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Dr Chris Langley

Image of Chris R. Langley

Profile summary

  • Regional Academic Staff
  • Staff Tutor in History (Wales)
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Arts & Humanities
  • History
  • christopher.langley

Professional biography

I joined the OU in 2022 after teaching at Aberdeen, York and Newman University. I was Visiting Scholar at the University of St Andrews in 2014 and Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh in 2018. I studied at Birmingham and Aberdeen. 

I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Research interests

I am interested in early modern religious culture, especially in Scotland: I want to understand how people in the past experienced religion and how it fit into their lives.

My previous research has explored how the Civil Wars affected worship; how social care in seventeenth-century Scotland was shaped by religious and political change; and how clergy and their families experienced the Reformation and Civil Wars. My current research project explores the Scottish General Assemblies between 1638 and 1653.

I am the Co-Director of ‘Mapping the Scottish Reformation: A database of the Scottish clergy, 1560-1689’, with Dr Michelle D. Brock (W&L University).

Teaching interests

I have experience teaching a range of early modern history modules, from foundation to postgraduate level. 

In 2023-4, I am part of the module team for A329 'The making of Welsh history' and manage teams of Associate Lecturers on A112 'Cultures', A113 'Revolutions' and A329 'The making of Welsh history'. 

I welcome PhD proposals from those interested in the religious cultures of early modern Britain and Ireland.

Impact and engagement

I am involved in 'Charles 400: Culture and Legacy' with my OU colleagues Dr Sara Wolfson and Dr Charlotte Brownhill. The project explores the ways in which the reign of Charles I (1625-1649) is portrayed in heritage and education. Marking the four-hundredth anniversary of Charles I's accession to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland, it brings together scholars of Stuart culture with practitioners from galleries, archives, libraries and museums and key stakeholders in post-16 education.

External collaborations

I am the Special Issues Editor for Scottish Historical Review and sit on the council of the Scottish History Society. 

I serve as an External Examiner for the History programmes at Keele and Edinburgh.