Dr Nicholas Cole
I am a Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, and the director of the Quill Project (www.quill.pmb.ox.ac.uk), one of the College's research centres. I study American legal history, the development of modern political thought, the reception of the classics in the modern world, and the development of digital techniques and methods that can support humanities research. None of this is merely antiquarian interest: the debate over, 'what is the best form of government?' has reignited in recent years, and not everyone in the world agrees that the answer is liberal democracy with a strong protection of individual rights. Deepening our understanding the history of our institutions and the thinking that created them has never seemed more important.
I am a Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, and the director of the Quill Project (www.quill.pmb.ox.ac.uk), which examines how groups of people negotiate some of the most important texts that govern our societies and daily lives: constitutions, treaties, and legislation. The project uses advanced, digital technologies to understand the process of drafting and revision, and to track the way that both substance and process has changed over time. Its flagship work concerns the constitutional history of America, but the project also examines British and European topics, and have (as of June 2020) started a project examining the Peace Process in Northern Ireland. See the project's web pages for a full list.
I studied Ancient and Modern History at University College, where I stayed to read for an MPhil in Greek and Roman history and then a doctorate (with Miriam Griffin) on the use of the Classics by Thomas Jefferson's generation of American Politicians. I continue to have strong research interests in the reception of classical history and texts in the modern world, and in the development of modern political thought.
More recently, I have been most interested in developing digital tools to support the work of scholarship in the humanities. These days I am as likely to spend time programming computers as I am to be writing prose. I am also keen to encourage undergraduates to become involved in historical research projects, and am interested in the way that scholarship in the humanities can learn from the collaborative, often multi-institutional, models that are more common in the sciences. Our current research projects would be impossible without the contribution of many undergraduates, both from within the University of Oxford and those studying in institutions thousands of miles away.
I am an active supporter of the College's 'OxNET' programmes and other efforts to encourage talented students from all backgrounds to apply to top universities, and (yes) to Pembroke College in particular.
Before coming to Pembroke, I was a Junior Research Fellow in History at St Peter's College, and a Departmental Lecturer in American History for the History Faculty. I have been a Visiting Fellow at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia.
I teach American history and the history of political thought, and supervise graduate students working on American legal and constitutional history, the history of American political thought, or classical reception in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Dr Nicholas Cole
I am a Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, and the director of the Quill Project (www.quill.pmb.ox.ac.uk), one of the College's research centres. I study American legal history, the development of modern political thought, the reception of the classics in the modern world, and the development of digital techniques and methods that can support humanities research. None of this is merely antiquarian interest: the debate over, 'what is the best form of government?' has reignited in recent years, and not everyone in the world agrees that the answer is liberal democracy with a strong protection of individual rights. Deepening our understanding the history of our institutions and the thinking that created them has never seemed more important.
I am a Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, and the director of the Quill Project (www.quill.pmb.ox.ac.uk), which examines how groups of people negotiate some of the most important texts that govern our societies and daily lives: constitutions, treaties, and legislation. The project uses advanced, digital technologies to understand the process of drafting and revision, and to track the way that both substance and process has changed over time. Its flagship work concerns the constitutional history of America, but the project also examines British and European topics, and have (as of June 2020) started a project examining the Peace Process in Northern Ireland. See the project's web pages for a full list.
I studied Ancient and Modern History at University College, where I stayed to read for an MPhil in Greek and Roman history and then a doctorate (with Miriam Griffin) on the use of the Classics by Thomas Jefferson's generation of American Politicians. I continue to have strong research interests in the reception of classical history and texts in the modern world, and in the development of modern political thought.
More recently, I have been most interested in developing digital tools to support the work of scholarship in the humanities. These days I am as likely to spend time programming computers as I am to be writing prose. I am also keen to encourage undergraduates to become involved in historical research projects, and am interested in the way that scholarship in the humanities can learn from the collaborative, often multi-institutional, models that are more common in the sciences. Our current research projects would be impossible without the contribution of many undergraduates, both from within the University of Oxford and those studying in institutions thousands of miles away.
I am an active supporter of the College's 'OxNET' programmes and other efforts to encourage talented students from all backgrounds to apply to top universities, and (yes) to Pembroke College in particular.
Before coming to Pembroke, I was a Junior Research Fellow in History at St Peter's College, and a Departmental Lecturer in American History for the History Faculty. I have been a Visiting Fellow at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia.
I teach American history and the history of political thought, and supervise graduate students working on American legal and constitutional history, the history of American political thought, or classical reception in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.