James Adams

I am a second-year doctoral student in the School of History, Politics and International Relations, where I also completed my BA in History and Politics (2021) and MA in History (2022). My thesis is provisionally titled 'These Beastly Wretches: Sodomy and Anxiety in Eighteenth-Century British Society' and looks at the relationship between Sodom, sodomy, and national anxieties in the long eighteenth century.

My research interests are the eighteenth century, particularly anything to do with sex, gender, and deviance.

My research is centred on the cultural history of sodomy in the eighteenth century - how it is perceived and spoken about orally and in print.

My current research is on the societal context of anti-sodomy discourse in eighteenth-century Britain. This explores the underlying fears, concerns, and anxieties relating to the nation state and to the interests of the broader national community in the discourse on sodomy. This project gives an in-depth focus on the relationship between anti-sodomy discourse and xenophobia, populationism, the moral panic surrounding alcohol, and religion, all focussed on what sodomy represented for the nation as a whole. This is a project that arose out of previous research at undergraduate and post-graduate levels, involving the language of sodomy discourse and courtroom defences at the Old Bailey.

I have presented papers at the following conferences:

• 'Sodomy, Italy, and Iberia', HyPIR Conference (University of Leicester, 2023)
• 'These Beastly Wretches: Sodomy and Anxiety in Eighteenth-Century British Society', Postgraduate Lightning Talks (SOAS University of London, 2023)
• 'The ten righteous men as a communicative tool in times of war and crisis', Communication and Exchange in the Early Modern c.1500-1850 (Aberystwyth University, 2024)