liberty and constraint in poetic forms.

Recent Publications (2020-2025):
• 2026 Comic Enlightenment (Princeton UP) on Milton-Swift intersections
• 2024 The Oxford Handbook of English Prose, 1640-1714
• 2025 The Seventeenth Century article on Milton and Cromwell’s virtue politics

Awards & Grants:

• Philip Leverhulme Prize (2007)
• Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2023-5) for Poetry of Civil War
• John T. Shawcross Award (2014) for Milton prose edition

Supervision:
Mentors PhD research on early modern topics, including Milton’s materialist philosophies and 17th-century labor representations. Former advisees like Dr. Esther van Raamsdonk have published their work.