Personal information

Children's Literature, English Literature Post-1750, Education, Music, Theology
United Kingdom

Biography

Jonathan Padley is a specialist in English children’s literature from the eighteenth century to the present day. His work explores margins, particularly the marginalisation of authors, texts, and characters. His PhD argued that the child protagonists of children’s literature can be understood, etymologically and theoretically, as monsters. He serves on the Editorial Board of Children’s Literature in Education.

As well as children’s literature, Jonathan is interested in interdisciplinary dialogues between literature, media, music, science, and theology. He has published broadly, including on transgressive creation in Shelley’s Frankenstein, bibliographical anomaly in Tennyson’s English Idyls, and Christological imaging in Tolkien’s Middle-earth mythos.

Jonathan is a Fellow, Tutor, and the Lead Admissions Tutor at Churchill College, Cambridge, and a Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies in Education at Lucy Cavendish and St Edmund’s Colleges. He is an Honorary Member of Cambridge’s Faculty of English and an Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, where he teaches and examines undergraduates and postgraduates in children’s literature.

Alongside academic work, Jonathan is committed to widening participation in higher education. From 2013 to 2015, he was seconded to Welsh Government to co-lead the research and policy implementation which gave rise to Seren, to which he still regularly contributes.

Before taking up his current roles in Cambridge, Jonathan was variously an Honorary Research Associate of the Department of English Language and Literature at Swansea University, and a Lecturer and Tutor at Gorseinon College and Coleg Sir Gâr.

Activities

Employment (14)

University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2020-02 to present | Affiliated Lecturer (Faculty of Education)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Churchill College, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2018-10 to present | Tutor
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2018-07 to present | Honorary Member (Faculty of English)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2018-06 to present | Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies in Education
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Churchill College, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2017-12 to present | Fellow and Lead Admissions Tutor
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2017-10 to present | Director of Studies in Education [2025-01 to present | Bye-Fellow]
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Newnham College, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2019-10 to 2024-06 | Director of Studies in Education
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Swansea University: Swansea, GB

2011-09 to 2018-01 | Honorary Research Associate (Department of English Language and Literature)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Churchill College, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2012-08 to 2017-12 | Widening Participation Officer
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Churchill College, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2015-10 to 2016-09 | Admissions Tutor for Arts
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Coleg Sir Gâr: Llanelli, GB

2011-09 to 2015-07 | Lecturer
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Welsh Government: Cardiff, GB

2013-03 to 2015-03 | Oxbridge Ambassador Support Officer (Department for Education and Skills)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Churchill College, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2011-09 to 2012-07 | Schools Liaison and Recruitment Officer
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Gorseinon College: Swansea, GB

2003-03 to 2008-08 | Lecturer and Tutor
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Education and qualifications (7)

University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2024-01 to 2024-06 | Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Clare College, University of Cambridge: Cambridge, GB

2008-10 to 2010-06 | BA in Theology and Religious Studies (Faculty of Divinity)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Trinity College London: London, GB

2008-01 to 2008-05 | LMusTCL in Musical Theory, Criticism, and Literature
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

University of Wales Newport: Newport, GB

2005-09 to 2006-06 | PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education and Training (School of Education)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

University of Wales Swansea: Swansea, GB

2002-10 to 2006-06 | PhD: (De)Monstration: Interpreting the Monsters of English Children’s Literature (Department of English Language and Literature)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

University of Wales Swansea: Swansea, GB

2001-10 to 2002-06 | MA in English (Department of English Language and Literature)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

St Anne's College, University of Oxford: Oxford, GB

1998-10 to 2001-06 | BA in English Language and Literature (Faculty of English Language and Literature)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Works (14)

‘The enemy of imagination’? Re-imagining Sarah Trimmer and Her Fabulous Histories

Women's Literary Education, 1690–1850
2023 | Book chapter
Part of ISBN: 9781474497367
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Welsh Attainment and Admission to Oxford and Cambridge: the Evidence Base

2014 | Report
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Analysis of the Attainment of Welsh Applicants to Oxford and Cambridge Universities

2014 | Report
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Comparing Welsh Attainment and Admission to Oxford and Cambridge with the North-East of England

2014 | Report
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Final Report of the Oxbridge Ambassador for Wales

2014 | Report
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Interim Report of the Oxbridge Ambassador for Wales

2013 | Report
OTHER-ID:

Digital ISBN 978 1 4734 0563 9

Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Peter Pan: Indefinition Defined

The Lion and the Unicorn
2012 | Journal article
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

'Declare the interpretation': Redacting Daniel in Early Bibles for English Children

Biblical Interpretation
2011 | Journal article
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

'From mirrored truth the likeness of the True': J.R.R. Tolkien and Reflections of Jesus Christ in Middle-earth

English
2009 | Journal article
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Marginal(ized) Demarcator: (Mis)Reading The Water-Babies

Children's Literature Association Quarterly
2009 | Journal article
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

No Idyl(l) Matter: The Orthographic and Titular History of Alfred Tennyson's English Idyls

The Tennyson Research Bulletin
2007 | Journal article
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

'A Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven': His Dark Materials, Inverted Theology, and the End of Philip Pullman's Authority

Children's Literature in Education
2006 | Journal article
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

(De)Monstration: Interpreting the Monsters of English Children's Literature

2006 | Dissertation or Thesis
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Frankenstein and (Sublime) Creation

Romanticism
2003 | Journal article
Contributors: Jonathan Padley
Source: Self-asserted source
Jonathan Padley

Peer review (14 reviews for 5 publications/grants)

Review activity for Children's Literature Association quarterly (1)
Review activity for Children's literature in education. (1)
Review activity for Children's literature in education. (2)
Review activity for Children's literature. (1)
Review activity for The Lion and the unicorn. (9)