Nicholas Cole

Senior Research Fellow

Cole is 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.

Cole 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. He continues 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.