Alison Shell

Alison Eva Mary Shell, (born 19 June 1964) is a British scholar and literary critic. She is a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at University College London. Most of her scholarly work explores the relationship between Christianity and literature in Britain from the Reformation to the 21st century.

Early life and education Shell was born on 19 June 1964 in London, England. She was educated at North London Collegiate School, an all-girls independent school.

Since 2010, Shell has been a series editor for the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. Alongside Thomas S. Freeman and Ann Hutchison, she founded the series 'Catholic and Recusant Texts of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods.' She also serves on the editorial boards for the journals British Catholic History and Reformation. She reviews for the Times Literary Supplement, and in 2024 she preached the annual Shakespeare Sermon at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Fellowships

Shell is a fellow of the British Academy, the English Association, and the Society of Antiquaries. She has held visiting fellowships at the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Beinecke Library at Yale, and the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale.

Bibliography (selected) Shakespeare and Religion (London: Arden Shakespeare, Critical Companions, 2010; paperback 2015). Oral Culture and Catholicism in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007, paperback, 2009). Catholicism, Controversy and the English Literary Imagination, 1558-1660 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999, paperback 2006).