PROFESSOR RACHEL HAMMERSLEY
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
Tel: 0191 208 6698
Email: Rachel.Hammersley@ncl.ac.uk
Website: http://www.rachelhammersley.com
Twitter: @rhammersley99
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2020- Professor of Intellectual History, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University.
2008-2020 Senior Lecturer in Intellectual History, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University.
2004-2008 Lecturer in History, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University.
2002-2004 Leverhulme Special Research Fellow, University of Sussex.
2001-2002 Lecturer in Intellectual History, University of Sussex.
1997-2001 Part-time tutor, University of Sussex.
EDUCATION
2001 DPhil in History, University of Sussex.
1997 MA in Intellectual History (Distinction), University of Sussex.
1996 BA (hons) in History, King’s College, University of Cambridge.
Languages: English (mother tongue), French (good).
RESEARCH FUNDING
2022-2023 ‘Experiencing Political Texts’, AHRC Networking Grant together with Dr Katie East. AHRC, AH/V013378/1.
2020-2022 'English Republican Ideas and Translation Networks in Early Modern Germany, c1640-1848', EU MSC Fellowship for Dr Gaby Mahlberg.
2020-2021 'The Scholar, the Jurist, the Priest, Practicing Moderation on the Italian Peninsula, 1700-1750', EU MSC Fellowship for Dr Nick Mithen.
2019-2022 ‘Wastes and Strays: The Past, Present and Future of English Urban Commons’. AHRC, AH/S001824/1.
2017-2018 'James Harrington: Beyond the Republican Paradigm', British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship, £52,794.
2008 'A French Commonwealth Tradition: English Republicanism in Eighteenth-century France', AHRC, AH/F001533/1, £24,009.
2002-2004 Leverhulme Special Research Fellowship.
PUBLICATIONS
Monographs
With Christopher Rodgers, Alessandro Zambelli, Emma Cheatle, John Clarke, Sarah Collins, Olivia Dee and Siobhan O’Neill, English Urban Commons. The Past, Present and Future of Green Spaces (London & New York: Routledge, 2024). Available open access here.
James Harrington: An Intellectual Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)
The English Republican Tradition and Eighteenth-Century France: Between the Ancients and the Moderns (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010, paperback edition 2016, French translation by Myriam-Isabelle Ducrocq 2022)
French Revolutionaries and English Republicans: The Cordeliers Club, 1790-1794 (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2005, paperback edition 2011)
Edited Collections
Revolutionary Moments: Reading Revolutionary Texts (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015)
Text Books
Republicanism: An Introduction (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2020)
Journal Articles
'Concepts of Citizenship in France during the long eighteenth century', European Review of History - Revue européenne d'histoire, 22:3 (2015), pp. 468-485.
‘Rethinking the Political Thought of James Harrington: Royalism, Republicanism and Democracy’, History of European Ideas, 39:3 (2013), pp. 354-370.
‘Harringtonian Republicanism, Democracy and the French Revolution’, La Révolution française: cahiers de l’Institut d’histoire de la Révolution française, 5 (2013), http://lrf.revues.org/947
‘Introduction: The Historiography of Republicanism and Republican Exchanges’, in R. Hammersley ed., Special Issue on Republican Exchanges, c.1550-c.1850, History of European Ideas 83:3 (2012), pp. 323-337.
‘The Commonwealth of Oceana de James Harrington: un modèle pour la France revolutionnaire’, Annales historiques de la Révolution française (2005) No. 4, pp. 3-20.
‘From Constitution-Builders to Radical Democrats: Neo-Harringtonians in Eighteenth-Century America and France’, 1650-1850: Ideas Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era, Volume 11 (2005), pp. 315-343.
‘Jean-Paul Marat’s The Chains of Slavery in Britain and France, 1774-1833’, The Historical Journal, 48:3 (2005), pp. 641-660.
‘English Republicanism in Revolutionary France: The Case of the Cordelier Club’, Journal of British Studies, 43 (2004), pp. 464-481.
’Camille Desmoulins’s Le Vieux Cordelier: A Link Between English and French Republicanism’, History of European Ideas, 27 (2001), pp. 115-132.
