Leanne Calvert

Leanne Calvert is an Assistant Professor in Irish History and Director of the MA History of Family at the University of Limerick. She teaches and researches histories of the family, gender and sexualities. Her main focus are Presbyterian families in Ireland and North America, between the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Leanne's new book is entitled, Pious & Promiscuous: Love, Life & the family in Presbyterian Ulster. This book tells the story of family life in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ulster through the prism of the Presbyterian community. Brought over to Ireland in the early seventeenth century by Scottish settlers, Presbyterianism soon established itself as the largest religious grouping in the province of Ulster. Drawing on a combination of personal papers, diaries and correspondence belonging to Presbyterian families, as well as records produced by the Presbyterian church courts, this book casts light on the everyday experiences of women and men who lived, loved, and laboured in Ireland.

Leanne's next book (in progress) is a comparative study of the sexual and social worlds of Presbyterian women and men on both sides of the Atlantic. It is titled, Sex, Scandal and Sin: Presbyterians in Ireland and North America, 1700-1830. Salacious stories of stolen trysts in backrooms, fields and forests; misbehaving ministers who vomited at the pulpit and challenged their congregation to fisticuffs; and brawling church members who traded colourful insults over cups of whiskey form the basis of this project.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

History of the family and its relationships; the Life Cycle; Women and Gender in eighteenth and nineteenth century Ireland; History of Emotions; Sexualities; Presbyterianism & Dissenting Traditions