Julia McClure

Julia McClure is a Senior Lecturer in late medieval and early modern global history at the University of Glasgow, affiliated with the School of Humanities within the College of Arts. Her research focuses on the global history of poverty, charity, and the Iberian Atlantic world, with particular attention to the Spanish Empire and the Franciscan Order. She completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield and held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University and the European University Institute.

• PhD: University of Sheffield
• Postdoctoral Fellow: Weatherhead Initiative on Global History, Harvard University
• Max Weber Fellow: European University Institute, Florence

Her research interests include global intellectual history, the historiography of empire, and the decolonisation of the curriculum. Her work explores the ideological and political dimensions of poverty and inequality in early modern global contexts. McClure is the author of The Franciscan Invention of the New World (2016) and Imperial Inequalities (2022), and her recent publications examine the aesthetics of poverty, property rights in colonial Mexico, and the intellectual foundations of inequality.

The most recent articles reflect a strong trend in global intellectual history, focusing on the intersections of religion, law, and economic governance in colonial and early modern empires. Her scholarship consistently engages with themes of justice, representation, and the longue durée of structural inequality, often challenging Eurocentric narratives and advocating for a more interconnected and decolonial understanding of global history.

• The Poor Atlantic: Poverty and Charity in the Making of the Spanish Empire (in process)
• AHRC-funded project: 'Historicising Development: Local Visions of Global Poverty'
• Founder and lead of the Poverty Research Network

McClure teaches undergraduate modules including 'The European World 1500-1720', 'Galleons and Caravans: Global Connections 1300-1800', and 'The Forging of the Iberian World'. She also contributes to MA modules on global history and early modernity. She has organized international events such as the Poverty Research Workshop and a major conference on 'Beyond Development: The Local Visions of Global Poverty', which hosted scholars from across the globe. Her public engagement includes blogging and social media, where she connects historical scholarship to contemporary debates on inequality and social justice.