Lorna Margaret Hutson, FBA (born 27 November 1958) is the ninth

Merton Professor of English Literature There are two Merton Professorships of English in the University of Oxford: the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, and the Merton Professor of English Literature. The second was created in 1914 when Sir Walter Raleigh's chair was ...

and a fellow of

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ...

. Together with Professor

John Hudson John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, she is a director of the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Law and Literature at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

Life and career

Hutson was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, in what was then

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

, on 27 November 1958, to John Whiteford Hutson, a British career diplomat, and his wife, Doris Kemp. She attended St Hilary's School, Edinburgh and

Tormead School Tormead School is an independent day school for girls aged 4–18 years old in Guildford, Surrey, England. It comprises a reception, prep school, senior school and sixth form. It was founded in 1905 and is a member of the Headmasters' and Head ...

, Guildford. She studied at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, I ...

graduating with an MA (Hons) with first class honours, and received a

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in 1983. Soon afterwards, Hutson became a junior research fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. From 1986 to 1998, she was a lecturer, then reader in English literature, at

Queen Mary College, London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

. For the following two years she was professor of English literature at the

University of Hull , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 million ...

, and then spent four years as a professor in the English department of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

. In 2004, she returned to the UK to take up the position of Berry Professor of English Literature at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

. She was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

the same year. Her book ''The Invention of Suspicion: Law and Mimesis in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama'' won the

Roland Bainton Roland Herbert Bainton (March 30, 1894 – February 13, 1984) was a British-born American Protestant church historian. Life Bainton was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England, and came to the United States in 1902. He received an AB degree f ...

Prize for Literature in 2008. In 2012 Hutson was Dr Alice Griffin Fellow in Shakespearean Studies at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

; she also gave the Oxford Wells Shakespeare Lectures, on the subject of "Circumstantial Shakespeare"; the lectures were published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

under the same title in 2015. In 2016 she was elected as a fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...

, in May gave the British Academy's Shakespeare Lecture, and in September took up the post of

, becoming a fellow of

. Hutson is an honorary fellow of Somerville College.

Publications

* ''Thomas Nashe in Context'' (1989) * ''The Usurer's Daughter: Male Friendship and Fictions of Women in Sixteenth-Century England'' (1994) * ''Feminism and Renaissance Studies'' (editor, 1999) * ''Rhetoric and Law in Early Modern Europe'' (co-editor, 2001) * ''The Invention of Suspicion: Law and Mimesis in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama'' (2007) * ''Circumstantial Shakespeare'' (2015)

References

External links

Profile page on the Merton College website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutson, Lorna 1958 births Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Merton Professors of English Literature 20th-century German writers Living people 21st-century German writers 20th-century German women writers 21st-century German women writers Writers from Berlin People educated at Tormead School Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Academics of Queen Mary University of London Academics of the University of Hull University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Academics of the University of St Andrews Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford