Prior to joining the Department of English in 2026, I spent two years researching and teaching at Columbia University, where I was a member of the Society of Fellows and a Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature. Before this, I was a Research Associate on the UKRI-funded project "Medicine and the Making of Race", based in the Department of History here at King's. I hold a BA from Bristol (2016) and an MPhil (2018) and a PhD (2023) from Cambridge.

Research interests

• Early modern poetry and prose
• Histories and theories of race; premodern critical race studies; intersections between race and religion
• Histories of the body; bodily difference, human difference, and the category of the "human"; disability studies; monster studies
• Histories of religion; Reformation textual culture
• The works of Edmund Spenser

Teaching

I teach on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules, from introductory surveys to specialist modules on race, religion and gender.

Expertise and public engagement

Along with Jamie Gemmell, I co-convene the "Race and the Early Modern" seminar series, hosted by the Centre for Early Modern Studies (CEMS) at King's and the Folger Shakespeare Library.

I have been invited to share my research in various contexts, including at the Columbia Shakespeare Seminar, the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge, Shakespeare's Globe, and the Estonian Academy of Arts. I have also been invited to contribute to panels organised by Shakespeare Quarterly, The International Spenser Society, and the London Shakespeare Seminar.

I contributed to the catalogue for the Folger exhibition "To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare" (2026).

Selected publications

• Eli Cumings, "Famine in Faeryland", Spenser Studies (2025)
• Eli Cumings, Introduction to the special issue "Christianity and Race-making: New Approaches", Renaissance Studies (2026)
• Eli Cumings, "Divine Providence, Racial Monstrosity and the English Reformation", Renaissance Studies (2026)