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Dr Gavin Schwartz-Leeper

Dr Gavin Schwartz-Leeper

Contact details

Email: g dot e dot schwartz-leeper at warwick dot ac dot uk
Tel.: 02476 5 74228 (ext. 74228)
Room: R3.34 Ramphal Building
Website: schwartz-leeper.com

Twitter: @gavinsl

Office hours: Tuesdays 4-5pm via Microsoft Teams or in person (or by appointment outside these hours). Email me to book an appointment.


Recently published: "George Cavendish's Historiographical Moment", in A Companion to the Cavendishes, eds. Lisa Hopkins and Tom Rutter (ARC Humanities, 2020). Available open access.Link opens in a new window

Recently published: "The State of the Art" in Richard II: A Critical Reader, eds. Michael Davies and Andrew Duxfield (Arden Shakespeare, 2020). Information here.Link opens in a new window

fptp_cover_image.jpg

Recently published: From Princes to Pages: The Literary Lives of Cardinal Wolsey, Tudor England's 'Other King' (Brill, 2016).

Times Higher Education

Read a recent op-ed in Times Higher Education on the Teaching Excellence Framework and interdisciplinary degrees: Click here to read the article.

Watch a recent panel discussion on art and revolution at the LAZinc gallery in London:

Associate Professor


Qualifications

BA (Simon's Rock); TEFL Cert. (SIT); MA (Sheffield); PhD (Sheffield).

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Fellow of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy (2017-2020)

Associate Fellow of the Warwick Institute for Engagement (2021-2023)

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (RHistS)

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)


Profile

I was born in New York City and attended Bard College at Simon's Rock, where I obtained a BA in Liberal Arts with dual majors in east Asian religious studies and English literature. Having developed an interest in historical Englishes while a visiting student at Oxford University, I undertook a MA in English Language and Literature at the University of Sheffield under Sylvia Adamson. My MA dissertation considered the role of hyperbole in the holograph correspondence of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell in the final years of Wolsey's life, and subsequently I was awarded a studentship to pursue doctoral research on sixteenth-century literary representations of Wolsey at Sheffield under the supervision of Cathy Shrank. I was awarded my PhD in English Literature in 2013 after examination by Mike Pincombe and Tom Rutter.

Following on from my PhD, I was appointed the inaugural research fellow and centre coordinator for the Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies under director Phil Withington. In 2014 I came to Warwick as the Project Officer for the Migration, Identity, and Translation Network, part of the Monash-Warwick Alliance. In February 2015 I was awarded a Warwick Transatlantic Fellowship to undertake research at the Newberry Library in support of my new project, "The Art of Richard Grafton: The Cultural Networks of a Mid-Tudor Printer", which has been further supported by a fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University's Sheridan Libraries (March 2018). As the Director of Undergraduate Studies and Student Experience for the BA Liberal Arts program at Warwick, I have a strong interest in developing creative pedagogical approaches to transdisciplinary education and student support. I have also taught for the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning at Warwick in collaboration with colleagues at Monash University, Melbourne. In 2015 I was awarded a JJ Kidd Fellowship by the European Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences (ECOLAS) consortium and a Strategic Research Grant by the Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning at the University of Warwick to pursue research into liberal arts and sciences teaching and learning methodologies. I regularly serve on faculty and institutional quality assurance boards and contribute to governance/policy activities throughout the University.

My first monograph, From Princes to Pages: The Literary Lives of Cardinal Wolsey, Tudor England's 'Other King' was published by Brill in 2016. I am currently writing my second book, The Art of Richard Grafton: The Cultural Networks of a Mid-Tudor Printer. Other ongoing projects include analyses of perception and strategy in liberal education, virtual communities for interdisciplinary educators, higher education policy (especially the Teaching Excellence Framework), values-based governance in HE, and further work on the connections between George Cavendish, Thomas Churchyard, and the Mirror for Magistrates.

I previously served as external examiner for liberal arts and flexible combined honours programs at the universities of Exeter and Manchester (in the UK) and on the 2022 reaccreditation panel for Leuphana University's studium individuale degree. I currently am external examiner for the King's College London BA Liberal Arts and Imperial College London's Changemakers program.

I was appointed as Faculty Senior Tutor (Science, Engineering and Medicine) in 2022 and as Deputy Dean of Students in 2023. While most of my time is now spent in the Dean of Students' Office, I teach on several modules and supervise dissertations within Liberal Arts and the School for Cross-faculty Studies.


