Academic staff

David Nash teaches the fundamentals of history in the first year. He has a particualr passion for understanding how individuals grasp the necesssity of history and the mechanisms that make it function to produce valuable insight upon the past and our contemporary world. His teaching in the area of the history of criminal justice frequently makes use of the micro-history or case study method which he has pioneered alongside Professor Anne-Marie Kilday. His research specialism on the history of blasphemy is taught at M.A. level and beyond, although he welcomes inquiries from undergraduate dissertation or ISM students interesed in this area.  

Modules taught

Undergraduate

• • Making History [Year 1] 
    • Teaches the key concepts and basic skills which are vital for historians and define the discipline of history as currently practiced.
  • Bloody Histories: Crime and Violence in the West [Year 1] 
  • Uncovers the history of crime, violence and punishment in Britain, Europe and America.
  • Crime and Punishment through the Ages [Year 2] 
  • Introduces the history of crime and criminal justice in early modern Britain, from highway robbery to homicide.
  • Jack the Ripper and the Victorian Underworld [Year 2]
  • Uses the notorious Ripper murders of 1888 as a prism to explore the culture of crime and punishment in Victorian Britain.
  • History and Documents [Year 2]
  • Find and interpret historical documents. Concrete help for writing your dissertation. Create your own project with expert support.
  • Independent Study Module [Year 2]
  • Research a topic of your choice, using primary and secondary sources, and work one-on-one with an expert in the field.
  • Forensic Medicine in Western Society [Year 3: Advanced Study in the History of Crime]
  • Explores forensic medicine and science past and present, to uncover the links between crime, criminals, doctors and law.
  • Witchcraft and Magic in Early Modern Europe [Year 3: Advanced Study in the History of Crime]
  • Investigates the phenomenon of early modern beliefs about witches and the actions European societies took to find and prosecute those accused of ‘witchcraft’.
  • In Cold Blood: Violence in the Modern Era [Year 3: Advanced Study in the History of Crime; led by Prof. A-M. Kilday]
  Explores murder and mayhem in twentieth-century Britain and America to understand how violence has influenced society and its views/approaches to crime and punishment.

Postgraduate

• Religion, Doubt and Secularism in Victorian England
  • Examines the complex history of belief and unbelief, faith and reason, during a time often associated with growing secularization up to the end of the 20th century.
• Blasphemy from the Ancient to the Contemporary World
  
  • Investigates the hisotry of blasphemy from the ancient world through to the contemporary world where it is a phenomenon impacting upon law, culture, the arts, politcs and international relations.

Supervision

Professor Nash has supervised MA dissertations on the subjects of blasphemy, shame and many aspects of the history of crime. His Phd. supervisions include a completed thesis on the history of moral education  (Susannah Wright, 2006) and one on the twentieth century history of the secular movement (Liz Lutgendorf, 2019). He welcomes applications from students interested in aspects of the history of blasphemy, the history of shame, the hisotry of secularism in Britain and the history of secularisation.

Radicalism in Britain, blasphemy, the history of religion, the history of atheism, the history of shame and the cultural history of law and crime.

Research interests

Blasphemy, history of shame, blame and culpability, links between religion and crime, history of secularisation, history of atheism, history of radicalism and the affinities all these have with cultural history.

Research group membership

Professor Nash is a member of the History of Crime research group in the School of History, Philosophy and Culture.

Professor Nash is a member of the Religion and Belief research group in the School of History, Philosophy and Culture.

Research grants and awards

2012 Marie Curie Fellowship grant of 309,000 Euro.

2018 Co-Investigator on Humanism in Britain Project (with Callum Brown) awarded £68,000 for Humanism in Britain volume.

Research projects

Immediate research projects

Completing monograph (with C.Brown, and C. Lynch), The Humanist Movement 1896-2021: Ethicists, Humanists and Rationalists in Modern Britain. Bloomsbury, 2022. In press.

Completing edited book (with E.Bouwers) eds. Blasphemy and Violence (De Gruyter) 2022. In press. Contributing a chapter to this volume

Completing edited book with J. Wettlaufer and J. Frode Hatlen) Shame and Honor in Europe (Routledge) 2022. In press. Contributing two chapters to this volume.

Forthcoming projects

Also researching for a project on 'blackmail' and an extension of the 'Stories of Belief' project to now include secular stories of unbelief.

Research impact

Impact Statement submitted with 2014 REF ‘Seeking Blasphemy Repeal in Ireland’ (rated 4*). Impact statement continued as ‘Achieving Blasphemy Repeal in Ireland’ to be submitted for REF 2020. This outlines my direct involvement in the repeal of the 2009 Blasphemy law in Ireland which was removed after a referendum vote in October 2018. Again this has been internally audited as 4* top rated Impact Statement.

