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

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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).