Teaching and research interests

My diverse interests lie in transdisciplinary approaches to issues of perception, especially in relation to uses of the past. I have previously worked on aspects of Renaissance historiography; codicology and manuscript studies; religious writings of the English Reformation; John Foxe; Thomas More; Renaissance humanist networks; Raphael Holinshed; William Shakespeare; John Skelton; George Cavendish; Thomas Cardinal Wolsey; Thomas Cromwell; early modern letterwriting; early modern landscapes; historical sociolinguistics; early modern martyrdom and its representations; Thomas Churchyard and the Mirror for Magistrates, and more recently, Richard Grafton and early modern European print cultures. I also have an active interest in the development of creative and radical pedagogies--especially in the liberal arts--and aspects of student experience and perception. I have supported multidisciplinary collaborations on labor and migration history, which has connected with my role in the Monash-Warwick Alliance's Migration, Identity, and Translation Network (MITN). Finally, I have strong interests in apocalypticism through history, pop culture, and social justice. Recently, I have been working on historical simulation video games and the ways in which they shape perceptions and uses of the past.


Current teaching


Supervision

I am happy to supervise projects that deal with aspects of representations of the past, truth, and power from the Renaissance to the modern day (including cultural studies and education projects), especially ones that have an interdisciplinary or critical approach. I am also interested in radical pedagogy and HE policy/governance.


Administration and Service:

Academic Administration:

2023-Present: Deputy Dean of Students, University of Warwick

2022-Present: Faculty Senior Tutor (Science, Engineering and Medicine), University of Warwick

2015-2023: Academic Convenor, Student-Staff Liaison Committee (Liberal Arts), University of Warwick

2015-2023: Director of Admissions (Liberal Arts), University of Warwick

2015-2023: Director of Student Experience (Liberal Arts), University of Warwick

2020-2022: Arts Faculty Student Engagement Coordinator (job share), University of Warwick

2015-2021: Senior Tutor (Liberal Arts), University of Warwick
2018-2021: Deputy Head of the School for Cross-faculty Studies (Liberal Arts), University of Warwick

2015-2021: Director of Undergraduate Studies (Liberal Arts), University of Warwick

2018-2020: Higher Education Academy/Development Mentor, School for Cross-faculty Studies, University of Warwick

2017-2019: Sessional Teaching Payroll Coordinator, School for Cross-faculty Studies, University of Warwick

2015-2018: Study Abroad Coordinator (Liberal Arts), University of Warwick

2016-2018: Virtual Learning Environment Coordinator (Liberal Arts), University of Warwick

2013-2015: Centre Co-ordinator, Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Sheffield

Committee Membership/Service:

2023-Present: Senate Working Group for Academic Governance, University of Warwick

2023-Present: Examinations Committee, University of Warwick

2023-Present: Academic Quality and Standards Committee, University of Warwick

2022-Present: Board of the Faculty of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, University of Warwick

2022-Present: Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Education Committee, University of Warwick

2022-Present: Widening Participation and Access Advisory Group, University of Warwick

2022-Present: Warwick Volunteers Steering Group, University of Warwick

2021-Present: Esports Centre Advisory Board, University of Warwick

2021-Present: Creative Futures Task Force, University of Warwick

2020-Present: Co-Lead, Directors of Student Experience Network, University of Warwick

2017-Present: School for Cross-faculty Studies Board of Examiners, University of Warwick

 

2022: Institutional Teaching and Learning Panel Chair, Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Warwick

2022: Institutional Teaching and Learning Advisory Group, University of Warwick

2021-2023: STEM Grand Challenge Education and Student Experience Working Group, University of Warwick

2015-2023: Convenor, Student-Staff Liaison Committee (Liberal Arts), University of Warwick

2020-2022: Student Learning Experience and Engagement Committee, University of Warwick

2019-2022: School for Cross-faculty Studies Ethics Committee, University of Warwick

2017-2022: Board of the Faculty of Arts, University of Warwick 2020-2021: Faculty of Arts Operational Readiness Group, University of Warwick

2020-2021: Student Success Programme Board, University of Warwick

2020-2021: Arts Faculty Alternative Assessment Review Group, University of Warwick

2020-2021: Module Approval Policy Review Group, Academic Quality and Standards Group, University of Warwick

2019-2021: Climate Emergency Task Force, University of Warwick

2018-2021: Academic Freedom Review Committee, University of Warwick

2018-2021: Elected Representative of the Assembly to Senate, University of Warwick

2018-2021: Academic Board Member, Realising Opportunities [http://www.realisingopportunities.ac.uk/]