Have commenced Impact statement for 2026 ‘Engaging Public Awareness of Humanist and Secular History’ currently writing popular anniversary history of the movement and working with the Humanist Heritage Project on their committee. Planning a series  of events around archive holdings and the eventual launch of the book 2022 onwards.

Further information

For full details of my Impact Case study on Blasphemy repeal in Ireland see

https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/0540d341-f156-43a8-8978-03e1b4c58e2f/1/

For the full text of my article for History Ireland on Ireland's blasphemy laws and their history:

https://www.historyireland.com/everyone-knows-what-blasphemy-is/

 

For the full text of my article for History Today on the Gay News Blasphemy Case of 1977 see:

https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/blasphemy-trial

Books

• Nash D, Kilday A-M, Ed., Fair and Unfair Trials in the British Isles, 1800-1940, Bloomsbury (2020)
  ISBN: 9781350050945 eISBN: 9781350050976
  Abstract

  Adopting a microhistory approach, Fair and Unfair Trials in the British Isles, 1800-1940 provides an in-depth examination of the evolution of the modern justice system. Drawing upon criminal cases and trials from England, Scotland, and Ireland, the book examines the errors, procedural systems, and the ways in which adverse influences of social and cultural forces impacted upon individual instances of justice.

  The book investigates several case studies of both justice and injustice which prompted the development of forensic toxicology, the implementation of state propaganda and an increased interest in press sensationalism. One such case study considers the trial of William Sheen, who was prosecuted and later acquitted of the murder of his infant child at the Old Baily in 1827, an extraordinary miscarriage of justice that prompted outrage amongst the general public. Other case studies include trials for treason, theft, obscenity and blasphemy. Nash and Kilday root each of these cases within their relevant historical, cultural, and political contexts, highlighting changing attitudes to popular culture, public criticism, protest and activism as significant factors in the transformation of the criminal trial and the British judicial system as a whole.

  Drawing upon a wealth of primary sources, including legal records, newspaper articles and photographs, this book provides a unique insight into the evolution of modern criminal justice in Britain. -- Supplied by publisher.

  Website 
• Nash D, Acts Against God: A Short History of Blasphemy, Reaktion (2020)
  ISBN: 9781789142013
  Abstract

  A phenomenon that spans human experience, from the ancient world right up to today’s ferocious religious debates, blasphemy is an act of individuals, but also a widespread and constant presence in cultural, political and religious life. Acts Against God is the first accessible history of this crime – its prosecution, its impact and its punishment and suppression.

  The book begins in ancient Greece with the genesis of blasphemy’s link with the state. From here we move on to blasphemy in the medieval world, in the Reformation and the Enlightenment. The book concludes with the twenty-first century, with individuals and the state seeking to adopt blasphemy as the means to resist the secular and the globalization of culture.

  Website 
• Kilday A-M, Nash DS, Ed., Law, Crime and Deviance since 1700: Micro-Studies in the History of Crime, Bloomsbury (2017)
  ISBN: 9781472585271 eISBN: 9781472585295 (epub)
  Abstract Law, Crime and Deviance since 1700 explores the potential for the 'micro-study' approach to the history of crime and legal history. A selection of in-depth narrative micro-studies are featured to illustrate specific issues associated with the theme of crime and the law in historical context. The methodology used unpacks the wider historiographical and contextual issues related to each thematic area and facilitates discussion of the wider implications for the history of crime and social relations. The case studies in the volume cover a range of incidents relating to crime, law and deviant behaviour since 1700, from policing vice in Victorian London to chain gang narratives from the southern United States. The book concludes by demonstrating how these narratives can be brought together to produce a more nuanced history of the area and suggests avenues for future research and study.Website 
• Kilday A-M, Nash DS, Shame and Modernity in Britain: 1890 to the present, Palgrave (2017)
  ISBN: 9780230359338 eISBN: 9781137319197
  Abstract This book argues that traditional images and practices associated with shame did not recede with the coming of modern Britain. Following the authors' acclaimed and successful nineteenth century book, Cultures of Shame, this new monograph moves forward to look at shame in the modern era. As such, it investigates how social and cultural expectations in both war and peace, changing attitudes to sexual identities and sexual behaviour, new innovations in media and changing representations of reputation, all became sites for shame's reconstruction, making it thoroughly modern and in tune with twentieth century Britain's expectations. Using a suite of detailed micro-histories, the book examines a wide expanse of twentieth century sites of shame including conceptions of cowardice/conscientious objection during the First World War, fraud and clerical scandal in the interwar years, the shame associated with both abortion and sexual behaviour redefined in different ways as 'deviant', shoplifting in the 1980s and lastly, how homosexuality shifted from 'Coming Out' to embracing 'Pride', finally rediscovering the positivity of shame with the birth of the 'Queer'.Website 
• Nash DS, Christian ideals in British culture: stories of belief in the twentieth century, Palgrave Macmillan (2013)
  ISBN: 9780230572652 eISBN: 9781137349057
  Abstract This text offers a challenge to conventional histories of secularisation by focusing upon the importance of central religious narratives. These narratives are changed significantly over time, but also to have been invested with importance and meaning by religious individuals and organisations as well as by secular ones.Website 
• Nash D, Kilday A-M, Cultures of shame: exploring crime and morality in Britain 1600-1900, Palgrave Macmillan (2010)
  ISBN: 9780230525702 eISBN: 9780230309098
  Abstract

