I will be speaking at  Durham University on 12th December 2017, 17:30 at the Palace Green Library Learning Centre. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception at the Cafe, Palace Green Library.

This event is part of the IMEMS Religious Diversity seminar series for 2017/18.

Abstract: In the first half of the 18th century the Mennonite Hendrik Hulshoff, left Amsterdam to travel round Anabaptist communities in Prussia, including a group who had settled in Przechowka. Following the story of the Przechowka Mennonites, this paper examines the question of the way in which Anabaptist communities across Europe and beyond maintained a sense of community and constructed their identity as groups travelled, moved, or were exiled. Anabaptism has often been relegated as a radical sideline in the early modern era and defined solely by martyrdom and separation, and scant attention has been paid to the experience of Anabaptism across the diaspora of far-flung settlements and networks. This paper re-opens the question of the way in which they negotiated their position in communities and shaped identity through personal and emotional bonds, member lists, histories and memories of their past, and material cultures.