2018-2021: Representative of Board of Faculty of Arts to Board of Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Warwick

2018-2021: Representative of Arts Faculty Education Committee to Social Sciences Education Committee, University of Warwick

2017-2021: Arts Faculty Education Committee, University of Warwick

2017-2021: School for Cross-faculty Studies Management and Planning Committee, University of Warwick

2015-2021: Chair, Undergraduate Studies Committee (Liberal Arts), University of Warwick
2020: School for Cross-faculty Studies Athena SWAN Committee, University of Warwick

2019-2020: Elected Representative of the Senate to University Steering Committee, University of Warwick

2018-2020: Progression, Remedying Failure, and Timing of Examinations Subgroup, Academic Quality and Standards Committee, University of Warwick

2018-2020: Mitigating Circumstances Subgroup, Academic Quality and Standards Committee, University of Warwick

2018-2019: Exam Board Procedures Subgroup, Academic Quality and Standards Committee, University of Warwick

2018-2019: Academic Integrity Subgroup, Academic Quality and Standards Committee, University of Warwick

2018-2019: Management Committee, Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, University of Warwick

2018-2019: Funding Committee, Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, University of Warwick

2018-2019: Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee, University of Warwick

2017-2019: Arts Faculty First Year Board of Examiners, University of Warwick

2015-2017: Student Engagement and Experience Working Group (subgroup of Academic Quality and Standards Committee), University of Warwick
2015-2017: Board of Undergraduate Studies for the Faculty of Arts, University of Warwick

External Institutional Review/Examination Roles:

2023-Present: External Examiner, BA (Hons) Liberal Arts, King’s College, London

2022-Present: External Examiner, Change Makers, Imperial College London

2022: Member, Quinquennial Accreditation Board for BA Studium Individuale, Leuphana University Luneburg

2020-2022: External Examiner, BA/BSc (Hons) Flexible Combined Honours, University of Exeter

2020-2022: External Examiner, BA (Hons) Liberal Arts, University of Manchester

2020-2022: External Examiner, BA (Hons) Liberal Arts, University of Exeter

2020: External Examiner, Alison Cole-Stutz EdD thesis, “Practical Preparation for a Life of Good Citizenship or just a Waste of Time? A study of student engagement with the liberal arts curriculum at an international university in London”. Institute of Education, University College, London.


Publications

Monographs

  1. From Princes to Pages: The Literary Lives of Cardinal Wolsey, Tudor England’s ‘Other King’ (Leiden: Brill, 2016). ISBN: 9789004317505. Status: in print.
  2. The Art of Richard Grafton: The Cultural Networks of a Mid-Tudor Printer (Leiden: Brill, 2020). Status: under contract to Brill’s ‘Library of the Written Word: The Handpress World’ series (series ed. Andrew Pettegree).

Articles/essays

  1. Gavin Schwartz-Leeper, “George Cavendish, Historiographer” in A Companion to the Cavendishes: Writing, Patronage, and Material Culture, eds. Lisa Hopkins and Tom Rutter (ARC Humanities, 2020).
  2. Gavin Schwartz-Leeper, “The State of the Art”, in Richard II: A Critical Reader, eds. Andrew Duxfield and Michael Davies (Arden Early Modern Drama Guides, 2020)
  3. Mike Pincombe and Gavin Schwartz-Leeper, “John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs: Tragedies of Tyrants” in The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern English Literature and Religion, eds. Andrew Hiscock and Helen Wilcox (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
  4. Gavin Schwartz-Leeper, “Chapter VII (4d): Shakespeare’s Histories” in Year’s Work in English Studies 1 (2016). Available at: https://ywes.oxfordjournals.org
  5. Gavin Schwartz-Leeper and Edward Smith, “Chapter V: The early sixteenth century” in Year’s Work in English Studies 1 (2016). Available at: https://ywes.oxfordjournals.org
  6. Gavin Schwartz-Leeper, “Chapter VII (4d): Shakespeare’s Histories” in Year’s Work in English Studies 1 (2015). Available at: https://ywes.oxfordjournals.org/
  7. Gavin Schwartz-Leeper and Edward Smith, “Chapter V: The early sixteenth century” in Year’s Work in English Studies 1 (2015). Available at: https://ywes.oxfordjournals.org
  8. Gavin Schwartz-Leeper, “Chapter VI (4d): Shakespeare’s Histories” in Year’s Work in English Studies 1 (2014), pp. 415-425.
  9. Gavin Schwartz-Leeper, “Turning Princes Into Pages: Images of Cardinal Wolsey in the Satires of John Skelton and Shakespeare’s Henry VIII” in New Perspectives on Tudor Culture: Literature, Society, and Politics, eds. Zsolt Almasi and Mike Pincombe (Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Press, July 2012). ISBN: 1-4438-3906-X

