I was an undergraduate and doctoral student at the University of Oxford, then held temporary posts at the University of York for 5 years. I first joined the Open University as an Associate Lecturer in the Yorkshire region in 1990, and joined the full time staff as Lecturer in Religious Studies in 1990. I was promoted Professor of Religious History in 2004.
Professor John Wolffe
(CHF Chair)
I am an historian of Anglophone Protestant culture with a particular interest in Puritanism, Evangelicalism, and the relationship between religion, politics and ideas. My most recent book is Exodus and Liberation: Deliverance Politics from John Calvin to Martin Luther King Jr (Oxford, 2014), and I am currently doing further research on slavery and abolition, including work on the Wilberforce Diaries project (with Mark Smith and John Wolffe). My earlier work includes books on Samuel Rutherford and John Goodwin, and a study of Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England, 1558-1689 (Longman, 2000). With N. H. Keeble, Tom Charlton and Tim Cooper, I have edited a scholarly edition of Richard Baxter’s memoir, the Reliquiae Baxterianae, 5 vols (Oxford, 2020).
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Professor John Coffey
Emeritus Professor
David Bebbington,
FRHist S, FEcclesHS, FRSE
An undergraduate and postgraduate at Jesus College, Cambridge (1968-73), David Bebbington subsequently became a research fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (1973-76). He taught at the University of Stirling from 1976 to 2019 and is now Emeritus Professor of History there. He has also served as Visiting Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University, Texas, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His publications include Evangelicalism in Modern Britain (1989), Patterns in History (4th edn, 2018), Baptists through the Centuries (2nd edn, 2018) and Denominations (2026). His chief research field is the Evangelical movement in Britain and abroad and his main project at present is work on Victorian Wesleyan Methodism at Brunswick Chapel, Leeds, and in the Shetland Isles.
Part way through a career in PR, setting up my own business gave me time to pursue my interest in history. After completing my PhD in Early Modern Bible commentaries I have written a number of peer-reviewed articles and have just finished a book on Sevenoaks in the long nineteenth century, jointly with Professor David Killingray.
Dr Iain Taylor (CHF Secretary)
Emeritus Professor
David Killingray
After two secondary schools, and a BSc.Econ at LSE (plus a wife, Margaret, from the same institution), I taught in secondary schools in Britain and Tanzania, then taught trainee graduate history teachers, before gaining a PhD in African history at SOAS. After 30 years at Goldsmiths London teaching mainly African, Caribbean, and English Local History, I retired as Emeritus Professor of Modern History. In active retirement I continue to research and write, particularly on English local history and the history of the black diaspora, based in the School of Advanced Study, University of London, where I am a Senior Research Fellow.
Joy McAlpine-Black’s biography of Ann Shaw, Mother of Methodism in South Africa (1788-1854) was published by The Lutterworth Press (now Boydell & Brewer) in 2025. Her current interests are ekphrasis and writing about women who have been sidelined by the gatekeepers of the past. Joy has a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art & Education (Homerton College, Cambridge); a Master’s in Museums & Galleries in Education (University of London); and a Master’s in Creative Writing (Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge). She has worked in art education, museum education, gallery development, cultural consultancy, research in learning from objects, as well as lecturing on education. Joy was regional advisor in learning and access for museums, libraries, and archives for the Southeast of England where she also managed national projects.
