Matthew Davies (historian)


Matthew P. Davies, FRHistS, FSA, is a British academic administrator and urban historian, specialising in late medieval and early modern cities. Since 2016, he has been Executive Dean of the School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London where he is also a professor of urban history; between 2002 and 2016, he was Director of the Institute of Historical Research's Centre for Metropolitan History.

Career

Davies completed his undergraduate studies and doctorate at the University of Oxford; his DPhil was awarded in 1994 for his thesis "The tailors of London and their guild, c. 1300–1500". He worked for the History of Parliament Trust as a researcher and completed studies of parliamentary representation in 15th-century London and Southwark, before being appointed Director of the Centre for Metropolitan History at the University of London's Institute of Historical Research in 2002. He remained in that post until 2016, when he was appointed Executive Dean of the School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London ; he is also a professor of urban history in the School. Prior to his appointment at Birkbeck, he had also been Pro-Dean at the School of Advanced Study where he was also Professor of Urban History.

Honours, awards and other appointments

As of 2018, Davies is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and also serves as Chair of the Editorial Committee of The London Journal, a council member of the British Record Society and a trustee of the Historic Towns Atlas Trust.

Selected publications

Since 2016, Davies has been director of a Heritage-Lottery-funded project, "The Layers of London: mapping the city's heritage", based at the Institute of Historical Research. From 2010 to 2016, he was director of the "Records of London's Livery Companies Online" project, and with Vanessa Harding and Richard Smith, he received a Major Grant from Economic and Social Research Council for a project entitled "Life in the Suburbs: Health, Domesticity and Status in Early Modern London", which ran from 2008 to 2011.