  This monograph traces the use, abuse and negotiation of the concept of shame from 1600-1900. The book shows good and bad behaviour, morality and perceptions of crime in British society at large, and identifies the changing interaction between popular and official notions of shame. Each of the chapters is a single episode in the ongoing history of shame contextualized by two chapters which discuss the historiography and theory of shame and their implications for the history of crime and social relations. The wide acceptance and utility of shame, as the early episodes in the book suggest, became manifestly less obvious during the eighteenth century. The traditional uses and functions of shame were questioned, yet the growth of the public sphere allowed some of its messages to become recast in modern forms. The last examples in the book demonstrate shame's longevity and relevance beyond the arrival of modernity.

  Website 
• Kilday A-M, Nash DS, Ed., Histories of Crime: Britain 1600-2000, Palgrave Macmillan Publishers (2010)
  ISBN: 9780230224704 eISBN: 9781137043214
  Abstract

  Providing a rounded and coherent history of crime and the law spanning the past 400 years, Histories of Crime explores the evolution of attitudes towards crime and criminality over time. Bringing together contributions from internationally acknowledged experts, the book highlights themes, current issues and key debates in the history of deviance and bad behaviour, including:marital cruelty and adultery, infanticide, murder. the underworld, blasphemy and moral crimes, fraud and white-collar crime, the death penalty and punishment. Individual case studies of violent and non-violent crime are used to explore the human means and motives behind criminal practice. Through these, the book illuminates society's wider attitudes and fears about criminal behaviour and the way in which these influence the law and legal system over time. This fascinating book is essential reading for students and teachers of history, sociology and criminology, as well as anyone interested in Britain's criminal past.

• Nash D, Blasphemy in Britain and America, 1800-1930 , Pickering and Chatto Publishers (2010)
  ISBN: 9781851969968
  Abstract Blasphemy is the battleground where religious and secular worlds come into conflict. Blasphemy laws are used to discipline unruly populations, to emphasize governmental authority and, latterly in the West, to protect the religious beliefs of others. To those accused of it as a crime it has appeared unnecessary, anachronistic and oppressive. Victims of the crime have seen laws as their only protection against individuals seeking to undermine not simply beliefs but wider standards of morality and behaviour within society. These victims of the crime have also used the concept of blasphemy to reassert their own identities around specific moral imperatives. Blasphemy has a history which reaches into issues of conflict, religious belief, freedom of expression, and is bound up with the growth and development of new media. This four-volume edition draws together a wide variety of rare primary sources relating to blasphemy from the Enlightenment through to the modern era. Sources are arranged to represent both sides of the debate, giving voice to accused and accusor. New editorial material includes a general introduction, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index in the final volume. Most texts are reset, with a few (containing cartoons) produced in facsimile. The edition is broadly interdisciplinary and will be important for scholars of Legal History, Religious Studies, Literature, History of Art, Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Studies.
• Kilday A-M, Nash DS, Ed., Murder and Mayhem in Twentieth Century Britain, Palgrave ()
  

Journal articles

• Nash D, 'Politics of Humiliation - How do We Save Us from our Liberal Selves?'
  Cultural History 10 (2) (2021) pp.275-281
  ISSN: 2045-290X eISSN: 2045-2918
  Website 
• Nash D, 'Secularist History: Past Perspectives and Future Prospects'
  Secularism and Nonreligion 8 (1) (2019) pp.1-9
  ISSN: 2053-6712 eISSN: 2053-6712
  Abstract

  This article provides a survey of the growth and development of historiography about both Secularism and the wider secular movement since the onset of the nineteenth century. It analyses and highlights the main themes and their advocates as well as suggesting what historiographical developments we might be likely to see in the future.

