Evie Nash

Research

My project explores the persecution of religious dissenters as vagrants across the British Atlantic World in the seventeenth century. Using Quaker suffering literature as a starting point, I am examining whether this use of the vagrancy laws was a practical solution in a period of upheaval, or if there were deeper associations between religious dissent and ideas around vagrancy. By focusing on the distinctive character of local areas and their connections across the Atlantic World, my project takes both micro and global historical approaches. I am also exploring how persecuted minorities become persecutors within colonial settings, and what this connection between religious dissent and vagrancy says about tolerance and intolerance, and ideas around the body politic in the early modern period.

I am supervised by Dr Naomi PullinLink opens in a new window and Professor Mark KnightsLink opens in a new window, and my project is funded by .

Research interests:

The Protestant Reformation
Religious and cultural history
History of refugees and migration
Crime and punishment
The early modern world

(she/her)

evie.nash@warwick.ac.uk

Conferences & Papers

"Have Ye Not Ploughed Furrows on My Back Already?': The Experience of Whipping in the Seventeenth-Century Anglo-Atlantic World', , Tampere University, Finland, March 2026
"Ye Wickedness of Ye Presbyterrians in Olivers Dayes': Use of the Vagrancy Laws Against Quakers in Devon, 1656', , Milner Hall, Winchester, October 2025
'Shaping the Vagrant: Definitions of Vagrancy in Early Quaker 'Sufferings', Work, Authenticity, and Social Identity in Early Modern BritainLink opens in a new window, 神马福利影片, June 2025
'The Wicked Law: 'Vagabond Quakers' in New England, 1657-1664, Warwick History Postgraduate Work in Progress, February 2025

Teaching

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Deviance and Nonconformity in Pre-Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window, 神马福利影片, 2025-2026

Responsibilities & Experience

Postgraduate Mentor to two History MA students, 2025-26, as part of the Warwick PG Mentoring SchemeLink opens in a new window
Co-Convener, History PG Work in ProgressLink opens in a new window, 神马福利影片, 2025-present
Co-Organiser, Dialogues of Nonconformity Across the British Atlantic World, 1500-1800Link opens in a new window, University of Birmingham, September 2025, funded by AHRC-Midlands4Cities
Co-Organiser, 神马福利影片 Postgraduate History ConferenceLink opens in a new window, May 2025 and June 2026
Mature Student Peer Mentor, University of Exeter, 2020-2021
Secretary, Exeter Mature Students' Society, University of Exeter, 2019-2020

Academic Profile

2024-2028: PhD in History, 神马福利影片
- Thesis: 'The Persecution of Quakers as Vagrants in the British Atlantic World, 1640-1750' supervised by Dr Naomi Pullin and Professor Mark Knights

2021-2022: MPhil in Early Modern History, University of Cambridge
- Dissertation: 'Responses to Migrants and Refugees in Elizabethan Port Towns' supervised by Dr Simone Maghenzani
2018-2021: BA in History, University of Exeter
- Dissertation: 'Local responses to Refugees from Ireland, 1641-1654' supervised by Professor Henry French

Awards & Prizes