Dr Alexander Thom

Profile

Dr Alexander Thom is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Leeds, School of English. His postdoctoral research focuses on the displaced in English Renaissance drama, 1575-1625. His first book, 'Office and Duty in King Lear: Shakespeare’s Political Theologies', was published by Palgrave Shakespeare Studies in 2023. The monograph was developed from his M3C AHRC-funded PhD, which was awarded in 2020 by the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. During his undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne, Thom was awarded the Shakespeare Scholarship and the Bowen Prize. Thom also regularly reviews theatre for 'Shakespeare'.

Research interests

My research interests primarily focus on Renaissance drama, intellectual history (particularly religion and law), and cultures of power. In my first monograph, I drew on theories of office and duty to pose an original reading of Shakespeare’s King Lear. My interests also extend to Renaissance receptions of classical philosophy and political theology, as well as more contemporary thought, including postcolonial studies and the works of Giorgio Agamben. I am currently attempting a comprehensive study of the displaced in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, synthesising Renaissance cultural criticism with contemporary work in diaspora studies.

Qualifications

• PhD Shakespeare Studies, University of Birmingham
• BA (Hons) English and Theatre Studies, University of Melbourne

Professional memberships

• British Shakespeare Association
• Shakespeare Association of America
• European Shakespeare Research Association
• Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association
• The Malone Society

Student education

My teaching focuses in two areas: a) Renaissance literature, especially Shakespeare, but also writers like Petrarch, Erasmus, Thomas More, Thomas Wyatt, Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser; and b) law and literature, especially with regards to transgression and the interpretation of signs, ranging from Sophocles (Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannos) and Franz Kafka through to Agatha Christie and Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose). At more advanced levels, I enjoy sharing my perspective on political theology and the influence of religious ideas on secular cultures of power, especially via Giorgio Agamben, but also Schmitt, Benjamin, Foucault, and Derrida. I would be delighted to support prospective doctoral students in any of these areas.