How I’ll teach you

I teach using a mixture of primary and secondary sources, including diaries, art and drama.  I also give lectures and run seminars and workshops, helping you to explore the fascinating period that is early modern Europe.  

I give you reading to do each week and encourage you to be confident in developing, exploring and questioning your own ideas.  I am on hand to offer advice, direction and help as you need it!  

I draw on my own expertise in early modern history and my links with museums in the region to bring 16th and 17thc history to life. 

Why study…

The period 1450 -1650 was one of seismic change in European history, and the effects that period are still being felt today.

In England, Henry VII seized the throne and established the Tudor dynasty, uniting England and Wales and starting efforts colonise Ireland and unite England and Scotland.  Henry VIII broke with Rome, establishing the Church of England and giving the English crown in parliament enormous new powers (see the debate about the ‘Henry VIII bill’ in Brexit negotiations).

The Reformation, sparked by Martin Luther in Germany, created divisions between Protestants and Catholics  and led to invasion attempts like the Spanish Armada in 1588, plots like the Gunpowder plot, and helped to fuel the British Civil Wars in the 17th century.

It was a time of innovation and change with the introduction of the printing press, the discovery of the Americas, the first republic and the execution of King Charles I, and the flowering of political thought about representation and rebellion.  There were also enormous cultural developments.  English became a literary language, with William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Kit Marlowe and Thomas Wyatt all writing in English. Court painters like Hans Holbein produced images of the Tudor and Stuart Kings and Queens we all know today, and we still celebrate events - like Bonfire night - that were first celebrated in Stuart England.

Postgraduate teaching

Postgraduate Teaching and Research Degree Co-ordinator

I run MA courses which explore ‘The Elizabethans’ and paleography.  I also run sessions on paleography and Latin for historians on the MA skills course. 

I am involved in the Arts and Humanities skills sessions for PhD and research students

As Research Degree Co-ordinator for History, please contact me with queries about admissions.  I am also able to help with any general problems that arise in the course of your degree, and can distribute news about events and training courses to our postgraduate students and their supervisors. 

Subject areas

Early Modern History: Tudors and Stuarts

Recent and Current PhDs include:

Anna Fielding, ‘Eating Together:  Commensal Dining in Early Modern Houses’, (2018—) co-funded with the National Trust

Jess Purdy, ‘Reading the Reformation: Parish Libraries and the Practice of Reading in Early Modern England’ (2017—) co-funded with Chetham’s Library, Manchester

J.A. Hilton, ‘The Post-Reformation Catholic Community in the North of England’ (PhD awarded 2016)

Christina Brindley. ‘Female Piety and the Development of Post-Reformation Catholicism in the Diocese of Chester, 1558-1680’ (PhD awarded 2015)

I am also supervising PhDs on Medieval bishops and the Crusades and Catholic literature in the 18th century.

I am able to offer PhD supervision in any of the following areas:

the English Reformation;
post-reformation Catholicism;
Tudor political and cultural history;
the history of readin

I am an expert in Early Modern England (c. 1450-1750), working on the cultural and relgious history of the past.  I am currently working on a history of deafness in Early Modern England, supported by a Research Fellowship from Leverhulme (2021-2023). I have recently published an article on Protestant preachers and the development of signed languages for the deaf in Past and Present (open access here). 

Cultures of DIsability 

I lead the Cultures of DIsability Research Cluster at MMU exploring past and present experiences of disability with academics from English, History, Art, Philosophy and Politics. You can find out more about our work here.

With Manchester Council and Manchester Libraries, we are co-hosting a series of public talks to celebrate UK DIsability History Month.   You can find out more about the talks here. 

We are also co-organising Manchester Council’s events to mark International Day of Disabled People (3rd December) at Manchester Central Library.

I helped co-organised Manchester Festval of Disabled History (2020) celebrating 50 years since the Chronically SIck and Disabled Persons Act, which has been nominated for a Pride of Manchester award. 

Book History 

From 2015-2020 I ran the international reearch collaboration ‘Communities of Print’, and recently  produced a collection of essays on reading history.   Rosamund Oates & Jessica Purdy (eds.), Communities of Prints:  Books and their Readers in Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2021). 

With Dr Nina Adamova, University of St Petersburg, I produced an online exhbition of different copies of the first world history, the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). Funded by the British Academy, we included examples from UK, Poland and New Zealand and hitherto unknown copies from Russia. The exhbition is online here. 

I work closely with libraries and museums in the North West, drawing on my expertise in cultural, religious and book history. These include:

Chethams Library Manchester

• Oldest Public library in the English speaking world, designated an ‘Outstanding Collection’ by the Arts Council
• On the governing committee 

National Trust, Lyme Park 

• Academic curator for a major new exhbition on ‘Lyme Park Missal’, identified as one of the most important works in the Trust’s collection (2019—)

John Ryland’s Library 

•  Academic advisor on ‘Reformation Exhbition’ (2017-2018), with c. 250,000 global visitors. 

Reformation HIstory 

Underpinning my research is a fascination with the history of religious change and worship.  My most recent publications include:

Rosamund Oates, Moderate Radical:  Tobie Matthew and the English Reformation (Oxford, 2018) 

Rosamund Oates, ‘Martha or Mary:  Clerical Marriage in the English Reformation’, Journal of Religous History, Literature and Culture (2021). 

Media appearances or involvement

I have written on the continuing effects of the Reformation and the break with Rome on contemporary society. The most recent, ‘Brexit’s Roots lay in the Reformation’ was published in the I-Newspaper and explored the history behind the ‘Henry VIII’ bill proposed as part of the Brexit process.