Career
He is the current Principal of Homerton College, University of Cambridge. He formerly worked as Lecturer then Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Liverpool. Following a year spent lecturing in Japan, he took up a Chair and the Headship of Department at the University of Dundee in 1995.
In 2002, he was made a Deputy Principal at Dundee, leaving four years later to serve as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and then Vice Principal at Royal Holloway, University of London, before coming to Homerton as Principal in 2013.
In addition to his scholarly work, he has written and presented occasional broadcasts for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 3, most recently on David Foster Wallace. A Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he has also been elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Harris Manchester College, Oxford.