Dr James Harris

Personal Statement

Dr James Harris is a Research Associate based in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University. He is also affiliated with the University of Liverpool as an Associate Fellow.

I am a historian of early modern Britain, with a particular focus on the interactions of religion, politics, and broader social culture. My doctoral thesis explored political and religious culture in Cornwall and south-west Wales during the later Stuart period, drawing on undiscovered archival sources to shed new light on these two understudied parts of the British Isles. Beyond this, I have broader research and teaching interests spanning the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including popular political participation, antiquarianism, and the development of Anglicanism.

At Newcastle, I am a Research Associate on the AHRC-funded project, ‘Eighteenth-Century Political Participation and Electoral Culture’ (ECPPEC). The project aims to produce a new understanding of parliamentary elections in England between 1696 and 1832. Using a variety of methodological approaches, it will explore how people participated in the political process, both with and without the vote, and how different kinds of intervention in the electoral process affected behaviour and electoral outcomes.