Professor Elaine Fulton MA, MLitt, PhD, FRHistS, PFHEA

• Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2022
• Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, University of Birmingham, 2010
• PhD in History, University of St Andrews, 2003
• MLitt (with Distinction) in Reformation Studies, University of St Andrews, 1998
• MA (First Class) in Modern History, University of St Andrews

I was born in Northern Ireland and left at 18 as the first person in my family to attend university. I read Modern History at the University of St Andrews, where I first discovered my love of Reformation history. Encouraged by early modernists at St Andrews, especially Andrew Pettegree and Bruce Gordon, I remained there for postgraduate study. My postgraduate work was supported by scholarships from the Humanities Research Board of the British Academy and the Caledonian Research Foundation. Between 1999 and 2003, I also taught Modern History at the Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, before joining the University of Birmingham in 2003 as Lecturer in Early Modern European History.

My early academic career focused on the relationship between politics, society, and religion in early modern German-speaking Europe, especially Catholic reform, confessional identity, religious authority, disaster history, and the Habsburg lands. My monograph, Catholic Belief and Survival in Late Sixteenth-Century Vienna, published in 2007, examined the career of Georg Eder and highlighted the role of Catholic laypeople in sustaining Catholic reform. This research remains an important part of my intellectual formation and continues to inform my teaching.

Over time, however, my work has increasingly moved towards history education, curriculum leadership, student employability, and the future of the humanities in higher education. I am especially interested in what historical thinking makes possible: how it helps students analyse evidence, understand complexity, communicate persuasively, and reflect on the past in ways that are constructive in the present. My current work focuses particularly on developing work experience and placements for history undergraduates. I also have strong interests in object-based learning, generative AI, and the role of religious faith in the university environment.

I have held several leadership roles at Birmingham. I was Head of History from 2015 to 2018 and Director of Education for the College of Arts and Law from 2019 to 2025. In that role, I led education across a large and diverse academic community, including work on curriculum development, quality enhancement, new educational initiatives, and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. I was also an elected member of University Senate from 2012 to 2016 and served again ex officio from 2019 to 2025. In 2024 I visited the Universities of Melbourne, Monash, Sydney and New South Wales as part of a University of Birmingham Senior Education Team delegation.

Beyond Birmingham, I chaired the History Advisory Group for the 2022 QAA Subject Benchmark Statement and have contributed to national work on teaching excellence and quality assurance. I have previously served as external examiner for History programmes at the University of Warwick; University of St Andrews; National University of Ireland, Galway; Nottingham Trent University; and Trinity College, Dublin.

I am also committed to mentoring, coaching, public engagement, and inclusive leadership. I have supported colleagues in promotion, professional recognition, and leadership development, and have contributed to work on Athena SWAN and LGBTQ inclusion. I am currently Chair of the University’s Multifaith Chaplaincy, a role that reflects my commitment to inclusive community, dialogue, and the transformative potential of Higher Education.

My teaching has included early modern history, professional skills, civic leadership, and employability-related modules. Across these areas, I am especially concerned with helping students connect historical knowledge with critical thinking, communication, ethical reflection, and graduate outcomes. I am interested in how we teach history well, how we support students to recognise the value of historical thinking beyond the classroom, and how we design curricula that are intellectually ambitious, inclusive, and relevant to students’ futures.

• First Year: Lectures for the Making of the Early Modern World
• Second Year: Year in Civic Leadership; Professional Skills Module; Saints and Sinners: Heroes and Villains in Early Modern Europe
• Final Year: Professional Skills Module

Previous students; Thomas Wood (co-supervision with Simone Laqua-O’Donnell): Dragons in early modern German religious culture •Yasmin Vetter (co-supervision with Jonathan Willis): The Elizabethan Church and Marian Exile•Laverne Smith (co-supervision with Nathan Cardon and Tom Cutterham): Anglican Virginia and Regular Baptists: A Reflection On The Effects Of Government-Regulated Toleration•Jonathan Roche, (co-supervision with David Gehring, University of Nottingham), Espionage networks and English Catholicism in the late sixteenth century•Tayler Meredith (co-supervision with Jonathan Willis): Divine Disorder: Environmental Change, Natural Disaster and English Communities, c.1550-1650•Ruth Atherton (co-supervision with Simone Laqua-O’Donnell): Pedagogy and Persuasion: The Power of the Catechism in Germany, 1529-1597•Charles Byrd II (co-supervision with Allan Anderson): Pentecostalism’s Anabaptist Heritage? •George Doukas: The World of Pierre Boaistuau: Man, Sin and Nature in Early Modern Europe

Find out more - our PhD History  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.