Paulina Kewes

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Paulina Kewes
Paulina Kewes na demonstracji dla zycia narodzonego i teczowej rodziny w Krakowie.jpg
Kewes in 2023
Born1964 (age 6061)
NationalityPolish
Occupation(s)Historian and academic
TitleProfessor of English Literature
Academic background
Alma mater University of Gdańsk (MA)
Jesus College, Oxford (DPhil)
Thesis Authorship and Appropriation: Concepts of Playwriting in England, 1660-1710 (1996)
Doctoral advisor Harriett Hawkins
Paul Hammond
Sub-discipline
Institutions University College, Oxford
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Jesus College, Oxford

Paulina Kewes FRHistS [1] (born 1964) is a Polish scholar of early modern literature, history and culture. She is Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and Helen Morag Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Jesus College. [2]

Contents

Academic career

Kewes was born in Gdynia in 1964 and grew up in Sopot. [3] Her Russian Jewish father Borys was a survivor of the Holocaust and died when Kewes was 16. [4] She began studying at the University of Gdańsk in 1983, completing an MA thesis on Black American women writers of the late 20th century. While studying and later teaching at the university she worked as a freelance translator and interpreter. [3] She was then awarded a Soros Visiting Scholarship to the University of Oxford in 1991, winning a graduate scholarship at Jesus College a year later to complete her DPhil on dramatic authorship and literary property in late seventeenth and early eighteenth century England, which she completed in 1996. [3] Her doctoral supervisor was Harriett Hawkins and later Paul Hammond upon Hawkins' death. [5]

In 1995 Kewes was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at University College, Oxford and in 1997 joined the University of Wales, Aberystwyth as a Lecturer in English Literature. [2] She was later promoted to Senior Lecturer before returning to Jesus College as Fellow and Tutor in English Literature in 2003. [6] In September 2017 she was awarded the Title of Distinction of Professor of English Literature by the University of Oxford. [7]

Research

Building on her doctoral thesis, Kewes' early publications focused on the themes of plagiarism, appropriation, translation, adaptation and biography in the long eighteenth century. [3] Her first monograph, Authorship and Appropriation: Writing for the Stage in England, 1660-1710, was published by Clarendon Press in 1998. [8] Her first edited volume, Plagiarism in Early Modern England (2003), continued to explore such topics. [9]

Kewes' chief research interests have since shifted to Elizabethan and early Stuart drama, particularly the genre's classical reception and historiography as well as the work of William Shakespeare. [2] In 2020 she edited a special issue of Huntington Library Quarterly focused on the conceit of Ancient Rome in early modern English political culture. [10] Edited volumes with Susan Doran in 2014 [11] and Andrew McRae in 2019 [12] have addressed the nature of the succession in Elizabethan and Stuart England. Kewes' historiographical interests were reflected in the edition of [13] and handbook to [14] Holinshed's Chronicles she produced, in collaboration with Ian Archer and Felicity Heal, for Oxford University Press in 2013.

Media work

In 2012 Kewes appeared in a podcast for History Extra discussing William Shakespeare's treatment of Richard III. [15] In August 2015 Kewes appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Great Lives series discussing Elizabeth I alongside Matthew Parris and Michael Howard. [16]

In 2021, in celebration of the 450th anniversary of Jesus College, Kewes began assisting with the Jesus College Shakespeare Project. The project aims to stage one Shakespeare play per term until his entire dramatic canon has been performed. Schoolchildren are encouraged to attend performances and discuss the plays with the actors to widen access to Shakespeare and drama more generally. The project is expected to last until Hilary Term 2034. [17]

Honours and awards

Kewes is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. [1] In November 2020 she was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship to complete a three-year book project exploring the succession in Reformation England. [6] She was also a co-investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded Stuart Successions Project [18] which in turn led to the development of the Stuarts Online web resource, also funded by the AHRC. [19]

Between 2017 and 2022 Kewes was the Senior Member of the Oxford University Polish Society; she was the first woman to hold this position. [6] She is currently a member of the editorial board of the journals Critical Survey [20] and Postgraduate English. [21]

Publications

Books

Journal articles

Book chapters

References

  1. 1 2 "List of Fellows (February 2024)" (PDF). Royal Historical Society. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 "Professor Paulina Kewes". Faculty of English, University of Oxford. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Oxford-Poland" (PDF). Oxford Polish Association. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  4. "@PKewes: "Today is All Saints' Day. Widely celebrated in Poland. People go to the graves of those close to them, adorning them with flowers and lights. And I can't help thinking about my beloved Russian-Jewish-atheist Holocaust survivor father Borys Kewes resting under a cross in a"". X. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  5. Paulina, Kewes (1998). Authorship and Appropriation: Writing for the Stage in England, 1660-1710. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. viii. ISBN   0198184689.
  6. 1 2 3 "Professor Paulina Kewes". Jesus College, Oxford. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  7. "Recognition of distinction", Oxford University Gazette, 28 September 2017 (vol. 148, no. 5179). Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  8. Kewes, Paulina (1998). Authorship and Appropriation: Writing for the Stage in England, 1660-1710. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN   0198184689.
  9. Paulina Kewes, ed. (2003). Plagiarism in Early Modern England. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   9780299230944.
  10. Kewes, Paulina (2020). "Introduction: Ancient Rome in English Political Culture, ca. 1570-1660". Huntington Library Quarterly . 83 (3): 401–413. doi:10.1353/hlq.2020.0020.
  11. Susan Doran; Paulina Kewes, eds. (2014). Doubtful and Dangerous: The Question of Succession in Late Elizabethan England. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  12. Paulina Kewes; Andrew McRae, eds. (2019). Stuart Succession Literature: Moments and Transformations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  13. "The Holinshed Project Texts". The Holinshed Project. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  14. Paulina Kewes; Ian Archer; Felicity Heal, eds. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Holinshed's Chronicles. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  15. "11 unmissable Richard III podcasts". History Extra. 4 March 2015.
  16. "Great Lives, Michael Howard on Elizabeth I". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  17. Jain, Rijul. "Icon of the Week: Peter Sutton, Artistic Director of the Jesus College Shakespeare Project". The Isis Magazine . Oxford Student Publications Limited . Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  18. "The Stuart Successions Project". University of Exeter. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  19. "Stuarts Online Home". Stuarts Online. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  20. "Critical Survey Editorial Board". Berghahn Journals. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
  21. "Editorial Team". Postgraduate English. Retrieved 8 January 2025.