History Day Announcement
On 19 October 2013 the project will be running a history day in conjunction with the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre at Brentwood Cathedral conference hall. As well as talks, the event will include an exhibition about the history of the canonesses. More details to follow.
Publications
A collection of essays, drawn from the project conference and entitled The English Convents in Exile, 1600-1800: Communities, Culture and Identity will be published in October 2013 by Ashgate.
Historical Association podcast interview
The Historical Association website is hosting a podcast interview with Caroline Bowden by Dr Andrew Foster about the project and its findings. To listen to it click here.
Publications
English Convents in Exile, 1600-1800 was published 2012-2013 by Pickering & Chatto. For details, click here. To order copies, click here.
Online publication
The calendar of continental sources consulted in the creation of the database can now be found in the Resources section of the website.
Past
York History Day
Drs Caroline Bowden and James Kelly gave a joint paper at the York Catholic History Day, held at York’s Bar Convent on 1 June 2013. The paper was titled ‘Yorkshire connections with the English convents in exile, 1600–1800’, the speakers taking the opportunity to show a number of the new features of the database.
Slindon History Day
On 23 March 2013, Drs Caroline Bowden and James Kelly spoke at the Slindon History Day about the project’s work. They were also joined by project affiliate, Professor Michael Questier.
Article in BBC History magazine and podcast interview
An article by Dr James Kelly about the English convents in exile was one of the lead articles in the March 2012 edition of the BBC History magazine. Click here to listen to a thirty minute interview the magazine conducted with him for their website.
Article in Standpoint magazine
Dr James Kelly has written an article about the convents in exile for Standpoint magazine. Click here to read the article.
September 2011
Project paper at Essex Recusant Society
Dr James Kelly gave a paper entitled ‘Essex Girls Abroad: the English convents in exile, 1600-1800’ at 2:30pm on 10 September 2011 to the Essex Recusant Society. The meeting took place at the Ursuline convent in Brentwood.
August 2011
Project Manager on BBC Radio 4
Dr Caroline Bowden was on BBC Radio 4’s Making History programme on 23 August 2011. Visiting the English convent in Bruges, Dr Bowden was joined by the convent’s archivist, Sr Mary Aline, and the prioress, Sr Teresa Joseph, to talk about the convents in exile. To listen, click here and go to 10 mins 30 secs.
June 2011
Project conference
The project hosted a conference on the theme of ‘Identities, organisations and exile’ from 23 to 25 June 2011 at Queen Mary University of London and invited the collaboration of HWRBI (History of Women Religious in Britain and Ireland). The conference was divided into two parts with 23 June and the morning of 24 June concentrating expressly on the ‘Who were the Nuns?’ project.
To download the conference poster, click here.
To read a report of the conference, click here.
November 2010
The project’s principal investigator, Professor Michael Questier, appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Houron on 19 December. He was discussing his new book, co-authored with Professor Peter Lake, The Trials of Margaret Clitherow, mother of a nun at the Louvain Augustinian convent. To listen to the clip, click here.
December 2010
Project paper at London Digital Humanities Group
Caroline Bowden, Katherine Keats-Rohan, and James Kelly gave a paper entitled ‘Developing identities: new ways of using databases for studying early modern women religious’ at the London Digital Humanities Group.
February 2011
Project paper at University College London
The project has been invited to participate in a two-day workshop on the theme of ‘Early Modern women’s work’ at Jesus College, Cambridge, on 23-24 September 2010.
September 2010
Project participation at Jesus College, Camrbidge, worskshop
The project has been invited to participate in a two-day workshop on the theme of ‘Early Modern women’s work’ at Jesus College, Cambridge, on 23-24 September 2010.
July 2010
Project paper at University of York
A paper entitled ‘”The English were all 8 most bravely appareled and adorned with rich jewelles like brides”: material representations of spirituality in the English convents in exile’, will be delivered by project manager Dr Caroline Bowden on 17 July 2010 at the fourth annual conference of the Society for Renaissance Studies at the University of York.
