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 academic co-ordinator of the Durham Residential Research Library fellowships scheme.

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. Since 2015 I have been Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded 'Monks in Motion' project, which is investigating 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, forthcoming 2023). In addition, I am one of the 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 in Europe, with a particular focus on Britain and Ireland. The experience of the British and Irish Catholic communities at home and in exile is the main focus of my research.

I lead the History of Catholicism research strand within the University's Centre for Catholic Studies. In this role, I act as conference director of the biennial 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
• English Catholic spitiruality, c.1560-1640
• Reading networks between the English convents in exile and lay women in the seventeenth century
• John Lingard, the Catholic Enlightenment and other Christian denominations

• 2015: Monks in Motion: A prosopographical study of the English and Welsh Benedictines in exile, 1553-1800(£185190.20 from AHRC)

Authored book

• Kelly, James E. (2020). English Convents in Catholic Europe, c.1600-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Kelly, James E. (2013). Convent Management. Volume 5 of six volume sources and editorial series. Pickering & Chatto.

Chapter in book

• Kelly, James E. (2022). 'A mixt life'? English Benedictines and European Catholic Reform Movements: Monasticism and Apostolic Mission. In British and Irish Religious Orders in Europe, 1560-1800: Conventuals, Mendicants and Monastics in Motion. Begadon, Cormac & Kelly, James E. Durham University IMEMS Press. 101–120.
• Kelly, James E. (2019). Jesuit News Networks and Catholic Identity: The Letters of John Thorpe, S.J., to the English Carmelite Nuns at Lierre, 1769–89. In Jesuit Intellectual and Physical Exchange between England and Mainland Europe, c. 1580 – 1789: ‘The World is our House’?. Kelly, James E. & Thomas, Hannah Leiden: Brill. 18: 337-360.
• Kelly, James E. (2019). The Jesuit English Mission. In The Oxford Handbook of Jesuits. Županov, Ines G. Oxford Oxford University Press. 293-317.
• Kelly, James E. (2017). English Women Religious, the Exile Male Colleges and National Identities in Counter-Reformation Europe. In College Communities Abroad: Education, Migration and Catholicism in Early Modern Europe. Chambers, Liam & O'Connor, Thomas Manchester: Manchester University Press. 198-220.
• Kelly, James E. (2017). Creating an English Catholic Identity: Relics, Martyrs and English Women Religious in Counter-Reformation Europe. In Early Modern English Catholicism: Identity, Memory and Counter-Reformation. Kelly, James E. & Royal, Susan Leiden Boston: Brill. 41-59.
• Kelly, James E. (2015). Bringing it all back home: Mary Butler (1641-1723) - Benedictine Abbess of Ypres. In Treasures of Irish Christianity volume 3: To the Ends of the Earth. Ryan, Salvador Veritas. 64-66.
• Kelly, James E. (2014). Conformity, Loyalty and the Jesuit Mission to England of 1580. In Religious Tolerance in the Atlantic World: Early Modern and Contemporary Perspectives. Glaser, Eliane Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 149-170.
• Kelly, James E. (2013). Essex Girls Abroad: Family Patronage and the Politicization of Convent Recruitment in the Seveneteenth Century. In The English Convents in Exile, 1600-1800: Communities, Culture and Identity. Bowden, Caroline & Kelly, James E. 33-52.

Edited book

• Begadon, Cormac & Kelly, James E. (2022). British and Irish Religious Orders in Europe, 1560–1800: Conventuals, Mendicants and Monastics in Motion. Durham University IMEMS Press.
• Kelly, James E., Laugerud, Henning & Ryan, Salvador (2020). Northern European Reformations: Transnational Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Kelly, James E. & Thomas Hannah (2019). Jesuit Intellectual and Physical Exchange between England and Mainland Europe, c. 1580 – 1789: ‘The World is our House’?. Brill.
• Kelly,James E. & Royal, Susan (2017). Early Modern English Catholicism: Identity, Memory and Counter-Reformation, c. 1570–1800. Brill.
• Kelly, James E. (2015). Treasures of Ushaw College: Durham's Hidden Gem. Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers.
• Bowden, Caroline & Kelly, James E. (2013). The English Convents in Exile, 1600-1800: Communities, Culture and Identity. Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700. Ashgate.

Edited Journal

• Kelly, James E. (2014). Panic, Plots and Polemic: The Jesuits and the Early Modern English Mission. Journal of Jesuit Studies, 1 (4): Brill.

Edited Sources, Research Data Sets and Databases

• Kelly, James E. & Begadon, Cormac S. (2017). The 'Monks in Motion' database.
• Contributor to (2015). The New Sommervogel Online.
• Bowden, Caroline & Kelly, James E. (2013). The 'Who Were the Nuns?' database.

Journal Article

• Kelly, James 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.
• Kelly, James E. (2021). Political Mysticism: Augustine Baker, the Spiritual Formation of Missionaries and the Catholic Reformation in England. Journal of Ecclesiastical History 72(2): 300-322.
• Kelly, James E. (2020). England and the Catholic Reformation: The Peripheries Strike Back. Journal of Early Modern Christianity 7(2): 271-285.
• Kelly, James 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.
• Kelly, James E. (2018). Counties without Borders? Religious Politics, Kinship Networks and the Formation of Catholic Communities. Historical Research 91(251): 22-38.
• Kelly, James E. (2009). Kinship and Religious Politics among Catholic Families in England, 1570-1640. History 94(315): 328-343.

Other (Print)

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