  Website 
• Nash D, 'Negotiating the Marketplace of Comfort: Secularists Confront New Paradigms of Death and Dying in Twentieth-Century Britain'
  Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire = Belgisch tijdschrift voor filolologie en geschiedenis 95 (4) (2018) pp.963-988
  ISSN: 0035-0818
  Abstract Secularist death in Britain had carved itself a viable place in society by the end of the nineteenth century. Whilst it had made escaping theistic services and burial possible for its own adherents it did not move forward into a ‘promised land’ of widely practiced secular and secularist approaches to death. Christianity and other non-rational approaches to death rapidly remade their messages about death and the hereafter and created a ‘marketplace of comfort’ where they hoped to attract adherents with new types of theological and philosophical offering. Secularists had to adapt to this new world and by the end of the 20th century had themselves grasped the essence of what the ‘marketplace of comfort’ could provide. In doing so the actively rational message in secular funeral provision began to be less important than the satisfactory and flexible forms of comfort it could offer to individuals.Website 
• Nash DS, 'Believing in secularisation : Stories of decline, potential and resurgence'
  Journal of Religious History 41 (4) (2017) pp.505-531
  ISSN: 0022-4227 eISSN: 1467-9809
  Abstract This article draws upon the methodology pioneered by the writer in Christian Ideals in British Culture: Stories of Belief in the Twentieth Century. This stressed the importance of narrative’s ability to influence and shape both secular and religious responses to the world and Christian belief within it in Britain. Secularisation narratives and their influence in the twentieth century are the article’s primary concern. Some, such as Jeffrey Cox, have already alluded to the fact that secularisation appeared to be something of a “story.” Alongside this, the conclusions from the recent work of the author indicated that the theory became infused with a series of clear narratives — with intentions, agendas, and messages. These had a series of storytellers/audiences and, lastly, often carried a palette of potentially didactic warnings. The article unpacks the significance of the secularisation narratives of “disenchantment,” “supply and demand failure,” “urbanisation, mobility, and decay,” “ideological discredit,” “triumph of (hard and social) science,” “consumer sovereignty and materialism,” “feminisation,” “the post-secular,” and “cataclysms and golden ages.” It shows how these narratives shaped the response of the pro-secular and defenders of Christian belief, as well as those who problematised the very relationship between the religious and the secularWebsite 
• Nash D, 'A Radical Approach to Anachronisms'
  History Today 2015 (2015)
  ISSN: 0018-2753
  
• Nash D, 'The Propaganda of the Defeated'
  History Today 65 (9) (2015)
  ISSN: 0018-2753
  
• Nash D, 'John Bull Spirit'
  History Today 65 (1) (2015)
  ISSN: 0018-2753
  
• Nash D, 'Reassessing the "crisis of faith" in the victorian age: eclecticism and the spirit of moral inquiry'
  Journal of Victorian Culture 16 (1) (2011) pp.65-82
  ISSN: 1355-5502
  Abstract This article examines both recent scholarship in the field of Victorian religion and conviction alongside new research on secularization that have cast doubt on an older historical narrative about the 'crisis of faith' and the 'triumph' of the secular. My discussion challenges the emergence of an alternative narrative of crisis that focuses on the 'crisis of doubt' rather than the 'crisis of faith'. In particular, it answers the recent work of Timothy Larsen who argues that many past (and some present) approaches to Victorian religious culture have overemphasized doubt at the expense of considering enduring forms of Christian religiosity. By reappraising the career histories of the radical secularists (notably, Annie Besant) that Larsen uses to support his thesis, I test some of the key assumptions and conclusions of his influential account. My analysis questions the positioning of faith and scepticism as polar opposites and the usefulness of the idea of 'crisis' when examining either belief or doubt. Changes in individuals' convictions and practices might be better seen as part of their life-long quest for an all-embracing morality. Website 
• Nash D, 'To prostitute morality, libel religion, and undermine government: blasphemy and the strange persistence of providence in Britain since the seventeenth century'
  Journal of Religious History 32 (2008) pp.439-456
  ISSN: 0022-4227
  Website 
• Nash D, Bakalis C, 'Incitement to Religious Hatred and the 'Symbolic': How Will the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 Work?'
  Liverpool Law Review 28 (3) (2007) pp.349-375
  ISSN: 0144-932X
  Abstract

  This article examines the new offence of inciting religious hatred under the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006. A historical analysis of existing provisions aimed at legislating against racial hatred and blasphemy is adopted, in order to determine whether the creation of this new offence is justified and necessary. We conclude that although the new offence may fulfil an important symbolic role in a post September 11th environment, in its current form the legislation has not taken sufficient account of the precedent of racial hatred and blasphemy laws, or of more general questions about the criminalisation of hatred.

