Dr Sean Brady
Contact details
Department of History, Classics and Archaeology
Birkbeck, University of London
Room 4.01, 28 Russell Square, Bloomsbury
London WC1B 5DQ
Email: s.brady@bbk.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7631 6378
Research interests
- My research focuses on Gender, Sexuality, Politics and Religion in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain.
- My recent book examines masculinity and attitudes to homosexuality in Britain before the First World War. Cultural abhorrence of sexuality between men is examined through developments in masculinity as a social status. The book explores these themes in relation to the family, married homosexual men, legislation and the Home Office, the medical profession and journalism.
- Following my recent Leverhulme Fellowship, held in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck, my current research examines religion, the family and sexuality in nineteenth-century England. I am convening editor for Palgrave Macmillan's new series 'Genders and Sexualities in History'.
Areas of research supervision
- Gender, Sexuality, Politics and Religion in Britain and Ireland after 1800.
- If you are interested in pursuing research in any of these areas, you should first read our advice on how to apply for MPhil/PhD research before submitting an application.
- I am also course director for the School's new International Visiting Research Students' programme.
Publications
- Masculinity and Male Homosexuality in Britain, 1861 - 1913 (Palgrave Macmillan 2005 & 2009) http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=381877
- John Addington Symonds (1841-1893) and Homosexuality: Critical Edition of Sources (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming)
- What is Masculinity? Historical Dynamics from Antiquity to the Contemporary World, Sean Brady & John H. Arnold (eds.), forthcoming in July 2011 in Genders and Sexualities in History series, Palgrave Macmillan (series eds. John H. Arnold, Joanna Bourke and Sean Brady).
- 'Homosexuality: European and Colonial Encounters' in A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Age of Empire, Chiara Beccalossi and Ivan Crozier (eds.), Berg, Oxford, 2011
- 'Masculinity and the Construction of Male Homosexuality in Modern Britain before the First World War', in Meyer, J, & Ellis, H, (eds.), 2009, Masculinity and the Other: Historical Perspectives, Cambridge Scholars Press, Cambridge.
- 'Masculinity and the Question of Male Homosexuality in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Britain', in Gender History (Japan), vol. 4, 2008, pp. 69-86.
- 'All About Eve? Queer Theory and History' in Journal of Contemporary History, Jan 2006
- 'The Workers' Theater Movement' in Scribner's Encyclopedia of Europe (2006)
Teaching interests: course options taught by Sean
- 'Religion in Society and Politics: Britain and Ireland, 1801-2001’: This is an MA course unit for students on MA History of Britain, MA History of Ideas, MA Historical Research, MA European History and MA Contemporary History and Politics. This course examines the 'special place' of religion in modern Britain and Ireland. Though arguably one of the most secular societies in the modern world, Britain's constitutional and social arrangements have fostered and valorised religion, to an extent that separates it from other modern industrial societies. The course also examines the place of religion in the political and constitutional history of the United Kingdom, and of Britain's relationship with Ireland. In addition, the course aims to historicise fundamentalisms in contemporary British and Irish societies.
- 'Family, Society and Culture in Britain, 1832-1918': Undergraduate special subject (group 3). This course introduces students to the study of Victorian family life, and examines themes such as childhood, old age, the Victorian way of death, education, married life, and developments in gender expectations. It also looks at the Victorian family and its discontents, exploring themes such as divorce, homosexuality, bachelorhood, and the spinster and her enemies. The course will involve study of documentary evidence, and the historiography of the family, gender, class and sexuality
- 'Ireland from the Act of Union to Partition, 1801-1921': Undergraduate Group 2 option. This course introduces students to the political, social, cultural and religious history of Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also examines Ireland's troubled relationship with Britain, and the effects and place of 'the Irish Question' in British politics and culture, up to the creation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland.
- I also teach on the Group 1 course, 'Britain since 1750', with Joanna Bourke and Frank Trentmann.
- I am co-course director, with Dr Caroline Humfress, for MA History of Ideas.
