Molly Mahood

Professor Molly Mahood
Born	Molly Maureen Mahood (1919-06-17)17 June 1919 Wimbledon, London, England
Died	14 February 2017(2017-02-14) (aged 97)
Nationality	British
Title	Professor of English Literature
Awards	Rose Mary Crawshay Prize, British Academy (2009)

Academic background
Education	Surbiton High School
Alma mater	King's College, London
Academic work
Discipline	Literary criticism
Institutions	St Hugh's College, Oxford University of Ibadan University of Dar es Salaam University of Kent at Canterbury

Molly Maureen Mahood (17 June 1919 – 14 February 2017), published as M. M. Mahood, was a British literary scholar, whose interests ranged from Shakespeare to postcolonial African literature. She taught at St Hugh's College, Oxford (1947–1954), the University of Ibadan in Nigeria (1954–1963), the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania (1963–1967), and the University of Kent at Canterbury (1967–1979).

Mahood was born on 17 June 1919 in Wimbledon, London, England. She was educated at Surbiton High School, an all-girls independent school in Kingston upon Thames, London. She studied English at King's College, London, and graduated with a first class honours degree in 1941. She and her fellow students were evacuated to Bristol because of the increasing threat of bombs during the Second World War. She continued her studies and completed a Master of Arts (MA) degree with a dissertation on 17th-century comedy.

From 1947 to 1954, Mahood was a Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford, then an all-female college of the University of Oxford. She then moved to Nigeria where she became Professor of English at the University of Ibadan. Moving to Tanzania, she held the Chair of English at the University of Dar es Salaam from 1963 to 1967. She returned to England and was appointed Professor of English Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury. Having retired in 1979, she was made Professor Emeritus by Kent and she maintained her links with the university into old age.