  Website 
• Nash D, 'Analyzing the History of Religious Crime. Models of Passive and Active Blasphemy Since the Medieval Period'
  Journal of Social History 41 (2007) pp.5-+
  ISSN: 0022-4529 eISSN: 1527-1897
  
• Nash D, 'The Boer War and Its Humanitarian Critics'
  History Today 49 (1999) pp.42-49
  ISSN: 0018-2753
  
• Nash D, 'Beyond the Bible (parallels Between Robert Goulds Popular Turn-of-the-century Moral Instruction League and Todays Emphasis on Good Citizenship)'
  History Today 49 (1999) pp.26-27
  ISSN: 0018-2753
  
• Nash D, 'Arguing By Design + Science and Religion'
  History Today 47 (1997) pp.5-8
  ISSN: 0018-2753
  
• Nash D, 'Blasphemy in Victorian Britain? Foote and the Freethinker'
  History Today 45 (1995) pp.13-19
  ISSN: 0018-2753
  

Book chapters

• Nash D, 'Secularism and Humanism ' in Michael Ruse (ed.), The Cambridge History of Atheism, Cambridge University Press (2021)
  ISBN: 9781108565899 eISBN: 9781108565936
  Abstract

  The nineteenth century is the first century in which definitions circumvented the globe, promoting discussion of their helpfulness in describing the universe that humankind found itself within. This impetus is especially exemplified by the growth of unbelief into a movement in the nineteenth century. From its inception right through to its mutation in the twentieth century it would, throughout, be obsessed with such words and labels. Oftentimes these were attempts to escape from the unhelpfulness of a previous label as much as to forge something innovative and helpful with a new one.

  Website 
• Nash D, 'Blasphemy's History and the Denial of Neutrality' in Jasper Doomen, Mirjam van Schaik (ed.), Religious Ideas in Liberal Democratic States, Rowman & Littlefield (2021)
  ISBN: 9781793618382 eISBN: 9781793618399
  Website 
• Nash D, 'Blasphemy through British (post) colonial eyes. The Indian Criminal Code: from a history of sustained paternalism to the genesis of hate crime' in Anne Stensvold (ed.), Blasphemies Compared. Transgressive Speech in a Globalised World, Routledge (2021)
  ISBN: 9780367254223 eISBN: 9780429295560
  Abstract

  This chapter investigates the construction of the blasphemy provisions of the Indian Criminal Code of 1860 and its subsequent revisions. This is shown to have a substantial afterlife as a touchstone of potential multicultural significance in refereeing between the competing claims of different religious groups. As such, it has regularly been invoked as a possible solution to issues facing countries seeking to move beyond protection for a state religion to a wider recognition of the rights of all the religious. The Code’s provisions also seemed attractive because they focussed upon apparently equalising conceptions of public order, but the politics surrounding this often served to inhibit the wholesale adoption of its provisions.

  Website 
• Nash D, '"Police Fiasco", "The Black Army", "Devil Dodgers" and "Humbug": The Apparent "Inevitability" of Unfair Blasphemy Trials up to 1922' in David Nash and Anne-Marie Kilday (ed.), Fair and Unfair Trials in the British Isles, 1800-1940, Bloomsbury (2020)
  ISBN: 9781350050945 eISBN: 9781350050976
  Website 
• Nash D, 'Secularity' in Timothy Larsen (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Christmas, (2020)
  ISBN: 9780198831464
  Website 
• Nash D, 'Witchcraft in Film' in Johannes Dillinger (ed.), The Routledge History of Witchcraft, Routledge (2019)
  ISBN: 9781138782204 eISBN: 9781003010296
  Abstract

  A chapter on witchcraft in film, one that appears in a book primarily about the history of the phenomenon clearly has a different purpose than the numerous treatments of witchcraft that appear in film studies and popular culture volumes. Thus, this chapter will consider several of the central themes thrown up by numerous depictions of witchcraft in film and will focus upon these in specific examples. Perhaps one overarching theme that cultural historians should most be interested in is how depictions of witchcraft in film have been a communicative and exploratory device. That is, they should be regarded as methods by which the public at large learn aspects of otherwise specialist or academic knowledge. As such, they have a crucial role in shaping popular perception of the particular phenomena depicted. This chapter displays illustrations of witchcraft practice, vivid re-creations of what particular periods of historiography have established as fact and interpretation and, lastly, a variety of themes which seek to place witchcraft in a wider historical and cultural context. As such, these have lasting influence upon popular perceptions of witchcraft and the occult. Indeed we might consider how far some of these depictions have become cultural archetypes in themselves, further influencing cultural products and outputs about this particular subject.

  Website 
• Nash D, 'Humanism in Britain' in Niels De Nutte, Bert Gasenbeek (ed.), Looking Back to Look Forward Organised Humanism in the World: Belgium, Great Britain, the Netherlands and the United States of America, 1945-2005, Uitgeverij VUBPRESS (2019)
  ISBN: 9789057188015
  Website 
• Nash D, 'Genealogies of Indifference? New Theoretical Thoughts on the History and Creation of Narratives Surrounding Christianity, Secularism and Indifference' in Quack J, Schuh C (ed.), Religious Indifference in Modern Europe, Springer (2017)
  ISBN: 9783319484747 eISBN: 9783319484761
  Website 
• Nash DS, 'The Uses of a Martyred Blasphemer’s Death: The Execution of Thomas Aikenhead, Scotland’s Religion, The Enlightenment and Contemporary Activism' in Kilday A-M, Nash D (ed.), Law Crime and Deviance Since 1700: Micro-Studies in the History of Crime, Bloomsbury (2016)
  ISBN: 9781472585271 eISBN: 9781472585295 (ePub)
  Abstract Law, Crime and Deviance since 1700 explores the potential for the 'micro-study' approach to the history of crime and legal history. A selection of in-depth narrative micro-studies are featured to illustrate specific issues associated with the theme of crime and the law in historical context. The methodology used unpacks the wider historiographical and contextual issues related to each thematic area and facilitates discussion of the wider implications for the history of crime and social relations. 
  
