The University of the West Indies is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. John Lennard as Professor of British and American Literature in the Department of Literatures in English at the Mona Campus.

A British national, Professor Lennard holds the Bachelor of Arts degree with double first-class honours from Oxford University, where he was at New College; the Master of Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and the Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) from Oxford.

He comes to the UWI from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey, USA, where he served as Global Visiting Professor in its online programme for new students. In that capacity, he led tge writing team for a new unit on contemporary global conflicts and participated in or lead class discussion on global issues through the online medium, with the aim of contributing knowledge and perspectives from a non-American perspective. He has also served as Fellow and Director of Studies in English at Trinity Hall, and Newton Trust Lecturer in Practical Criticism, Faculty of English, Cambridge University; Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame du Lac, in London; Adjunct Professor and Dean of the Shakespeare Programme at the British-American Drama Academy, London and Course Lecturer for the KEIO (Japan) Cambridge Residential Programme.

Professor Lennard has taught for more than 15 years across all genres and post-medieval British periods at all undergraduate levels, focusing mainly on Renaissance Studies, Drama and Contemporary Poetry. Much of his teaching has involved the practical criticism of poetry, drama and prose and has covered areas from Elizabethan handwriting to twentieth-century Anglo-Indian fiction. He has also taught Commonwealth Literatures in English focusing on a range of writers including Derek Walcott, V.S. Naipaul, C.L.R. James, Wole Soyinka and J.M. Coetzee. Dr Lennard also has expertise in textual studies, prosody, genre fcition and the theory and history of punctuation.. His other interests include Golden Age Dutch painting, world music and film.

Professor Lennard has a strong and steady publication record in the areas of Renaissance Studies, Contemporary Poetry and Drama. His books include the original monography, But I Digress: The Exploitation of Parentheses in English Printed Verse (1991); the well-received Poetry Handbook: A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism (1996, 2nd edition 2005); and The Drama Handbook: A Guide to Reading Plays (2002).