Book Chapters
‘Translations of James Harrington’s political works during the French Revolution: genre, materiality, and intention’, in Ideas across Borders: Political Texts and Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe, ed. Gaby Mahlberg and Thomas Munck (London & New York, Routledge, 2024).
‘Presbyterians, Republicans, and Democracy in Church and State, c.1570-1660’, in Democracy and Anti-democracy in Early Modern England 1603-1689, ed. Cesare Cuttica and Markku Peltonen (Leiden: Brill, 2019), pp. 174-193.
'James Harrington, The Commonwealth of Oceana and a Revolution in the Language of Politics', in R. Hammersley (ed.), Revolutionary Moments: Reading Revolutionary Texts (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), pp. 19-26.
'Spence's Property in Land Every One's Right: Problems and Solutions', in Thomas Spence: The Poor Man's Revolutionary, ed. A. Bonnett and K. Armstrong (London: Breviary Stuff, 2014).
'The Harringtonian Legacy in Britain and France', in G. Mahlberg and D. Wiemann (eds), European Contexts for English Republicanism (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), pp. 197-210.
‘James Harrington’s The Commonwealth of Oceana and the Republican Tradition’, in Oxford Handbook of Literature and the English Revolution, ed. L. Lunger Knoppers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
‘The “Real Whig”-Huguenot network and the English Republican Tradition’, in Cultural Transfers: France and Britain in the long eighteenth century, ed. A. Thomson et al (Oxford: Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 2010), pp. 19-32.
‘An Eighteenth-Century French Commonwealthman? Exploring the Context of the Chevalier d’Eon’s Translation of Marchamont Nedham’s The Excellencie of a Free State’, in Chevalier D’Eon and his Worlds: Gender, Espionage and Politics in the Eighteenth Century, ed. S. Burrows, J. Conlin, R. Goulbourne and V. Mainz (Continuum, 2010), pp. 215-228.
‘La France contre l’Angleterre, tout contre, ou lire les texts des républicains anglais au temps du Directoire’, in Républiques soeurs – Le Directoire et la Révolution atlantique, ed. P. Serna (Rennes: Presses Universitaire de Rennes, 2009).
‘English Republicanism and the French Revolution: The Case of Jean-Jacques Rutlidge’, Confluences XVII, ed. E. Tuttle (Paris: Université de Paris X – Nanterre, 2000), pp. 169-183.
Reviews
Reviews for a range of journals including Times Literary Supplement, The History of European Ideas, English Historical Review, American Historical Review, French Studies, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Milton Quarterly.
PHD STUDENTS
2005-2009 Fred Milton (full time) 'Children's Columns in the Nineteenth-Century Press'. AHRC funded. Passed with minor corrections.
2013-2017 Amy Shields (full time) 'Republicanism in a European Context: The Influence of the Dutch and Venetian Republics on Seventeenth-Century English Thought'. AHRC funded. Passed with minor corrections.
2015-2020 Tom Whitfield (full time) 'Liberty, Property and Materiality - An Historical Archaeology of Later Eighteenth-Century Protest in North East England'. AHRC funded. Passed with minor corrections.
2016-2020 Meg Kobza (full time) 'The Social History of the Eighteenth-Century London Masquerade'. Passed with no corrections.
2018-2022 Lauren Dudley (part time) ‘Hubert Robert (1733-1808) and the French Revolution: Republican Landscapes and the National Museum’. Passed with minor corrections.
2019- Leanne Smith (full time) ‘No King but Jesus’: The Fifth Monarchist’s Idea of a Christian Commonwealth’. AHRC funded. Passed with minor corrections.
2020- Harriet Palin (full time) ‘Educating England: Learning & Living the Faith - An Examination of Religious Education in Sixteenth & Seventeenth-Century England’. Passed with minor corrections.
2021- Alexandra Plane (full time) ‘Reconstructing the Library of James VI and I’.
2022- Richard Hayton (full time) ‘The Political Bible in England, 1660-1715’.
2022-Harriet Gray (full time) ‘Newcastle’s Literary and Philosophical Society, 1793-1825’.
PEER REVIEW
Book manuscripts: Ashgate, Bloomsbury, Brill, Cambridge University Press, Liverpool University Press, Manchester University Press, and Oxford University Press.