  The case studies in the volume cover a range of incidents relating to crime, law and deviant behaviour since 1700, from policing vice in Victorian London to chain gang narratives from the southern United States. The book concludes by demonstrating how these narratives can be brought together to produce a more nuanced history of the area and suggests avenues for future research and study.Website 
• Nash D, Kilday A-M, 'Introduction' in Kilday A-M, Nash D (ed.), Law Crime and Deviance since 1700, Bloomsbury (2016)
  ISBN: 9781472585271
  
• Nash D S, 'Blasphemy and the Law: The Fall and Rise of a Legal Non Sequitor' in Paul Cliteur and Tom Herrenberg (ed.), The Fall and Rise of Blasphemy Law, Leiden University Press (2016)
  ISBN: 978 90 8728 268 4
  
• Nash D, 'Blasphemy, the Fall and Rise of a Legal Non Sequitor' in Cliteur P, Herrenberg T (ed.), The Fall and Rise of Blasphemy Law, Leiden University Press (2016)
  ISBN: 9789087282684 eISBN: 9789400602717
  
• Nash D, 'Leicester: Metropolis of Dissent' in Rodger R, Madgin R (ed.), Leicester a Modern History, Carnegie (2016)
  ISBN: 9781859362242
  Abstract What sort of place is Leicester and how has it been shaped by its past? This lavishly produced book brings together an impressive amount of new historical research which seeks to answer this question, providing fresh interpretations of Leicester’s history since 1800. The chapters analyse the events, changes and characteristics that have shaped the city and given it its distinctive identity. The sights, sounds and smells of the city in the twenty-first century are products of cumulative layers of history, layers which are peeled back by a specially assembled team of historians, all of whom have lived and worked in Leicester for many years. The result is an important book which helps us to understand the city’s past, so that we may better understand the present and know how to approach the future. Above all, this fascinating volume demonstrates that Leicester is a quietly confident city built on firm historical foundations of which Leicester citizens of today can feel very proud.
• Nash D, 'Blasphemy and the Control of Spirituality, Censorship and Secularisation in Britain and the West between the 16th and 20th Centuries' in Cadilhon F, Suire E, Chassaigne P (ed.), Censure et autorites publiques: De l'epoque moderne a nos jours, Peter Lang (2015)
  ISBN: 9782875742735
  
• Nash D, 'From Scurrilous Periodical to the Public Platform. Policing Blasphemers and Anti-Social Behaviour: Constructing the Public Peace Then and Now' in Pickard S (ed.), Anti-Social Behaviour in Britain: Victorian and Edwardian Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan (2014)
  ISBN: 9781137399304 eISBN: 9781137399311
  Abstract Policing blasphemy and blasphemers has caused problems for various forms of authority since time immemorial. It combines the conflicting imperatives of controlling anti-social behaviour, public order, protection of the peace and the lasting concerns of individuals having rights to freedom of expression. While the imperatives of the first two conceptions have been fundamentally important in Europe since medieval times, the issues associated with the second two have only emerged with any serious and lasting impact since the Enlightenment. Although the Reformation heightened the urge and aspiration among authority to establish behavioural conformity around the subject of religion, it was later developments that cemented the significance of this. Thus, this chapter is an assessment of how the uneasy balancing act between anti-social behaviour/public order and freedom of expression has been managed by policing authorities over the ‘long nineteenth century’ (1790–1920). When we turn to the recent contemporary history of blasphemy public order concerns remained paramount in the considerations of this issue by the House of Lords Select Committee of 2003. Thereafter, the arrival of incitement to religious hatred laws confirmed, more firmly than ever before, the primacy of public order approaches to the policing of blasphemy’s anti-social potential. From this it emerges that, not altogether surprisingly, policing regimes understand public order imperatives and appreciate their importance to a much greater extent than more abstract concerns around freedom of expression.Website 
• Nash D, 'Afterword: Blasphemy Beyond Modernism' in Grenda S, Beneke C, Nash D (ed.), Profane: Sacrilegious Expression in a Multicultural Age, University of California Press (2014)
  ISBN: 9780520277229
  
• Nash D, 'Towards an Agenda for the Wider Study of Shame: Theorising from nineteenth-century British Evidence' in Rowbotham J, Muravyeva M, Nash D (ed.), Shame, Blame and Culpability: Crime Violence and the Modern State, Routledge (2013)
  ISBN: 9780415537223 eISBN: 9780203110621
  
