British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Funding Success

The project team consists of Dr Liam Temple, Dr Cormac Begadon (Honorary Fellow) and Dr Jonathan Bush (Research Engagement and Collections Development Archivist).

The project asks important methodological questions about how scholars work with the religious orders, or material originating from their archives, in a time when institutional religious life in the West has declined and secularisation is widespread.

The demise of many religious orders in Britain has prompted secular universities and libraries to intervene, saving many communities’ collections from possible obliteration. This mediation - severing collections from their original environments - poses challenges to those seeking to understand the history and culture of these often-hidden communities of men and women.

The project will address these challenges by hosting an international and interdisciplinary two-day workshop and archival showcase at Durham in which expert scholars in the history of the religious orders will reflect on their own approaches, methodologies and best practices.

Featuring speakers from the USA, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland, the workshop will have a strong comparative element in which the situation in Britain is contextualized by international experts reflecting on their own work and contexts.

The project draws on the experience of the research team in working with the Catholic religious orders and their important archival collections. Dr Liam Temple has conducted extensive research in the private archives of the Capuchin Franciscans of Great Britain, Ireland and Australia. Dr Cormac Begadon has worked on projects focusing on the archive of the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre donated to Durham, as well as the private archives of the English Benedictine Congregation (for the AHRC-funded ‘Monks in Motion’ project) and the Irish Sisters of Mercy. Dr Jonathan Bush has extensive knowledge of the multitude of collections of religious orders preserved in Palace Green Library and has recently undertaken a Research Libraries UK-Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project exploring the risks to archives of the religious orders.

The workshop will lead to the publication of a methodological journal article and a collection of essays.

• Find out more about the work of Dr Liam Temple, Dr Cormac Begadon, and Dr Jonathan Bush
• Learn more about British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants
• Explore the Transformative Humanities and Social Justice, Communities and Policy