Reviews

  1. Review of A Mirror for Magistrates in Context: Literature, History, and Politics in Early Modern England, eds. Harriet Archer and Andrew Hadfield (Oxford: OUP, 2016), in The Review of English Studies (2017).
  2. Review of Monarchism and Absolutism in Early Modern Europe, eds. Cesare Cuttica and Glenn Burgess (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2012), in The Sixteenth Century Journal XLIV, No. 1 (Spring 2013), pp. 213-214.
  3. Review of Enigma and Revelation in Renaissance English Literature, eds. Helen Cooney and Mark S. Sweetnam (Dublin: Four Courts, 2012), in Sixteenth Century Journal XLIV, No. 4 (Winter 2013), pp. 1131-1132.
  4. Review: Antoninia Bevan Zlatar, Reformation Fictions: Polemical Protestant Dialogues in Elizabethan England(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). Available at <https://europeanconversionnarratives.wordpress.com/>

Other publications/activities

  1. Gavin Schwartz-Leeper, “TEF may well end up harming the very programmes it seeks to help”, in Times Higher Education (27 June 2017). Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/tef-may-well-end-harming-very-programmes-it-seeks-help
  2. Contributor to Companion to Undergraduate Research in the Liberal Arts and Sciences handbook (2017). Available at: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/schoolforcross-facultystudies/liberalarts/erasmus/outputs/
  3. Former editor of the Migration, Identity, and Translation Network (MITN) blog, available at: https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mitn/blog/
  4. Former contributor to the Routledge Annotated Bibliography of English Studies.

Fellowships/awards/grants (amounts over £1,000 specified)

  • 2018: Primary Investigator, “Cerebral Gymnastics: Using debating to improve academic literacy and student engagement at University”. Student-led debate-based pedagogy project. Amount: c.£15,000.
  • 2018: Appointed Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy.
  • 2018: Co-Investigator, “Learner to Professional”. PI: Graeme Knowles. Funder: Warwick International Higher Education Academy. Amount: £4,822.
  • 2018: Nominated and selected for Warwick-Monash Alliance Leadership Development program.
  • 2018: Appointed inaugural Warwick Transatlantic Fellow to Johns Hopkins University. PI: Gavin Schwartz-Leeper. Amount: £2,000.
  • 2017-2020: Selected as Fellow, Warwick International Higher Education Academy.
  • 2017: Awarded merit pay for excellent performance (University of Warwick).
  • 2016-2017: Staff advisor, “Translating Cultures of the Past”, Monash-Warwick Alliance. PI: Liam Lewis (Warwick)/Luke Bancroft (Monash). Project funding: £12,000.
  • 2015-2016: Project researcher, BLASTER (Best Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Expanded and Reinforced) consortium. PI: Prof. Cathia Jenainati (University of Warwick). Total project funding: €275,000.
  • 2015: Awarded research grant, Liberal Arts, University of Warwick. Project: Embedding Transdisciplinary Education in Britain. PI: Gavin Schwartz-Leeper.
  • 2015: Awarded Strategic Funding Grant, Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, University of Warwick. Project: Embedding Transdisciplinary Education in Britain. PI: Gavin Schwartz-Leeper. Amount: £1,000.
  • 2015: Appointed J.J. Kidd Fellow, European Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Project: Embedding Transdisciplinary Education in Britain. PI: Gavin Schwartz-Leeper. Amount: €1,500.
  • 2015: Appointed Warwick Transatlantic Fellow, Humanities Research Centre/Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick and the Newberry Library. Project: The Art of Richard Grafton. PI: Gavin Schwartz-Leeper. Amount: £2,200.
  • 2013-2016: Appointed inaugural Research Fellow, Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Sheffield.
  • 2014: Awarded bursary to present research at the 2014 Historical Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN) conference.
  • 2012: Awarded Society bursary to present research at the 2012 Society for Renaissance Studies conference.
  • 2011: Awarded University Research Strategy funding to present research at the 2011 Sixteenth Century Society Conference.
  • 2009: Awarded bursary to present research at the 2009 Tudor Symposium.
  • 2009: Awarded University Research Strategy funding to present research at the 2009 Shakespeare Association of America Annual Meeting.
  • 2008-2011: Awarded University Fee Studentship to undertake doctoral research. Amount: £24,000.