Rate My Professor Jason Kerr

Jason A. Kerr is an Associate Professor of English at Brigham Young University in the College of Humanities, where he joined as a Visiting Assistant Professor in June 2013, advanced to Assistant Professor in August 2015, and was promoted to Associate Professor. He earned a Ph.D. in English from Boston College in 2011, supported by a University Fellowship (2005–2010), the Director’s Service Award (2008–2009), and various research grants. Kerr received his B.A. summa cum laude in English, with a History minor and Classical Studies Certificate, from Arizona State University in 2003, funded by the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship (1997–1998, 2000–2003).

Kerr specializes in political theology, the English Civil War, 17th-century religious nonconformity, John Milton, and Richard Baxter. His monograph Milton's Theological Process: Reading De Doctrina Christiana and Paradise Lost was published by Oxford University Press in 2024. Select peer-reviewed publications include “The Tragedy of Kindness in King Lear” (Studies in English Literature 1500–1900, forthcoming 2022), “Shifting Perspectives on Law in De Doctrina Christiana” (Connotations, 2019), “Vulnerable Life in Marvell’s Mower Poems” (Marvell Studies, 2019), “Richard Baxter’s Gendered Political Theology of Consent” (Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 2018), “Milton and the Anonymous Authority of De Doctrina Christiana” (Milton Quarterly, 2015), “De Doctrina Christiana and Milton’s Theology of Liberation” (Studies in Philology, 2014), and, co-authored with John K. Hale, “The Origins and Development of Milton’s Theology in De Doctrina Christiana I. 17-18” (Milton Studies, 2013). He co-edited the special issue “The Varieties of Political Theology” (Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 2018), wrote the encyclopedia entry “Baxter, Richard” (Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy, 2016), and authored reviews and essays in Renaissance Quarterly, BYU Studies Quarterly, and others. Awards include BYU’s Faculty Award for Distinguished Contributions to Accessibility (2018) and an International Travel Grant (2015). Kerr has presented at the Renaissance Society of America, International Milton Symposium, and others, serves on the Milton Society of America Executive Committee (2023–2026), and teaches Early Modern British literature and the Bible as Literature.