![[The University of Leicester]](unilogo.gif)
Professor Gordon Campbell
MA (Queen's, Canada), DPhil, DLitt (York), Dr hc (Bucharest), FBA, FSA, FLS, FRHistS, FRGS, FRAS
Professor of Renaissance Studies
Contact Details:
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E: leb@le.ac.uk
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T: +44 (0)116 252 2633
Research Interests
I am a Renaissance and seventeenth-century specialist with a particular interest in John Milton. Broader interests in cultural history on which I publish include art, architecture, Biblical studies, classical antiquity, garden history, legal history, historical theology and the Islamic world. At present I am completing a book on hermits and hermitages in Georgian gardens; my working title is The English Ornamental Hermit. Later this year I will embark on a short book entitled Contemporary Islam and another called The Garden, both for OUP's VSI series. I am a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and a Corresponding Fellow of the South African Society for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. My memberships include the English Association (former chair and president), the Society for Renaissance Studies (former chair), and the Selden Society (for English legal history). In 2005 I was Honored Scholar of the Milton Society of America, and in 2012 I was presented with the Longman - History Today Trustees Award (for lifetime contribution to History).
I have lectured, examined or reviewed provision at most British universities, and have given talks in more than 200 schools in England and a similar number abroad. Named lectures include a Passmore Edwards Lecture at Oxford, the Sir Henry Stephenson Lecture at Sheffield, the Sir Philip Sidney lecture at Shrewsbury, the James Spalding Memorial Lecture at University of Iowa, and the Bentall Lectures in Christian Theology at University of Calgary. 2008 was the 400th anniversary of Milton’s birth, and my programme of visiting lectures included the Chalfont St Giles Literary Festival, The Friends of Cambridge University Library, the Morgan Library (New York), the Dr Williams’s Library Annual Lecture and universities in all parts of the United Kingdom. I also acted as professional consultant for a BBC 2 programme on Milton by Armando Ianucci, spoke at a Kings Place celebration of the quatercentenary, and spoke at a birthday party for Milton in the Bodleian Library. Similarly, 2011 was the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible, and I gave some 60 talks on the KJV in Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Ireland, Romania, Switzerland, the United States and the Vatican; I also contributed to BBC radio and television programmes on the KJV. My microsite gives details of these activities:
400 years of the King James Bible microsite
International Interests
I have taught in Denmark (Århus University) and Canada (University of British Columbia), visited South Africa as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Science Development (Pretoria), examined in India (Aligarh and Calcutta), Luxembourg, Finland (Tampere) and Pakistan (Sindh), and lectured on academic and professional subjects all over the world; such professional travel has taken me to some 70 countries, and I have travelled with scholarly intent in many others. The British Council has sponsored visits to conferences in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Spain and to institutions of higher education in Saudi Arabia and Libya, and I have travelled to Iran as a guest of the Iranian Ministry of Science and Technology.
My work overseas has made me familiar with international issues in higher education, and has brought me into close contact with the British Council, some 100 of whose offices and resource centres I have visited. I have initiated and/or negotiated split-degree programmes in Hong Kong and Malaysia, a post-graduate Law programme in Cyprus, a World Bank biotechnology project in Indonesia, a teacher-training programme in Brunei, a staff-development programme in eastern Turkey, an FCO shared scholarship scheme in India, a Soros shared scholarship scheme in Hungary and a women's PhD programme in Saudi Arabia. In South Africa I have offered advice on the redressing of historic imbalances through selective funding; in Beirut, where I was the first British academic visitor in fifteen years, I contributed my mite to the process of reconstruction; in the West Bank, throughout the years when schools and universities were closed during the first intifada, I gave assistance to Palestinians in need of higher education. My work in Eastern and Central Europe has included academic and professional lectures, a book scheme in which I sent 6000 new books to 15 libraries in six countries, mediation between universities and organisations such as the British Council, the Soros Foundation, Tempus and the World Bank, and assistance with recognition of professional qualifications (especially Engineering) by EU organisations.
I have long had a particular interest in the Islamic world, to which I have made well over a hundred visits in the course of the last 25 years. I was the founding chair of the British Universities Iraq Consortium (BUIC), in which capacity I visited Baghdad (where I met the prime minister) and chaired meetings at ministerial level. I was also the founding chair of a consortium of British universities (now known as the UK Saudi Interest Group) active in Saudi Arabia, and in this capacity travelled to Riyadh for the Two Kingdoms Dialogue (led on the UK side by the Foreign Secretary), where I chaired the education negotiations with the Saudi Minister of Higher Education. Pro bono work has also included giving a large number of interviews on news items relating to the Middle East, mostly on local radio stations. I have also worked as a consultant for the British government, for which I drafted a cross-governmental strategy for the support of education in the Islamic world.
Postgraduate Supervision
I have supervised research students on topics ranging from Richard Hooker and Milton and Boiardo to Scandinavian drama, modern travel writing and the modern Islamic world; I have also supervised dissertations that consist of editions (Joseph Mede, Clement Paman, Moses Wall).
Recent Publications
(transcription of an interview) 'As a Matter of Fact: Gordon Campbell in Converation with Joseph Shub', The European Legacy 17 (2012), pp. 213-232.
(author) Bible: the Story of the King James Version 1611-2011 (Oxford University Press, 2010), xiii+354 pp.
(editor) The Holy Bible: Quatercentenary Edition (Oxford University Press, 2010), 1518 pp.
(with Thomas Corns), ‘Milton and his Biographers’, in John Milton: Life, Writing, Reputation, ed. Paul Hammond and Blair Worden (Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 2010), pp. 187-202
‘Godly Reflections’, in After Satan: Essays in Honour of Neil Forsyth, ed. Kirsten Stirling and Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère (Cambridge Scholars, 2010), pp. 108-113.
Current and Recent Activities
University
- Public Orator (2004-2014)
External
- Patron, Milton’s Cottage Trust
- Chair, British Universities Iraq Consortium
- Chair, UK4 Saudi
- Chair, Finance Committee, English Association
- Chair, Society for Renaissance Studies
- Chair, Beauchamp Choral Society
- Member, Advisory Council for Arts Faculty, University of Warwick
- Member, Academic Board and International Advisory Council, Markfield Institute of Higher Education (Islamic Foundation)
- Trustee, Peckleton Arts (local classical music charity)
- Member and sometime chair, DelPHE Iraq Steering Committee (a DfID project)
- European Society for the Study of English (I was one of eight founder members of a Society that now has 7,200 members in 33 countries; for several years I was responsible for ESSE’s work in Eastern and Central Europe)
