Newton Key, Distinguished History Professor Emeritus



Newton Key
History Dept.
600 Lincoln
Eastern Illinois University
Charleston, IL 61920


web: http://ux1.eiu.edu/~nekey
email: nekey at eiu.edu
office: 3725 Coleman Hall 

  • Summary - As a historian, I continue to write about early modern England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and co-authored a best-selling text, Early Modern England (3rd ed., 2020). See my interests below and my vita. Former Director of Faculty Development and and Innovation Center @ EIU, as well as part of group that envisioned, funded, and established  the Center for Student Innovation @ EIU, I continue to be interested in ways to help faculty create and engage with students, as well as ways to help re-imagine the physical classroom.
  • Research Interests - I've written about unsuccessful plotters, imaginary kings, scandalous elite couples, feasters & drinkers, printers, preachers in the 17th century, murderers and detectives in the 19th, and historical bloggers in the 21st. Current projects include one on plotting and caballing (and a related one on sermons and addresses about plots), another on ancient (mythic) history, and anohter on London feasting and sociability (see my vita).
  • Student Supervision Interests - I have directed M.A. theses and Honors undergraduate research on: Victorian asylums, Charles II's bastards, Henry VIII in 17th-century chapbooks, 18th-century Anglo-American clubbing, the London Irish circa 1798, London and the slave trade circa 1700, London murderesses 1680s-1800, 17th-century popular calendar celebrations, and Restoration York. If you are a student, interested in any of this, contact me (see my office page & student work). 
  • Teaching interests - I have taught undergraduates about the early modern world, early modern England, modern Britain and the British Empire, as well as researching and writing history. I have taught graduates about revolutions, early modern society, historiography, and the premodern world. I have taught both graduates and undergraduates Irish history and London crime & poverty (see my syllabi page).
British history links
FDIC

History @ EIU

 

last updated on August 4, 2021