Anti-Catholicism across British History (c.1520-2000)

This network brings together scholars from a range of disciplines (History, Art History, Literature, Social Psychology, Politics, Sociology, Theology) and who work on a diverse range of historical periods (the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries) to consider anti-Catholicism as a major aspect of modern British History. Its title "Anti-Catholicism in British History" refers to the fact that scholars of each century of British History after the Reformation have accorded anti-Catholicism a central role in a range of historical events and processes: the Reformation, Civil Wars, Exclusion Crisis, Glorious Revolution, national identities, empire, the emergence of enlightened concepts like liberty and reason, and the formation of anti-Irish and anti-French sentiment being the most prominent examples. As it stands, however, the topic has been studied in a piecemeal, period-by-period basis. By taking a longer perspective, the network will consider how anti-Catholicism (in particular) and prejudice (in general) develops over time and what it develops in response to.

The network will bring scholars together in order to consider how anti-Catholicism functioned similarly and differently in different periods of British history. It will develop methodologies for researching the ways in which a prejudice adapts across a significant period of time, consider the roles which stereotypes and representations had in sustaining and adapting anti-Catholic prejudice and seek to interrogate the purpose of conspiracy theories to political and religious movements. The network will encourage new ways of thinking about anti-Catholicism through the benefit of comparative chronological perspectives, and create an over-arching perspective on how anti-Catholic intolerance developed over the course of 4 centuries. Its findings will be important in developing future research not just for scholars of British History but, by bringing into dialogue approaches in Social Psychology, History and Literature Studies, the network's research will foster research methodologies which will be of interest to scholars of all forms of prejudice in a range of disciplines.

The network will principally involve 4 workshops. The first (in Newcastle) will consider the methodologies necessary to investigate anti-Catholicism in the longue duree of British history, investigate current research models and paradigms, work towards formulating new methodological strategies, and draw out continuities and contrasts across the 4 centuries of the network's research. The second (at Ushaw College) will bring into dialogue scholarship on stereotypes in Social Psychology and History to interrogate contrasting approaches with a view to fostering new methodologies. The third (at Auckland Castle) will consider the role of representations (textual and visual) in sustaining anti-Catholicism across the centuries. The final workshop (at Newcastle) considers the ways in which conspiracy theories created master-narratives of "popery" as the great "Other" at crucial moments in British history. Once again, comparing approaches across disciplines (History and Social Psychology in particular) will foster new methodologies for approaching the topic.

Collaboration with a wider public will principally be maintained through the network's interactive website. This will allow the public to comment on and respond to the network's papers and podcasts of its public lectures, and to be actively involved in the on-line symposium which will be held in November 2018. The public will also be engaged in the network through an on-line exhibition (which will be created in conjunction with the network's partner institutions: Ushaw College and Auckland Castle).

The primary groups outside academia who could benefit from this research are:

Museum and heritage professionals and broadcasters interested in engaging a public audience:
The network's website will feature 24 artefacts (1 for each month of the network grant's duration). These will be used as a pathway into moments of British history in a manner similar to BBC 4's 'History of the World in a 100 objects'.
The artefacts chosen will embody key themes of anti-Catholicism in a way which challenges the public to reconsider the British past. It will do so by selecting events and process in British history in which anti-Catholicism played a significant, but, as far as the public are concerned, under-heralded role.
The PI will be advised by curators at partner institutions - Ushaw College and Auckland Castle - to facilitate the creation of this resource. Permission has been granted to use resources housed by partner institutions (and in the British Museum) free of charge.

Teachers and other educators:
Given the prominence of anti-Catholicism across four centuries of British history, the provision of accessible materials on the network's website will assist school teachers and other educators looking to enhance the curriculum. Bibliographic lists, the artefacts mentioned above, and synopses of presentations and papers will be vital here. Local school teachers who specialise in history and religious education will be invited to the workshops to ensure that the engagement with educators is direct and that they have the opportunity to advise on how best to present material on the website for schools.

Church groups of various denominations:
A series of public events across the England at centres for the Newman Society of Catholic Intellectuals, and at the Catholic History Day at the Bar Convent, York, in 2018 will seek to engage British Catholics about their own past. These events have already been agreed.

Members of the public interested in history:
Short synopses (1,000 words) of papers presented by participants at the network's workshops will be available on the website.
A series of public engagement events will be hosted by the PI. These include a series of public lectures at the Newcastle Lit & Phil Society, Newcastle University and Auckland Castle.
These lectures and events will be filmed and uploaded to the network's website to ensure a wider audience.
The website will also be interactive, allowing the public to respond to lectures, blog posts and artefacts with comments, questions or by providing new information. In this way, the impact of the research will be traceable, and the exchange of ideas between academia and the public will be two-way.

Public bodies interested in understanding prejudice/intolerance:
The product of the network's interdisciplinary dialogue on intolerance will be the development of a series of key methodologies and strategies for studying and understanding intolerance over a long period of time.
The interactive element of the website will seek to elicit responses from public bodies working to understand prejudice and intolerance. The PI has developed a working relationship with Nil By Mouth (an anti-sectarian organisation), and will approach other anti-sectarian organisations (including Consensus and Trademark in Belfast) during the duration of the grant. The knowledge exchange undertaken will seek to consider how historical understanding of prejudice can inform present-day anti-sectarian initiatives.