Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding is enabling two University of York scholars to lead a major investigation into the religious upheavals of 16th and 17th-century Europe.
Humanities researchers Dr Simon Ditchfield and Dr Helen Smith have received an AHRC Standard Research Grant award to examine the nature of conversion and people’s individual accounts of their changing beliefs.
Postdoctoral researchers, Dr Peter Mazur and Dr Abigail Shinn, will travel to France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal to trace stories of converts, missionaries, and travellers. Two international conferences in June 2011 and July 2012 will place the work in a global context, and the Conversion Narratives in Early Modern Europe project will also generate an important series of publications.
Between 1550 and 1700, the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, pressure from the Ottoman Empire, and the expansion of global trade, meant an unprecedented number of people across the world were confronted by new beliefs.
Dr Ditchfield, of the University’s Department of History, said: “Some people changed faith voluntarily, while others were forced to do so. For others still, conversion meant not a change but an intensification of religious belief which changed their sense of identity.
“Our project will explore a huge range of printed and manuscript accounts, as well as paintings, statues, and other materials, by and about individuals who converted from and to Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and other faiths. Our aim is to explore how these people -- from slaves to merchants and ambassadors -- made stories from their experience of conversion.”
Dr Ditchfield is an expert on the history of religion -- he is currently writing a book which surveys the making of Roman Catholicism as a world religion (1500-1700). Dr Smith’s focus is on how books were reproduced and moved between people and across political and geographical boundaries.
Dr Smith, of the University’s Department of English and Related Literature, said: “It is important for us to understand just how important religious belief was to people’s sense of self in the early modern period. Stories of conversion feature in many literary works: Shakespeare’s Othello is a converted Christian; Christopher Marlowe explored the tensions between different faiths; John Donne was a convert and frequently returned to themes of religious belief and personal identity.
“A better understanding of the part religion played in early modern cultures, will help us gain fresh perspectives on topical issues such as the way interfaith communities work together, and the importance of religious toleration in a multicultural society.”
An interactive ‘Conversion Narratives’ website will give access to a variety of rare archival materials and researchers will blog about their experiences. They will also create teaching materials and visit local schools. The project’s climax will be an exhibition exploring the pressures of religious change in a period when individual consciences were exposed to public scrutiny as never before.
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Notes to Editors:
Media Contact: Jake Gilmore, AHRC Communications Manager; T: 0797 099 4586,
E: j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk
More about Conversion Narratives in Early Modern Europe at http://york.ac.uk/conversion
Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £112 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.