Will read English at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and took the MRes in Renaissance and early modern studies at CELL. His AHRC-funded PhD focusses on the intelligence papers of Anthony Bacon (1558-1601), spymaster to the Earl of Essex. The thesis explores the ways in which secret agents made use of affective bonds to achieve personal and political objectives, and reveals the strategies these men adopted in a variety of early modern-specific locations including the Inns of Court, male-dominated aristocratic households and prisons.

Will has taught on undergraduate courses including Shakespeare (year 1) and Shakespeare, the book and the play (year 3). He was a finalist in the 2011 BBC Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinkers programme.