BSC Historical Criminology Network
About
Chair
Dr Ciara Molloy
Email: ciara.molloy1@ucd.ie
Looking Back … The Story So Far
The network has its own site and is looking for bite-sized blog posts on anything related to its core theme – new events, calls for papers, publications, research projects, book recommendations, news items, teaching resources, job opportunities and more.
Network website: https://www.historicalcriminology.com/
The introduction of Alexa Neale’s Photographing Crime Scenes in Twentieth-Century London – which explores microhistories of metropolitan domestic murder is currently free to read on our blog.
The Historical Criminology Network is centrally concerned with promoting, developing and embedding historical approaches to criminology. Its principal aims are as follows:
- To promote historical scholarship within criminology.
- To forge closer dialogue between historical researchers working on topics relevant to criminology.
- To encourage use of historical resources in research and teaching in criminology.
The Chair will be responsible for the smooth running of the Network, and will normally serve for a term of three years. The Chair will appoint a Steering Group from amongst members to assist with the running of the Network. Approximately six months prior to the expiration of the Chair’s term, all members of the Network will be contacted, inviting those who are eligible to stand for the position. If more than one candidate comes forward, a vote of all Network members will be held. If no candidate comes forward, the existing Chair may serve for an additional 12 months.
Recent Events
BSC Historical Criminlology Network Speakers’ Series: 2025/2026
What role can a historical criminology platform have in matters of contemporary concern? Where do our contemporary concerns with topics such as history, decolonization, gender, and free speech intersect with the multidisciplinary logics guiding criminological observance of historical methods, pedagogies, and wider community participatory action? The BSC Historical Criminlology Network brings together a Wednesday seminar series covering this multidisciplinary range of contemporary ideas, allowing attendees to ‘meet’ specialists virtually, taking the opportunity to interrogate the extent to which history intersects with the contemporary. Our aim is to provide a platform to support rich discussion, with the chance to locate contemporary conversations within wider historical criminological interests, in academia and beyond. Register here.
22 April 2026
Presentation: What Indigenous Deaths in Custody Can Tell Us About Genocide. Dr. Sherene H. Razack – Distinguished Professor and the Penny Kanner Endowed Chair in the Department of Gender Studies, UCLA.
What can Indigenous deaths in custody, excessive by any measure and in all settler colonies, tell us about genocide? In this presentation, I reflect on my own scholarship on Indigenous deaths in custody, examining what I identify as the reparative thrust of settler colonialism (improvement) in Canada. I reflect on how the reparative gesture – as revealed in inquests and inquiries into Indigenous deaths in custody—is a necessary component of settler colonialism’s inner core, namely the elimination of the native. If the violence of settler colonialism is obscured by the state’s performance of benevolent concern, and all the while a slow genocide continues apace, engaging in a reparative rather than an abolitionist politics only hastens the elimination of the native. The reparative thrust, however, is generally muted or absent altogether in settler colonies that have not transitioned from openly eliminationist to democratic regimes. How might we consider law in these various stages of settler colonialism?
BSC Historical Criminology Network Online Writing Retreats
We are excited to announce the launch of our online writing retreats for 2026, run by Dr Ciara Molloy, UCD. These will take place via Zoom on the first Tuesday and third Friday of each month between 9.30-11.30am BST. You can (virtually) drop in during all or some of each retreat to pursue your writing goals in a friendly and supportive environment. The retreats will follow the Pomodoro technique, and all members are welcome to attend.
The upcoming writing retreat dates are as follows:
Tuesday 5th May
Friday 15th May
You can join each retreat using the following recurring link.
Joining and staying in touch
Membership of the Network is open to anyone with an interest in historical approaches to criminology, broadly conceived. To receive updates of the Network’s activities, please contact Dr Ciara Molloy: ciara.molloy1@ucd.ie or Esmorie Miller: e.j.miller@lancaster.ac.uk
The Network also has a YouTube channel. Visit us here: https://www.youtube.com/@HistoricalCriminology
Contact the Network
If you would like to know more about the Network, please contact Dr Ciara Molloy: ciara.molloy1@ucd.ie or Esmorie Miller: e.j.miller@lancaster.ac.uk