Professorial Fellow in English, St Hilda's College
Jeremy Griffiths Professor of Medieval English Palaeography, Faculty of English
Professor Daniel Wakelin is the Jeremy Griffiths Professor of Medieval English Palaeography. He came to Oxford from Cambridge, where he was a student at Trinity Hall, a Junior Research Fellow at St Catharine’s College and then a Fellow and University Lecturer in English at Christ’s College. He has also held visiting positions at universities and libraries in the USA and Canada.
In the Faculty of English, Professor Wakelin primarily teaches Course II, the special medieval options, and the MSt course in English 650-1550. His research focuses on manuscripts and early printed copies of English literature, primarily from the 1100s to the 1500s, especially of humanist and learned literature; everyday pragmatic literacy; Chaucerian traditions; and carols and interludes. His research combines palaeography and codicology with literary criticism in order to recover the creative agency of authors, scribes and readers alike. From 2022-24 he will be on sabbatical, with a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, studying creativity in writing as pat of everyday life in medieval England.