Peter J. A. Jones, Lecturer in cultural history, University of Tyumen, School of Advanced Studies

Peter J. A. Jones is a researcher at the School of Advanced Studies at the University of Tyumen in Siberia. Previously he has worked as a teaching fellow in the History Department at University College London, as an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto, as a visiting scholar at the Pembroke Center, Brown University, and as a Frances A. Yates Postdoctoral Fellow at the Warburg Institute. As well as his work on medieval laughter and humour, Jones is currently developing two new projects. His next book, Democratic Dreams in Medieval Europe, is an investigation of the theological foundations of republican and democratic thought in the 1100s. He is also currently working on a multidisciplinary collaborative project, A History of Loving Things, which traces a history of loving relations between humans and nonhumans from Medieval Europe to the present day, via Imperial Russia and Oscar Wilde's Ireland.

"...a splendidly original and eloquent book. Jones succeeds admirably in demonstrating the value of dissecting laughter: how it intersected with power, how it was transformed during this period, and why it merits close contextual reading from medievalists of various disciplines, not just those concerned directly with humor, satirical literature, and the history of the emotions. This is one of those books that will excite and reward on each rereading." - William Kynan Wilson, The Open University, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies