Shirley Dent is an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Ideas and was formerly Communications Director. She writes and comments widely on arts and literature, including a regular blog at Guardian Arts Unlimited, and reviews for the Times Literary Supplement. She sits on the editorial board of the humanities journal the Grey Zone and researched the editorial and bibliographic history of William Blake’s works for her PhD, co-authoring a book on the subject with Jason Whittaker, Radical Blake.

Shirley continues to contribute academic essays to scholarly collections: this year she is writing three more chapters for collected editions, one on copyright, one on censorship and one on the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ and its use by the far right. Shirley was formerly Head of Communications at the Policy Studies Institute and Assistant Editor at the New Humanist.