Dr Clare Loughlin

Biography

I am a historian of early modern Scotland, with particular interests and expertise in the histories of religion, politics and identities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

I completed my BA in History at the University of Oxford in 2011, where I became fascinated by Scottish history and the intersections between religious and political controversies. In 2013 I commenced a Masters by Research in History at the University of Edinburgh. I remained at Edinburgh for my doctoral studies, and was awarded my PhD by the University of Edinburgh in 2021.

My first book, Anti-Catholicism in Scotland c.1689-1750: Popery, Politics, and Protestant Identities, is forthcoming with Boydell and Brewer. I have published on various aspects of Scottish religion and politics in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I am currently developing a new research project on the correspondence and underground political network of the Catholic priest, Jacobite spy and political negotiator James Carnegy (fl. 1697-1734).

After my PhD, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Stirling on the collaborative Leverhulme Trust project 'The Scottish Privy Council 1692-1708: Government from Revolution to Union' (2021-3). I joined the University of Aberdeen in 2023 as lecturer in the Jacobite world.

External Memberships

Book Reviews Editor, The Scottish Historical Review.

Council Member, The Scottish History Society.

External Examiner in History (pre-honours), University of St Andrews.

Prizes and Awards

Helen Maud Cam Award, International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions, 2022.

Scottish Church History Society Essay Prize, 2019.

Wolfson Foundation Doctoral Scholarship, University of Edinburgh, 2016-2019.

Jeremiah Dalziel Prize, University of Edinburgh, 2014.

School Masters Scholarship, University of Edinburgh, 2013-2015.

Research Overview

My research focuses primarily on Scotland, with a particular focus on the revolution of 1688–90 and its short- and long-term consequences.

Key research themes and specialisms:

• Anti-Catholicism and its role in Protestant identity formation
• Jacobitism and anti-Jacobitism
• The relationship between Scotland's Church and government before and after 1707
• Religious persecution and exile
• Early modern Catholic and Protestant missions

My PhD research, which I am currently developing as a monograph, explored anti-Catholicism in Scotland in the first half of the eighteenth century, paying particular attention to the term 'popery' and how it was used and contested by rival Protestant factions. My work as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Stirling focused particularly on the religious policies of Scotland's privy council, including its relationship with the established Church, its interactions with different religious minorities and dissidents, and its attitudes towards Protestants suffering religious persecution abroad. My latest research will focus on Jacobite intellectual, cultural and social networks, placing Scotland and Scottish Jacobites within a broader European and Atlantic context.

Teaching Responsibilities

• Kingship, Clearences And Conflict: Debates In Scottish History HI2524