Paul McMenemy, MA, MSc (Glasgow)

AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award Holder

Paul McMenemy is a CDA student at the University of Leicester and Dr Williams's Library, currently studying the history and historiography of moderate dissent through the life and works of Edmund Calamy (1671–1732), focusing on Calamy's collation and representation of existing nonconformist sources. He hopes to address the questions of how far Calamy shaped perceptions of dissent both within and without the dissenting community during the eighteenth century, and, in doing this, how accurately he represented the dissenters of the seventeenth century.

Paul's previous studies have concentrated on the intellectual history of the Early Modern period in western Europe, with specific emphasis on the Scottish Enlightenment. His MSc dissertation examined Enlightenment theories of human origins, with a focus on those of James Burnet, Lord Monboddo. In 2010 he presented a paper at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh University, on 'Epicurus in the Scottish Enlightenment'.