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 Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies in Education at Lucy Cavendish College. He is also a Fellow, Tutor, and the Tutor for Undergraduate Admissions at St John’s College; a Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies in Education at St Edmund’s College; an Affiliated Lecturer at Cambridge’s Faculty of Education; and an Honorary Member of the Faculty of English. He teaches and examines undergraduates and postgraduates in English 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, in which he remains keenly interested.
Before Jonathan came into post at St John’s in 2025, he worked for fourteen years at Churchill College, Cambridge, first as an outreach practitioner, then as a Fellow and the College’s Lead Admissions Tutor. Prior to moving to 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.
