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Dr Clio Doyle, BA (Oxford), MPhil (Yale), PhD (Yale)

Clio

Lecturer in Early Modern Literature

Email: c.doyle@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

I hold a BA in English Language and Literature from Oxford and an MPhil in Medieval Studies and a PhD in English and Renaissance Studies from Yale. But I now focus on contemporary popular culture and particularly on Taylor Swift and popular perceptions of the study of English literature. I designed the Taylor Swift and Literature Summer School at Queen Mary. My first book, From the Vault: Studies in Taylor Swift and English Literature, is a work of literary nonfiction intended for a popular audience and will be published by Hutchinson Heinnemann in 2026. You can sign up to my newsletter, The Manuscript: Taylor Swift and Literature, at https://cliodoyle.substack.com/.  

Teaching

I designed and taught classes on popular culture and the internet at Yale and I have taught a number of classes on medieval and early modern literature at Yale, Quinnipiac University, and Queen Mary University of London. I teach a module that I designed, Taylor Swift and Literature, for the Queen Mary University of London Summer School. 

Research

Research Interests:

  • Taylor Swift as Literature 
  • Fan Studies 
  • Literary Theory 

Recent and On-Going Research

My work on Taylor Swift began when I created and hosted the podcast Studies in Taylor Swift, which reads the lyrics of Taylor Swift through the lens of critical theory, from 2021 to 2023. The podcast is no longer active but selected episodes are available on most podcast platforms. My current book project is From the Vault: Studies in Taylor Swift and English Literature. This discusses Swift's work from the vantage point of English literature, exploring how English as a discipline can help us understand Swift and what Swift can tell us about the study of English. I believe the current public interest in Swift's literary aspects is an exciting opportunity to increase awareness of what English literature is and what exactly we do in English departments. I recently presented my work on Swift at a conference on Swift at the University of Kent and as a keynote speaker for the Graduate Conference in European History at Central European University. 

Publications

Book

From the Vault: Studies in Taylor Swift and English Literature, Hutchinson Heinemann, forthcoming 2026. 

Articles and Book Chapters

“Poetry and Agriculture in Early Modern Britain,” Routledge Resources Online - The Renaissance World, 2024. 

"'Slimy Kempes Ill Smelling of the Mud:' The Terroir of Poetry and the Desire for Change in Barclay’s Eclogues,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 52:2, 2021. 

"Ecocriticism for Early Modernists: An Annotated Bibliography," Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 4:1, 2021. 

"Titus Andronicus’s 'fearful and confused cries:' birdsong, empathy, and the fear of sound" in Auditory Worlds: Hearing and Staging Practices Then and Now, eds. Laury Magnus and Walter Cannon, Vancouver: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2020. 

Public Engagement

I write a newsletter about Swift and literature, The Manuscript: Taylor Swift and Literature, at https://cliodoyle.substack.com/. My writing has appeared in The Independent, THE Campus, The Conversation, From the Quadrangle, and Marginalia at the LA Review of Books. I have hosted two podcasts, Clio/Mireille: A Fanfiction Podcast (co-hosted with Dr Mireille Pardon) and Studies in Taylor Swift, and have co-created podcasts on AI and language learning for the National Humanities Center Humanities in Class Digital Library. I have discussed my work on Taylor Swift on BBC Breakfast, ITV News, BBC News, BBC News Streaming, BBC Radio Newcastle, Times Radio, and Teachers Talk Radio and I have been interviewed for articles in many publications including The Christian Science Monitor, Dazed, El País, and the Irish Independent. I have given lectures for MASSOLIT and Seed Talks on the subject.  
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