Staff profile

I am the Sweeting Associate Professor in the History of Catholicism and have been a member of Durham University's Department of Theology and Religion since 2012. I am also Director of Heritage and Digital Collections Fellowships, which includes the Durham Collections Fellowships programme.

After completing my PhD at King's College, London, I was a member of the AHRC-funded ‘Who Were the Nuns?’ project and Project Manager of its AHRC-funded follow-on initiative, both at Queen Mary, University of London. From 2015 to 2018 I was Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded 'Monks in Motion' project, which investigated the experience of the English and Welsh Benedictines in exile, c.1553-1800. I am joint general editor of the five-volume The Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism (OUP, 2023). In addition, I am one of the founding co-editors of the book series, 'Catholicisms, c.1450-c.1800', published by Durham University IMEMS Press.

My interests are in post-Reformation Catholic history, with a particular focus on Britain and Ireland, and the experience of the British and Irish Catholic communities at home and in exile.

I lead the History of Catholicism research cluster within the University's Centre for Catholic Studies. In this role, I act as conference director of the triennial Early Modern British and Irish Catholicism conference, which is organized jointly by Durham University and the University of Notre Dame. I am also a member of the steering committe of the Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art, as well as an associate and member of the steering committee of the Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature in English. In addition, I am a member of Durham University's Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

I am always interested in supervising research students and welcome enquiries from those thinking of researching the history of Cathoicism. Current and past research students' topics include:

• English Benedictine nuns and their return to England after the French Revolution, c.1790-1830
• Women religious and girls' education in England, c.1850-1920
• Reading networks between the English convents in exile and lay women in the seventeenth century
• John Lingard, the Catholic Enlightenment and relations with other Christian denominations
• The library of the English College at Lisbon

Authored book

• Kelly, J. E. (2025). The Catholic Reformation: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press
• Kelly, J. E. (2020). English Convents in Catholic Europe, c.1600-1800. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108846851
• Kelly, J. E. (2013). Convent Management. Volume 5 of six volume sources and editorial series. Pickering & Chatto

Chapter in book

• Kelly, J. E. (2022). 'A mixt life'? English Benedictines and European Catholic Reform Movements: Monasticism and Apostolic Mission. In C. Begadon, & J. E. Kelly (Eds.), British and Irish Religious Orders in Europe, 1560-1800: Conventuals, Mendicants and Monastics in Motion. Durham University IMEMS Press
• Kelly, J. E. (2018). Jesuit News Networks and Catholic Identity: The Letters of John Thorpe, S.J., to the English Carmelite Nuns at Lierre, 1769–89. In J. E. Kelly, & H. Thomas (Eds.), Jesuit intellectual and physical exchange between England and mainland Europe, c. 1580 – 1789 : ‘the world is our house’? (337-360). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004362666_016
• Kelly, J. E. (2018). The Jesuit English Mission. In I. G. Županov (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of Jesuits (293-317). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190639631.013.40
• Kelly, J. E. (2017). English Women Religious, the Exile Male Colleges and National Identities in Counter-Reformation Europe. In L. Chambers, & T. O'Connor (Eds.), College communities abroad : education, migration and Catholicism in early modern Europe (198-220). Manchester University Press
• Kelly, J. E. (2017). Creating an English Catholic Identity: Relics, Martyrs and English Women Religious in Counter-Reformation Europe. In J. E. Kelly, & S. Royal (Eds.), Early modern English Catholicism : identity, memory, and counter-Reformation (41-59). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004325678_004
• Kelly, J. E. (2015). Bringing it all back home: Mary Butler (1641-1723) - Benedictine Abbess of Ypres. In S. Ryan (Ed.), Treasures of Irish Christianity volume 3: To the Ends of the Earth (64-66). Veritas
• Kelly, J. E. (2014). Conformity, Loyalty and the Jesuit Mission to England of 1580. In E. Glaser (Ed.), Religious tolerance in the Atlantic world : early modern and contemporary perspectives (149-170). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137028044_7
• Kelly, J. E. (2013). Essex Girls Abroad: Family Patronage and the Politicization of Convent Recruitment in the Seveneteenth Century. In C. Bowden, & J. E. Kelly (Eds.), The English Convents in Exile, 1600-1800: Communities, Culture and Identity (33-52)

Edited book

• Kelly, J. E., & McCafferty, J. (Eds.). (2023). The Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism, Volume I: Endings and New Beginnings, 1530-1640. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198843801.001.0001
• Begadon, C., & Kelly, J. E. (Eds.). (2022). British and Irish Religious Orders in Europe, 1560–1800: Conventuals, Mendicants and Monastics in Motion. Durham University IMEMS Press
• Kelly, J. E., Laugerud, H., & Ryan, S. (Eds.). (2020). Northern European Reformations: Transnational Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54458-4
• Kelly, J. E., & Hannah, T. (Eds.). (2019). Jesuit Intellectual and Physical Exchange between England and Mainland Europe, c. 1580 – 1789: ‘The World is our House’?. Brill Academic Publishers
• Kelly, J. E., & Royal, S. (Eds.). (2017). Early Modern English Catholicism: Identity, Memory and Counter-Reformation, c. 1570–1800. Brill Academic Publishers
• Kelly, J. E. (Ed.). (2015). Treasures of Ushaw College: Durham's Hidden Gem. Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers
• Bowden, C., & Kelly, J. E. (Eds.). (2013). The English Convents in Exile, 1600-1800: Communities, Culture and Identity. Ashgate Publishing

Journal Article

• Kelly, J. E. (2022). “A suppurating ulcer”: Religious Orders and Transnational Conflict in Valladolid at the Start of the Seventeenth Century. The Seventeenth Century, 37(5), 693-716. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268117x.2022.2079556
• Kelly, J. E. (2020). England and the Catholic Reformation: The Peripheries Strike Back. Journal of Early Modern Christianity, 7(2), 271-285. https://doi.org/10.1515/jemc-2020-2022
• Kelly, J. E. (2020). Political Mysticism: Augustine Baker, the Spiritual Formation of Missionaries and the Catholic Reformation in England. Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 72(2), 300-322. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022046920000019
• Kelly, J. E. (2018). The Contested Appropriation of George Gervase's Martyrdom: European Religious Patronage and the Controversy Over the Oath of Allegiance. Journal of British Studies, 57(2), 253-274. https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2017.235
• Kelly, J. E. (2018). Counties without Borders? Religious Politics, Kinship Networks and the Formation of Catholic Communities. Historical Research, 91(251), 22-38. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2281.12209
• Kelly, J. E. (2009). Kinship and Religious Politics among Catholic Families in England, 1570-1640. History, 94(315), 328-343. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-229x.2009.00458.x

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• to, C. (in press). The New Sommervogel Online. [Data]
• Kelly, J. E., & Begadon, C. S. (2017). The 'Monks in Motion' database. [Data]
• Bowden, C., & Kelly, J. E. (2013). The 'Who Were the Nuns?' database. [Data]

Other (Print)

• Daemen-de Gelder, K., Kelly, J. E., & Majerus, P. (2011). Calendar of sources for the 'Who Were the Nuns?' project