Dialogues of Nonconformity Across the British Atlantic World, 1500-1800

Friday 12 September 2025, in person at the University of Birmingham

With a keynote address by Professor Alec RyrieLink opens in a new window(Durham University) on 'Translations of Nonconformity in Protestant Missions'

Register hereLink opens in a new window.

There is no conference fee, but registration is essential. All are welcome, regardless of level/area of study.

We are pleased to announce the Dialogues of Nonconformity across the British Atlantic World, c. 1500-1800 Conference.

The Conference will take place at the University of Birmingham on 12 September 2025, and is supported by the Birmingham Centre for Reformation and Early Modern StudiesLink opens in a new window, the Warwick Early Modern and Eighteenth Century CentreLink opens in a new window, and the Doctoral Training Partnership AHRC-Midlands4CitiesLink opens in a new window.

From Jesuits priests who scorned Protestants for not being able to ‘maintain their doctrine in disputation’, to the sectaries of the mid-seventeenth century, such as Quakers, Baptists, and Independents, who disputed each other publicly, early modern nonconformist groups and people posed a challenge to each other as much as they did to the wider societies in which they lived. We are interested in examining how different forms of nonconformist beliefs, ideas and practices spoke to each other in the British Atlantic World. We aim to explore the interactions between religious, social, and political dissent, and examine what it meant to be nonconformist in the early modern British Atlantic. We define ‘nonconformist’ in its broadest meaning, and encourage papers from across the whole field of arts and humanities. Papers from researchers of all career stages are welcome.

Conference Programme
8:30-9:25	Arrival and registration
9:25-9:30	Welcome address
9:30-10:50	Keynote speaker: Professor Alec Ryrie (Durham University) - Translations of Nonconformity in Protestant Missions
10:50-11:10	Break
11:10-12:30	Panel 1 – Preachers, Conversion, and Dissemination Chair: Anna Pravdica Dr Howard Carlton (University of Birmingham) - Contrasting Conversions: Baxter, Bunyan, and the Antinomian Controversy Professor Angelica Duran (Purdue University) - The Multilingual, International Foundation of the Canonization of The Pilgrim’s Progress Dr Daniel Johnson (London School of Theology) - “He Sets the Pris’ner Free’: Hymns, Missions, and Slavery
12:30-13:30	Lunch
13:30-14:50	Panel 2 – Nonconformist Interactions in Everyday Life Chair: Dr David Manning Dr Naomi Pullin (University of Warwick) - Vegetarian Prophets and Cave-dwelling Quakers: Nonconforming Hermits in Early Modern Britain and its colonies Anna Pravdica (University of Warwick) - 'All Lovers of Undisguised Truth': Defining Sincerity Along Confessional Lines in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century England Professor John Coffey (University of Leicester) - Nonconformity in the Diaries of William Wilberforce
14:50-15:15	Break
15:15-16:20	Panel 3 – Ministers In and Out of Office Chair: Alexandrea McHugh Abraham Sullivan (University of St. Andrews) - Ejected Nonconformist Ministers and the Dying Process: A Case Study Christopher Toole (University of Leeds) - 'A Most Fearful Rage': The Troubled Relationship between Oliver Heywood and Richard Hooke in post-Restoration Halifax
16:20-16:40	Break
16:40-18:00	Panel 4 – Gender, Marriage, and Sociability Chair: Daniel Muddimer Olivia Golby-Kirk (University of Birmingham) - It is a delightfull thing to live at liberty: The non-conforming masculinity of young men in seventeenth-century English broadside ballads Dr Hannah Straw (University of Warwick) - A Non-Conforming Life: The 2nd Duke of Buckingham, Moral Nonconformity, and Restoration Scandal Rebecca Capel (University of Warwick) - Courtship, Marriage and Education in the Long Eighteenth Century: A Cross-Denominational analysis
18:00-18:15	Closing remarks by the conference organisers
18:15 onwards	Dinner at The Physician Pub (off campus) For more information email: Jacob HydeLink opens in a new window(JMH854@student.bham.ac.uk) & Evie NashLink opens in a new window(Evie.Nash@warwick.ac.uk) Find us onBlueskyLink opens in a new window