Position

Affiliated Lecturer

Qualifications

• BA English Language and Literature (University of Oxford)

• BA Theology and Religious Studies (University of Cambridge)

• MA English (University of Wales)

• PhD English (University of Wales)

• PGCE Post-Compulsory Education and Training (University of Wales)

• LMusTCL Musical Theory, Criticism, and Literature (Trinity College London)

Memberships

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

• Editorial Board member of Children’s Literature in Education

Profile

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.

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 has been an Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Education since 2020. 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 Lucy Cavendish and St Edmund’s Colleges; 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.

Research Topics

• Children's literature

• English literature post-1750

• Education

Articles and Essays

• Padley, J. 2023. “‘The enemy of imagination’? Re-imagining Sarah Trimmer and Her Fabulous Histories,” in Women’s Literary Education, 1690–1850, edited by Jessica Lim and Louise Joy, 285-310. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

• Padley, J. 2012. “Peter Pan: Indefinition Defined.” The Lion and the Unicorn 36.3: 274-287.

• Padley, J. 2011. “‘Declare the interpretation’: Redacting Daniel in Early Bibles for English Children.” Biblical Interpretation 19.3: 311-336.

• Padley, J, and K Padley. 2010. “‘From mirrored truth the likeness of the True’: JRR Tolkien and Reflections of Jesus Christ in Middle-earth.” English 59.224: 70-92

• Padley, J. 2009. “Marginal(ized) Demarcator: (Mis)Reading The Water-Babies.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 34.1: 51-64. Republished in Vol. 167 of Children’s Literature Review, edited by J Krstović, 146-154. Detroit: Gale.

• Padley, J. 2007. “No Idyl(l) Matter: The Orthographic and Titular History of Alfred Tennyson’s English Idyls.” The Tennyson Research Bulletin 9.1: 97-110.

• Padley, J, and K Padley. 2006. “‘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 37.4: 325-334

• Padley, J. 2003. “Frankenstein and (Sublime) Creation.” Romanticism 9.2: 196-212.

PhD

• Padley, J. 2006. “(De)Monstration: Interpreting the Monsters of English Children’s Literature.” Swansea: University of Wales Swansea.

Welsh Government Reports

• Murphy, P, S Gallagher, and J Padley. 2014. “Final Report of the Oxbridge Ambassador for Wales.” Cardiff: Department for Education and Skills.

• Gallagher, S, and J Padley. 2014. “Analysis of the Attainment of Welsh Applicants to Oxford and Cambridge Universities.” Cardiff: Department for Education and Skills.

• Gallagher, S, and J Padley. 2014. “Comparing Welsh Attainment and Admission to Oxford and Cambridge with the North-East of England.” Cardiff: Department for Education and Skills.

• Gallagher, S, and J Padley. 2014. “Welsh Attainment and Admission to Oxford and Cambridge: the Evidence Base.” Cardiff: Department for Education and Skills.

• Murphy, P, S Gallagher, and J Padley. 2013. “Interim Report of the Oxbridge Ambassador for Wales.” Cardiff: Department for Education and Skills.