Stafford was born in Lincoln but moved around during her childhood following her father's postings in the Royal Air Force. She studied for a BA in English language and literature at the University of Leicester, writing a dissertation on RAF slang. She then studied at the University of Oxford gaining an M.Phil. in English Language and Literature and a D.Phil.[3] Her thesis was on The sublime savage : a study of James Macpherson and the poems of Ossian in relation to the cultural context of Scotland in the 1750s and 1760s.[4]
After a short spell teaching in the United States Stafford returned to Oxford and was appointed a tutorial fellow of Somerville College.[3] She is also Professor of English Language and Literature in the Faculty of English of the University of Oxford.[1]
Her areas of research include "Ossian, Austen, Burns, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, the Shelleys, Byron, Heaney, Carson, literature of the Romantic period, the literature of place, nature writing (old and new), Scottish poetry after 1700, dialogues between English, Irish and Scottish literature, literature and the visual arts, and contemporary poetry".[5]
^"Professor Fiona Stafford". Faculty of English Language and Literature. University of Oxford. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
^ abc"Professor Fiona Stafford". Graduation Ceremonies: Summer 2018: Honorands. University of Leicester. Retrieved 19 July 2019. Includes video of the oration and her response