• Rowbotham J, Muravyeva M, Nash D, 'Introduction' in Rowbotham J, Muravyeva M, Nash D (ed.), Shame, Blame and Culpability: Crime Violence and the Modern State, Routledge (2012)
  ISBN: 9780415537223
  
• Kilday A-M, Nash D, 'Desperate Measures or Cruel Intentions: Infanticide in Britain since 1600' in Kilday A, Nash DS (ed.), Histories of Crime: Britain 1600-2000, Palgrave (2010)
  

Conference papers

• Nash D, 'Blasphemers Or Profaners. Shaping Deviance in the French and British Traditions'
  (2005) pp.117-+
  

Reviews

• Nash D, review of God and the Atlantic: America, Europe, and the Religious Divide., in American Historical Review 117 (2013) pp.1189-1190ISSN: 0002-8762 eISSN: 1937-5239
  Website 
• Nash D, review of Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-century England, in English Historical Review 123 (2008) pp.233-235ISSN: 0013-8266
  Website 
• Nash D, review of Blasphemy. Impious Speech in the West From the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History 54 (2004) pp.589-590ISSN: 0022-0469
  
• Nash D, review of Religion and Society in England, 1850-1914, in Journal of Religious History 22 (1998) pp.238-240ISSN: 0022-4227
  
• Nash D, review of Workers Worlds - Cultures and Communities in Manchester and Salford, 1880-1939, in Economic History Review 48 (1995) pp.191-193ISSN: 0013-0117 eISSN: 1468-0289
  

Other publications

• Nash D, 'Blasphemy Introduction'
  Journal of Religious History 32 (2008) pp.393-397ISSN: 0022-4227
  

Membership of professional bodies

• Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
• Editor of European top ranked journal Cultural and Social History
• General Editor of international book series Histories of the Sacred and Secular for Palgrave
• Macmillan
• General Editor of international book series SOLON Explorations in Crime and Criminal
• Justice History for Routledge.
• Member Editorial Board of journal Secularism and Nonreligion
• Member Editorial Board of international book series History of Crime, Deviance and
• Punishment for Bloomsbury.
• Founding member and editorial board member of electronic journal Crimes and
• Misdemeanours: Deviance and Law in Historical Perspective. Now renamed in
• January 2011 as Law, Crime and History Open access journal.
• Member of Editorial Board of open access journal Palgrave Communications
• Member of Editorial Board of open access Journal Heliyon
• Conference paper external referee for The Religion and Media Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (USA) Annual Conference 2002-2007.
• Elected to Council of Social History Society (2002)
• Joint Chair of annual Social History Society conference strand ‘Deviance, Inclusion and Exclusion’ (2002 - 2008)
• Modern Book Review Editor for H-Albion 2000 – 2005, the largest and most significant publisher of electronic reviews pertinent to British history.
• Academic referee for Journal of Religious History, Journal of Victorian Culture, Historical Journal, Ashgate Publishing, Macmillan Publishing, OUP, CUP, University of Ohio Press, University of Chicago Press, Palgrave, Willen Publishing, Bloomsbury and Peter Lang Publishing.
• Book Reviews for Urban History Yearbook, Economic History Review, English Historical Review, Social History, History Reviews Online, H-Albion, the Journal of Religious History, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, History Today, Historical Journal.

   

   

Consultancy

Consultancy

Consultancy to the National Secular Society regarding repeal of the blasphemy laws in Britain. Also consultancy with the National Secualr Society regarding the administration of religious oaths in parliamentary democracies. In 2003 gave evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offences.

