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Jason Crawford

Professor of English

About

Jason Crawford teaches and writes about early modern literature and culture. He is the author of two books – Allegory and Enchantment (Oxford University Press, 2017) and God’s Fools (Bloomsbury, 2026) – and his essays have appeared in publications such as Christianity and Literature, ELH, The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, The Cresset, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Crawford has held research fellowships at the Huntington Library, at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and at the University of Tennessee’s Marco Institute. At Union, his teaching interests include not just early modern English writers but also ancient epic and drama, Dante, problems of tragedy and suffering, and the history of comedy and laughter. He also teaches in the university’s interdisciplinary Honors Integrative Studies program. He was named Union’s Faculty Member of the Year in 2019 and Faculty Researcher of the Year in 2025.

Education

  • Ph.D in English, Harvard University

  • A.M. in English, Harvard University

  • B.A. in English, Philosophy, Louisiana State University

Scholarship

Books

Articles

Presentations

  • Why do the Martyrs Laugh? (2025)

    Panel Presentation, Southeast Conference on Christianity and Literature

  • Tragedy and Neighbor-Love (2025)

    Panel Presentation, Makarios Conference

  • Jokes, Proverbs, and the Language of Eden (2024)

    Panel Presentation, Southeast Conference on Christianity and Literature

  • Shakespeare’s Art of Tragic Attention (2023)

    Plenary Presentation, Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers

  • What is a Holy Fool? (2023)

    Panel Presentation, Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature

  • James Simpson’s Freedoms (2022)

    Illuminated and Unsettled: A Conference in Honor of James Simpson, Harvard University

  • Herbert’s Proverbial Ineloquence (2022)

    George Herbert Society Conference

  • Comic Accountability, Tragic Accountability: Shakespearean Reflections (2021)

    Living Accountably, Baylor University

  • Robert Armin: The First Comedian (2021)

    Shakespeare Association of America

  • What the Wolf Knows: George Herbert’s Book of Wisdom (2019)

    Medieval and Renaissance Colloquia, Joint Session, Harvard University

  • Disenchantment and its Discontents (2019)

    Panel, Southeast Conference on Christianity and Literature

  • Comedy’s Festive Patterns (2019)

    Panel, Shakespeare Association of America

  • Caring for Nature: What Shakespeare Knows (2018)

    Keynote Address, Undergraduate Scholarship Symposium, Lee University

  • Shakespearean Nature (2018)

    Panel, Stewardship of Creation, Baylor University

  • Roundtable: What Now for Allegory Studies? (2018)

    Session co-organizer and co-chair, Renaissance Society of America, National Conference

  • Tragic Passion and Tragic Genre (2018)

    Panel, Shakespeare Association of America

  • Allegory, Enchantment, and the Origins of Modernity: A Discussion (2017)

    Invited Presenter, Gould Center for Humanistic Studies, Claremont McKenna College

  • Taking on the Mystery of Things: Assumption, Liturgy, Tragedy (2017)

    Plenary Address, Tragedy, Recognition, Conversion, Duke University

  • Genealogies of Disenchantment (2017)

    Panel, Remembering the Reformation, Cambridge University

  • Lear’s Tragic Assumptions (2017)

    Panel, Shakespeare Association of America

  • Shakespeare’s Dark Conceits (2016)

    Renaissance Society of America, National Conference

  • The Poetics of Disenchantment (2015)

    Rethinking Allegory, The Warburg Institute

  • Allegorical Shakespeare (2015)

    Modern Language Association, National Convention

  • Allegory and Modernity: The Case of The Faerie Queene (session organizer and chair) (2013)

    Renaissance Society of America, National Conference

  • The Trouble with Allegory (2010)

    The American Comparative Literature Association

  • Who’s Afraid of Allegorical Mimesis? (2010)

    The Medieval Colloquium, Harvard University Department of English

  • The Porous Self and the Neuroses of John Skelton (2008)

    The Medieval Colloquium, Harvard University Department of English

  • Piers Plowman and Errours Endlesse Traine (2006)

    International Medieval Congress

  • Spenser and the End of All Things (2006)

    The Renaissance Colloquium, Harvard University Department of English

  • Allegory and Anatomy in The Tempest (2005)

    Allegory:Aspects and Approaches, Oxford University

  • Personification and the Root of All Evil (2005)

    The Medieval Colloquium, Harvard University Department of English

Awards

  • Faculty Researcher of the Year, Union University (2025)
  • Faculty Member of the Year, Union University (2019)

  • William A. Ringler Short-Term Fellowship, The Huntington Library (2019)

    Shakespearean Tragedy: A Genealogical Poetics, One month

  • Huntington Library Exchange Fellowship, Corpus Christi College, Oxford (2018)

    Shakespearean Tragedy: A Genealogical Poetics

  • Pew Research Grant, Union University (2018)

  • Pew Research Grant, Union University (2014)

  • NEH Summer Institute: Dante’s Divine Comedy, Florence, Italy (2014)

  • Course Development Grant, Union University (2013)

  • Lindsay Young Visiting Faculty Fellowship, Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of Tennessee (2012)

  • Pew Research Grant, Union University (2012)