Scottish Catholic Observer

A history lecturer at the Highlands and Islands University, who is currently researching Britain and Ireland’s Catholics in the 19th century, has been awarded a prestigious visiting fellowship at one of the world’s leading institutions.

Karly Kehoe (above) will spend a month in 2012 researching at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in the US for her project Empire and Emancipation: Britain and Ireland’s Catholics, 1800-1900.

“My research asks new questions about Catholic Britons who represented around one quarter of the population after the union with Ireland in 1801—many of whom viewed themselves every bit as British as their Protestant neighbours,” Ms Kehoe said.

This research will form the foundation of Ms Kehoe’s project, which will make a significant contribution to the historiography of religiosity and citizenship in the UK.

Ms Keho—a historian who concentrates on how religion and ethnicity affect perceptions of national identity in modern Britain, Ireland and empire—sits on the editorial board of the British Scholar Society. She is an active member of the Women’s History Scotland steering committee and is the managing editor of the Britain and the World journal.