I am Director of Teaching and Learning in the Department of English Literature.

I convene two Part 3 modules, "Classical and Renaissance Tragedy" and "Utopia: The Ideal Society in English and American Literature". I give lectures on a range of modules including "Early Modern Theatre Practice", "Renaissance Texts and Cultures", "Genre, Form and Context" and "Shakespeare".

I recently supervised a PhD student, Morwenna Carr, whose thesis was entitled "Fluid Bodies on the Seventeenth-Century Stage", and whose PhD was awarded in 2015.   I am happy to talk to anyone who is interested in undertaking postgraduate research in early modern studies at Reading, and especially within my own area of research.

My research is in early modern literature and performance, and especially the representation of cultural and religious difference.  My main research interest is the portrayal of the Persian empire in English drama in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and I am currently writing a book on this subject.  Other aspects of my research include utopias, travel and travel writing, and religious identity.  My first book was a study of Renaissance utopias from 1516 to the mid seventeenth century, and I have edited a collection of essays on travel and utopia in the early modern period.

More details of my research activity can be found at Chloë Houston Research

You can follow me on Twitter @ChloeReading. You can also follow the activities of the Early Modern Research Centre on Twitter @ReadingEMRC or by liking our Facebook group, "Early Modern Research Centre".