DrMiles Pattenden

I am a historian of the Catholic Church with particular interests in its politics, institutions, cultural impact and attitudes to gender & sexuality. I have written two monographs, on nepotism (OUP 2013) and papal elections (OUP 2017), but my more recent publications have focused on the masculinity of priests, priestly performance, papal propaganda, and how the papacy sees its own past.

Secondarily, I am interested in the wider diffusion of Catholicism and its cultural legacy in contemporary society, in particular within the LGBTQI+ community (a project called Queer Medievalism).

Geographically, my focuses on Italy, Spain, Britain, and Australia but links local developments in those places to global trends.

I have held academic posts at Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, University College Cork and the Australian Catholic University, teaching a wide range of courses in British, European and World History (c. 1300–1800), Historiography and Methods, and Language/Skills (Palaeography, Latin).

I am editor of The Journal of Religious History.