David Hawkes’s research interests and expertise span a variety of fields ranging from Darwinism, zombies and magic to economics, religion and Shakespeare.

As professor of English in literature, he is a specialist in Early Modern literature, specifically that of John Milton and Shakespeare. More broadly, his research encompasses literary approaches to economics, especially usury, debt, and money-lending; and religion and idolatry. Hawkes is the author of six books and the editor of works by Milton and John Bunyan. He has also published more than 100 articles and reviews in such journals as The Nation, In These Times, Literature and Theology, Clio, the Journal of the History of Ideas, the Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, the Huntington Library Quarterly, Renaissance Studies, and others.