Dr Ashley Walsh
Lecturer in Early Modern History
School of History, Archaeology and Religion
- WalshA6@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 29208 79731
- John Percival Building, Room 4.57, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I joined the History Department at Cardiff University in October 2019 as Lecturer in Early Modern History. My research and teaching focus on the intellectual, religious, and political history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Britain and Europe as well as the history of political thought. I am especially interested in the history of civil religion in the 'long Reformation' and the Enlightenment, showing how lay and clerical intellectuals drew on the political and religious ideas of the classical world, Renaissance, and Protestant Reformation in their analyses of the church-state relationship and defences of religious toleration. I explore these and related themes in my recent monograph, Civil Religion and the Enlightenment in England, 1707-1800 (2020) and in articles in the Historical Journal, History of Political Thought, English Historical Review, and Journal of British Studies.
Publication
2022
- Walsh, A. 2022. The decline of comprehension in the Church of England, 1689-1750. Journal of British Studies 61(3), pp. 702-727. (10.1017/jbr.2022.57)
2021
- Walsh, A. 2021. The Quebec Act (1774) and the Hanoverian church-state relationship. English Historical Review
2020
- Walsh, A. 2020. Civil religion and the Enlightenment in England, 1707-1800. Studies in Modern British Religious History. Boydell & Brewer. (10.2307/j.ctvnwbz0b)
2019
- Walsh, A. 2019. The Saxon republic and ancient constitution in the standing army controversy, 1697-1699. Historical Journal 62(3), pp. 663-684. (10.1017/S0018246X18000316)
2018
- Walsh, A. 2018. John Streater and the Saxon republic. History of Political Thought 39(1), pp. 57-82.
Erthyglau
- Walsh, A. 2022. The decline of comprehension in the Church of England, 1689-1750. Journal of British Studies 61(3), pp. 702-727. (10.1017/jbr.2022.57)
- Walsh, A. 2021. The Quebec Act (1774) and the Hanoverian church-state relationship. English Historical Review
- Walsh, A. 2019. The Saxon republic and ancient constitution in the standing army controversy, 1697-1699. Historical Journal 62(3), pp. 663-684. (10.1017/S0018246X18000316)
- Walsh, A. 2018. John Streater and the Saxon republic. History of Political Thought 39(1), pp. 57-82.
Llyfrau
- Walsh, A. 2020. Civil religion and the Enlightenment in England, 1707-1800. Studies in Modern British Religious History. Boydell & Brewer. (10.2307/j.ctvnwbz0b)
Research
I am an intellectual, religious, and political historian of early modern Europe with a particular interest in the relationship between religion and the Enlightenment and the history of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century political thought. I am especially interested in the history of civil religion in the 'long Reformation' and the Enlightenment, showing how lay and clerical intellectuals drew on the political and religious ideas of the classical world, Renaissance, and Protestant Reformation in their analyses of the church-state relationship and defences of religious toleration. I explore these and related themes in my recent monograph, Civil Religion and the Enlightenment in England, 1707-1800 (2020) and in articles in the Historical Journal, History of Political Thought, English Historical Review, and Journal of British Studies.
Teaching
Year 1
HS0001: A World Full of Gods
HS1105: The Making of the Modern World, 1750-1970
HS1117: Renaissance, Reformation, and Revolution
HS1119: History in Practice Part I: Questions, Frameworks and Audiences
HS1120: History in Practice Part II: Sources, Evidence and Argument
Year 2
HS6202: Making History: Historians, Evidence, Audiences
HS6203: Debating History
HS6215: European Enlightenment(s): The View from the Margins
Year 3
HS1801: Dissertation
HS1802: Ridicule, Republics, Revolutions: The (Awkward) Enlightenment in England
MA in History
HST079: Reading Modernity
HST081: Sources and Evidence: Advanced Historical Research Skills
HST083: Theories, Methods and Practices of History
HST085: Writing History: Dissertation Preparation
HST086: Dissertation
Biography
I took my MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees at Downing College, Cambridge, after which I taught at the University of Cambridge and Durham University before coming to Cardiff University as Lecturer in Early Modern History.
Honours and awards
Teaching Awards
- Supervisor of the Year 2018-19, Department for Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge (£100 honorarium)
Professional memberships
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Academic positions
- 2019-present: Lecturer in Early Modern History, Cardiff University
- 2014-2019: Supervisor, University of Cambridge
- 2017-2018: Teaching Fellow in Early Modern History, Durham University
Supervisions
Current supervision

Andrew Frow-jones
Research student