Jared Willden is a PhD student whose research focuses on representations of magic in early modern British and French literature. Magical belief (e.g. in witches, demons, fairies, astrology, divination, and alchemy) was widespread in early modern Europe across socioeconomic classes, and intellectuals treated the magical arts as sciences. By putting Renaissance works on magic (back) in conversation with the period’s literature, Jared explores how writers employ early modern Europe’s sophisticated study of magic in ways that seem foreign to us but were of paramount importance to the early moderns.

Within Renaissance literature, drama and romance tend to attract Jared’s attention as genres in which magic thrives. Beyond the early modern, his secondary interests include two other areas of literature rife with the preternatural: fairy tales (particularly in France during the reign of Louis XIV) and gothic literature. He is also interested in bibliography and textual studies; Jared received a 2023 Battestin Fellowship from the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia to study French political and religious tracts from 1574-75 in UVA’s Gordon Collection.

At UVA, Jared’s teaching has included ENWR 1510 (first-year composition) classes on Writing about Disney; discussion sections for lecture courses on Shakespeare and early British literature; and, in the spring of 2026, ENGL 2599 on “The Witch in Literature.”

Jared has returned to UVA for his doctoral study after completing his MA there in 2024 (English, concentration in teaching literature and writing) and writing his MA thesis on “Teaching Ambiguity in Shakespeare.” He would be happy to speak with prospective English graduate students (PhD or MA), who are welcome to email him.

Publications:

“Poison as Virtuous Medicine in the Balet comique de la royne.” Renaissance Drama, 53.2, 2025 (forthcoming December 2025).