Journal articles: Australian Journal of Political Science, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, European Journal of Political Theory, French History, The Historical Journal, History of European Ideas, History of Political Thought, Journal of British Studies, Journal of Eighteenth-Century Studies, Modern Intellectual History.
Grant applications: Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, Swiss National Science Foundation
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSHIPRevue de la Société d'études anglo-américaines des XVII et XVIII siècles
2024- Member of the Advisory Board for the journal Revue de la Société d'études anglo-américaines des XVII et XVIII siècles.
2019- Member of the International Editorial Board for the journal Storia e politica.
2016- Member of the International Editorial Board for the journal Global Intellectual History.
2014- Member of the International Board for the Institute of Intellectual History, based at St Andrews University.
2011- Member of the Editorial Board for the journal History of European Ideas.
2011-2015 Co-editor of the History section of the online International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences.
2007-2016 Member of the Editorial board for the Royal Historical Society’s Studies in History series.
MEMBERSHIP OF LEARNED SOCIETIES
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Member of the Society for the Study of French History.
Member of the Historical Association
WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES ORGANISED
‘Experiences of Urban Green Space 1: Historic Perspectives on the Urban Common’, 13 April 2021.
'‘Civil Religion from Antiquity to the Enlightenment’ 23-24 October 2019.
Workshop on Early-Modern Political Thought and Twenty-First-Century Politics, May 2018.
Workshop on Early-Modern Civil Religion, September 2017.
Workshop on Early-Modern Intellectual Biographies, July 2017.
Society for the Study of French History, annual conference, June 2010.
‘Republican Exchanges, 1550-1850’, July 2009.
INVITED CONFERENCE AND SEMINAR PAPERS
‘Radical Readings of James Harrington’s Republicanism in Eighteenth-Century Britain’, Radical Republicanism in Early Modern Europe 23-24 June 2021. A virtual event organised by the University of Aarhus and the University of Leuven.
Paper at the conference ‘Revolutionary Translations; Translators as Revolutionaries’ held virtual on 11 December 2020.
‘Going Beyond Translations in Recovering Transcultural Conversations: The Complex Case of James Harrington’, Keynote Address at the EUI Graduate Conference in Intellectual History “Transcultural Conversations”, Fiesole, Italy, 23-24 January 2020.
‘The Literary and Material Dimensions of James Harrington’s Works’, Cambridge Early Modern History Seminar, 30 January 2019.
‘Concepts of Representative Democracy in Seventeenth-Century England’, Keynote Address to the Graduate Conference on the History of Political Thought, London, 28 June 2018.
‘French Translations of Harrington’s Aphorisms Political and A System of Politics Between 1791 and 1795’, Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany, 26 June 2018.
‘James Harrington, the Subversion of the Body Politic, and the Limits of Political Language’, Conference of the International Society for Intellectual History, St Andrews, 11 June 2018.
'Democracy and Anti-Democracy in Early Modern England, 1603-1689', Erfurt, Germany, 19 July 2017.
'Political Thought in Times of Crisis, 1640-1660', Folger Institute Center for the History of British Political Thought, Washington, USA, 1-3 December 2016.
History of Political Thought Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research 19 October 2016.
James H. Burns Memorial Lecture at the St Andrews Institute of Intellectual History, 13 September 2016.
Roundtable on Richard Bourke's The Political Life of Edmund Burke, Institute of Historical Research, 13 January, 2016.
'The Magna Carta, Liberty, and History, Runneymede, 11-14 June 2015.
Early Modern Intellectual History Conference, Newcastle University, Keynote Speaker, 18-19 July, 2015.
Early Modern Studies Conference, Reading University, UK, 9-11 July, 2013.
Séminaire franco-britannique d’histoire, Maison de la Recherche, université Paris 4-Sorbonne, Paris, France, 21 March 2013.
‘Le républicanisme anglais et son influence dans la révolution française’, Aix-en-Provence, France, 25-26 May 2012.
‘English Republican Ideas and Networks in C17th and C18th Europe’, University of Potsdam, Germany, 30 June-2 July 2011.