Conferences

Conferences

Conference papers given since 2003

• ‘Blasphemy: legislating then, legislating now’ to Centre for the Study of Hate Crime/SOLON Conference. Hate Crime in Perspective, February 2003.
• Featured Round Table participant in ‘Future of Hate Crime Studies’ panel at this same conference.
• ‘Republicanism in England: A middle class cultural triumph?. To Midlands Victorian Studies Seminar, Birmingham University, May 2003.
• ‘Religious Citizenship or Religious Identity? Historical Perspectives on a Conundrum’. To Law Seminar Oxford Brookes University, June 2003.
• 'Secular geographies of London'. To Conference London Politics 1815-1914. Institute of Historical Research, June 2003.
• ‘Blasphemy and Golobalisation’ to Conference. Citoyennete, empires, mondialisation, Universite Blaise Pascal, Clermont Ferrand, September 2003.
• ‘Punishing the Profaners. The place of Order and Retribution in Punishing blasphemous Crimes. Social History Society Conference, Rouen, France, January 2004.
• ‘Profane paradigms; Blasphemy in early modern Europe. To ESSH conference, Berlin, March 2004.
• ‘Blasphemous evils and evil Blasphemies’ To Conference The nature of evil, Mansfield College, Oxford, July 2004.
• ‘Blasphemy, violence and the anti-Civilising process. Social History Society Conference, Dublin, Ireland, January 2005.
• March 2005 ‘Blasphemy the helpmate of evil’ to conference ‘Religion and Evil’ Freij University Amsterdam/TroppenMuseum.
• November 2005 Opening Featured Keynote Speech (funded) at ‘Blasphemy and the Sacrilegous’ Centre for Humanities Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
• April 2006 ‘Blasphemy and the emergence of the modern State’ Social History Society Annual Conference, Reading.
• In 2006 I gave the Paine Memorial Lecture to the Thomas Paine Society. The previous year’s lecture was given by Tony Benn
• March 2007 ‘Models of ‘passive’ and ‘active’ blasphemy’. Social History Society Annual Conference, Exeter
• July 2007 ‘The ‘children of the brain’ face the ‘Herod of authority’ Blasphemy’s past and its shadow over our present and our future. Featured Keynote speech to ‘Theory, Faith, Culture – an interdisciplinary international conference, University of Cardiff
• September 2007 Opening Featured Keynote Speech Law Religion and Culture Conference, University of Lancaster
• Seminar Series ‘Law and Crime: Past into Present’ in conjunction with the Centre for Legal Research and Policy Studies (Oxford Brookes) 2003 onwards.
• Keynote lecture as Inaugral event of the Religion and Philosophy Conference at the Catholic Institute of Sydney (October 2008).Subsequently broadcast on Australian National Radio. For a podcast and online recording see http://www.abc.net.au/rn/religionreport/stories/2008/2397051.htm
• Keynote Lecturer to the Conference of Sweden's National Church in Stockholm (December 2009).
• June 2010, Keynote speaker at the Humanist University (Utrecht) and the University of Utrecht. This seminar was reported and summarised in two Dutch Newspapers (Netherlands Dagblad and Trouw).
• Keynote speaker at ‘Censorship and Literature’ Conference (Edge Hill University, April 2011)
• Addressed atheist Congress Dublin (June 2011).
• Conference Organiser and speaker at ‘Crime violence and the Modern State Conference III’ Lyon, France (September 2011).
• Invited to Brief Member of the Irish Parliament on the issue of blasphemy (February 2012).
• Addressed the Irish Constitutional Convention about blasphemy law repeal (November 2013).
• Asked By LIBERAS archive (Ghent) to organise conference and deliver edited volume on Blasphemy and Violence 2019.
• Invited to give and deliver blasphemy masterclass at Central European University (Vienna) June 2021.
• Other international papers given since 2007 in Oxford, Utrecht, St Petersburg, Lyon, Amsterdam, Warwick, Lisbon, Trinity College Dublin, London, Keele, Helsinki, Tampere and Bordeaux, Vienna, Umea, Clermont-Ferrand, Frankfurt, Erfurt, Brussels, Ghent, Warsaw, Berlin, Crete, Waco (Texas), Canberra, Bielefeld.

Further information

• Visiting Professor Humanist University Utrecht (October 2005)

 

• Visiting Professor Department of History, SUNY (Buffalo) (May-June 2006)

 

• Visiting Professor Jan Van Praag Institute, Utrecht (June 2010, November 2015)

 

• Invited as inaugural lecturer to speak at Launch of Center for Inquiry (Low Countries), Utrecht, Netherlands 2008

 

• Installed as Director of Center For Inquiry, London, 2008

• Made a Visiting Fellow of the Center for Inquiry, Amherst, New York

 

• Made Permanent Visiting Fellow of the Center for Inquiry, Amherst, New York (2006)

 

• Invited to showcase Blasphemy in the Christian World at the prestigious International Hay Literary Festival. I was also asked to undertake a book signing and a Radio Four interview. (2008)

 

• Furnishing verbal and written evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offences (2003). Both subsequently published in full in the final report. (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200203/ldselect/ldrelof/95/2071803.htm and http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200203/ldselect/ldrelof/95/2071809.htm) .

 

• Gave Advice on the Common Law of Blasphemous Libel to a number of back bench Labour MPs

 

• Reviewer of document and consultant ‘Responding to the Islamic Human rights Movement: A defense of Universalism at the United Nations’. Submitted to the United Nations Council September 2008.

Other publicity

For my article on passive and active blasphemy see:

https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/5173

 

See my latest book on blasphemy:

http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781789142013

Further information

Sunday Post review of my latest book Acts Against God:

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/can-you-believe-it-blasphemys-been-controversial-for-millennia/

For my podcast on blasphemy for ABC Radio see:

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/religionreport/blasphemy/3192678

Review of Blasphemy in the Christian World:

https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/1644/blasphemy-in-the-christian-world-by-david-nash