Dr Thomas Wynn

• Reader in French Durham University

‘Inside and outside the academy: research and publishing’

Dr Thomas Wynn is Reader in French at Durham University. After completing a DPhil at the University of Oxford, he worked at the University of Exeter, before joining Durham in 2010. A specialist in eighteenth-century French theatre and libertine writing, he has published on the Marquis de Sade, Voltaire, as well as lesser-known figures such as Delisle de Sales. In 2016 he published a new translation/edition of Sade’s infamous novel The 120 Days of Sodom with Penguin Classics. A leader column in The Times recommended that ‘adults curious about this strong text – more pornology than pornography – should dip into it.’ As a previous director of research in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham, he has experience of shortlisting and interviewing candidates for their first academic job. With these various academic, public-facing and administrative experiences, he hopes to offer helpful advice to PhD students about developing their careers.

He blogs at thebadbooksblog.com and occasionally tweets from @drthomaswynn.