Virginia Cox

Virginia Cox, (born 30 November 1962) is a British scholar of Italian literature, culture and history.

She appeared in the 75th anniversary edition of Renaissance Quarterly.

In 2022, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

From 1981 to 1985, she studied modern and medieval languages (Italian and Spanish) at the University of Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.

She has taught at the University of Edinburgh (1989-91), University College London (1991-92), the University of Cambridge (1992-2002), and New York University (2003-2021).

Since 2021, she has held the posts of Honorary Professor of Early Modern Italian Literature and Culture in the Department of Italian at Cambridge, and Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge.

She remained at Cambridge to undertake a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Italian, which she completed in 1990.

Cox completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge in 1990.

Cox has received book awards from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women in 2005, 2009, and 2012 and the American Association of Publishers in 2008, and article awards from the International Society for the History of Rhetoric (Rhetorica prize) in 2017 and the Renaissance Society of America (Nelson Prize) in 1996, 2004, and 2017.

She is best known for her research on Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Italian literature, the reception of classical rhetorical theory in Italy between the 13th and 16th centuries and Italian early modern women's writing.