‘The Comparative History of Political Engagement in Western and African Societies: Activism and Mobilisation, University of Sheffield, UK, 27-28 June 2011.
‘Dutch Conceptual History in Comparative and International Perspectives’, IEU, Florence, Italy, 19-20 June 2008.
Franco-British Political Thought Seminar, Manchester University, UK, 9 June 2008.
‘Networks and Practices of Political Exchange III: British Political Thought in an Age of Globalization, c.1750-1800’, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, USA, 10-12 April 2008.
‘“Républiques en miroir”: Le Directoire devant la Révolution atlantique: Modélisations, confrontations, interréciprocité des républiques naissantes’, Université Paris 1-Panthéon, Paris, France 25-26 January 2008.
Work in Progress Seminar/Intellectual History Seminar, University of Sussex, 25 October 2007.
MEDIA/PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT WORK
Author of a blog at http://www.rachelhammersley.com/new-blog/
Panellist on the BBC Radio 4 series ‘In Our Time’ discussing the Marquis de Condorcet, 11 January 2024 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001v3wy)
Contributor to a programme on the civil wars on Canadian radio https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/how-the-english-civil-war-s-fight-for-equity-and-common-good-changed-the-world-1.5975804
Studio Guest on ‘Freedom from Unlawful Detention’ for the BBC Radio 4 series ‘The Battles that Won Our Freedoms’, 8 January 2019 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001xt1)
Lecture on ‘The Transformation of the Concept of Popular Sovereignty in Early Modern Europe’ at The Academy 2018 organised by The Institute of Ideas, 21 July 2018 (http://academyofideas.org.uk/comment/the_transformation_of_the_concept_of_popular_sovereignty_in_early_modern_eu#.W6T1TC2ZOqB)
Panellist on the BBC Radio 4 series ‘In Our Time’ discussing the Baron de Montesquieu, 14 June 2018 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b5qnfx)
Public Lecture as part of the Insights Public Lecture Series at Newcastle University, 3 May 2018 (https://www.ncl.ac.uk/events/public-lectures/archive/item/2018theenglishoriginsofmoderndemocracy.html)
Panellist at the Battle of Ideas at the Barbican, London, 29 October 2017 (https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/what-is-democracy/)
Contributor to Freedom City Comics http://research.ncl.ac.uk/fccomics/
Interviewed for a feature on the Northumbrian Enlightenment for an episode of BBC Radio 4 series 'Making History', first aired 25 July 2017 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08ynzzs)
Academic History lead on the HLF-funded project 'Inspiring Archives: The Story of the Civil War in the North East of England' http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/services/education-outreach/projects/civil-war-story-north-east/#kenton
Studio Guest on the BBC Radio 4 series 'Making History' discussing Thomas Spence, the 1745 Jacobite siege of Carlisle, and the 17th-century poltergeist the Tidworth Drummer, first aired 14 July 2015 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b061qw0v)
Interviewed for a short feature on French plans to invade Britain in the late eighteenth century for an episode of the BBC Radio 4 series ‘Making History’, first aired 5 October 2010 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v1q41)
One of several ‘talking heads’ in an episode of the BBC Radio 3 series ‘Ideas the British Version’ which was concerned with Montesquieu and the separation of powers. First broadcast October 2009 and repeated July 2010.
Podcast on the English Revolution for http://www.thehistoryfaculty.org
R. Hammersley, ‘Lessons from the land of Liberty’, History Today, 61:10 (October 2011), pp. 18-21
UNIVERSITY SERVICE
2019- Director of Research for the School of History, Classics and Archaeology.
2019- Library Advisory Group representative on the Robinson Bequest Committee.
2012-2015 Head of History, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University.
2011- HASS representative on the Library Advisory Group, Newcastle University.
2009-2012 Member of the Faculty Research Steering Group, Newcastle University.
2007-2010 Co-ordinator of the History Research Seminar, Newcastle University.
2006- Founder member and co-ordinator of the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Research Group, Newcastle University.
2006-2009 Member of the University Teaching and Learning Panel for the approval of new programmes and internal subject reviews, Newcastle University.
2005-2008 Degree Programme Director for BA Politics and History, Newcastle University.