Project paper at the Catholic Record Society Conference
A paper entitled ‘Painters, Popery and Professions: Van Dyke’s sitters and the English convents in exile’ was presented by project manager Dr Caroline Bowden and research assistant Dr James Kelly on 28 July 2010 at the Catholic Record Society conference held at Leeds Trinity University College.
June 2010
Project paper at the Institute of Historical Research
Dr Caroline Bowden, project manager, and Dr Katharine Keats-Rohan, research fellow, gave a joint paper at the Institute of Historical Research’s ‘Religious History of Britain 1500-1800’ seminar on 29 June 2010, entitled ‘Free Will and Enclosure: Recruitment and Motivation in the English Convents in Exile 1600-1700’
May 2010
Project paper at Queen Mary, University of London
On 15 May 2010 project manager Dr Caroline Bowden spoke at a conference entitled ‘London the promised land revisited: A conference in celebration of 15 years of the Centre for the Study of Migration and its diversity’. The day was hosted by the Centre for the Study of Migration at Queen Mary, University of London, Dr. Bowden’s paper was entitled ‘English nuns and London in the 17th century: exile or establishment?’
Project paper at Ghent University
Project manager Dr Caroline Bowden presented a paper entitled ‘Assessing the significance of the English convents as cultural centres in Flanders in the seventeenth century’ on 20 May 2010. The paper was part of a one-day colloquium at Ghent University on ‘The Northern and Southern Netherlands as a Literary and Cultural Entrepot for Seventeenth-century British Letters, 1603-1688′.
Project paper at the Catholic Archives Society conference
Research assistant Dr James Kelly presented a paper entitled ‘Public and private archives and the “Who were the Nuns?” project’ at the Catholic Archives Society conference on 24 May 2010. The conference was held at High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.
December 2009
Project paper at the Sorbonne
On 3 December 2009, project manager Dr Caroline Bowden gave a paper entitled ‘The English convents in France (1580-1650) and the work of the “Who Were the Nuns?” project’ at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne.
November 2009
Postgraduate paper at Queen Mary, University of London
Caroline Watkinson, PhD student attached to the project, presented a paper entitled ‘”Public Sphere”: the return of exiled convents to England, 1789-1829’ on 26 November 2009 at the Queen Mary History Postgraduate Seminar Series.
October 2009
Project paper at the Institute of Historical Research
Project manager Dr Caroline Bowden and research assistant Dr James Kelly gave a paper entitled ‘Painters, Popery and Professions: Van Dyke’s sitters and the English convents in exile’ at the Institute of Historical Research’s ‘Tudor and Stuart’ seminar on 26 October 2009.
September 2009
Demonstration of Project database
On 19 September 2009, project manager Dr Caroline Bowden spoke about creating the project’s searchable database and provided a demonstration of it at the ‘Consecrated Women: Crossing Boundaries’ conference held at the Bar Convent, York.
June 2009
Project paper at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford
Project manager Dr Caroline Bowden and research fellow Dr Katharine Keats-Rohan delivered a paper entitled ‘Recruitment and the English Convents’ on 25 June 2009 at the ‘Women and Religion in Britain, c.1660-1760’ conference held at St. Hilda’s College, University of Oxford.
Project collaboration with ‘Femmes et Spiritualité’ colloquium
In collaboration with University of Aix-Marseilles, the project supported the ‘Femmes et Spiritualité’ colloquium held at Université de Provence.
March 2009
Pascal Majerus on BBC Radio 4
Pascal Majerus, Research Officer on the project, featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour on Thursday 26 March. He took part in a discussion with the author Karen Maitland who recently published a work of fiction, The Owl Killers, based on the life of Beguines, imagining they might have existed in England in the Middle Ages. Pascal raised a number of interesting points about the life of Beguines in Flanders including their economic status and underserved reputations for loose living. He suggested a number of reasons why their neighbours might be jealous of their situation, leading to unjustified criticism.
Pascal has published several works on Beguines and Beguinages including; An Independent Women’s World: From the 12th century to the Present: The Beguines and Beguinages in the Southern Low Country, Genevieve de Cant, Pascal Majerus, Christiane Verougstraete, Herve Ven Caloen Foundation, 2003.