A Northumbria University academic has won a prestigious
award to study the role of the Anglican parish in shaping the development of
modern conservationism and the science of natural history.
Professor Brycchan Carey has been awarded a British Academy
Wolfson Professorship worth £162,410 to carry out research for his next big
project, entitled “The Parish Revolution: Parochial Origins of Global
Conservationism”, for three years starting this September.
Professor Carey’s research will seek to demonstrate how, between
1660 and 1859, the Anglican parish played a central role in the development of
the science of natural history, the genre of nature writing, and the origins of
modern conservationism.
It will look at three centuries of natural history writing
by clergymen and their parishioners across the British Empire, including
figures such as physician and natural historian, William Turner of Morpeth, and
Northumbrian Henry Baker Tristram, the canon of Durham Cathedral who read out
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace’s papers on evolution to the Linnean
Society in 1858 and who wrote The Natural
History of the Bible. The research will also investigate the contribution
of lay people, women, and colonised people as well as clergymen.
Through his research, Professor Carey will demonstrate that
clerical naturalists made a major contribution to the scientific knowledge that
enabled nineteenth and twentieth-century theories of ecology and evolution, and
popularised natural history as an activity and a literary genre. The research will
also show that by putting local communities at the centre of a global movement,
these clerical naturalists also profoundly influenced the character of the future
conservation movement.
Professor Carey said: “In the 200 years to the
mid-nineteenth century, a great deal of scientific research was conducted by
clergymen but few people have asked why. I plan to investigate who these clerical
naturalists were, how they worked, how they interacted with one another, and
how they communicated with their fellow naturalists in the wider scientific
community.
“Through my research, I want to remind people that religion
and science have worked together very closely and effectively in the past. Clergymen
and their close associates in the Age of Enlightenment made an enormous
contribution to natural history that helped lay the groundwork for modern ideas
of evolution, ecology, and environmentalism.
“It’s fantastic to be chosen for a British Academy Wolfson
Professorship, which will allow me to explore these themes more closely. Hopefully
it will prompt more conversations in parishes and local communities about how
churches and local societies are vitally important to the future of
conservation and the environment.”
Professor Carey is one of five academics to be awarded a British
Academy Wolfson Professorship, which enables some of the UK’s most outstanding
SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy)
scholars to conduct vital research. First
established in 2009, the awards are a joint initiative between the British
Academy and the Wolfson Foundation, which awards grants to support and
promote excellence in education, science and medicine, heritage, humanities and
the arts, and health and disability.
Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation,
said: “The importance of research in the humanities and social
sciences is critical to society – and now more than ever. We are therefore
delighted to continue our partnership with the British Academy to support
another cohort of Wolfson Research Professorships: a benchmark of excellence in
both original scholarship and its elegant communication.”
Hetan Shah, Chief Executive of the British Academy, said: “We
are delighted to announce another outstanding cohort of British Academy/Wolfson
Research Professors. Made possible thanks to the generous support of the
Wolfson Foundation, the professorships will enable five exceptional scholars to
undertake innovative and ambitious research into topics including participatory
approaches to museum collections and the parochial origins of global
conservationism. We wish our new British Academy/Wolfson Professors the
greatest success and look forward to seeing the results of their research and
public engagement.”
Northumbria is renowned for its outstanding research in the
field of humanities. English literature is ranked 21st in the UK for
research power in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, while history
occupies 26th place. Almost all of Northumbria’s research in these
disciplines is rated world-leading or internationally excellent.
