Jonathan studied Philosophy as an undergraduate before working for a number of years as an Editor at Oxford University Press. He then undertook an interdisciplinary MSt in English Literature and History at Kellogg College before beginning his DPhil at Lady Margaret Hall and then moving to Oriel.
Jonathan’s research broadly sits across the literature and cultural history of the long eighteenth century and early Victorian period. He is particularly focused on British nationalism and imperialism, aesthetics, political discourse and satire, travel writing, radical culture, and the British Empire and slave trade. He also has an abiding interest in the relationship between literary and cultural theory. His doctoral thesis, entitled Romantic Nationalism and the Metaphor of Infectious Disease, examines representations of national contamination across the Romantic period within a context of rapidly changing medico-literary understandings of human physiology, epidemiology, sensibility, associationism, and sensationalism. Providing a literary, cultural and intellectual history of these representations, the thesis explores the emergence of Romantic nationalism alongside a number of cultural motifs, particularly within the sensational metropolitan culture of London.
At Oriel, Jonathan teaches literature in English from 1700 to 1850, offering classes and tutorials for Paper 4 (1660–1760), Paper 5 (1760–1830), and Prelims 3 (1830–1910).