The Department of History is recognised for the quality of our research as well as our students’ satisfaction with our teaching (95% overall satisfaction, NSS 2017). Although we are one of the largest History departments in the UK, you will be treated as an individual and join a friendly and supportive community of students and academics.
Take a look at our staff, alumni, publications and research projects.
Who's Who in the History Department
Meet some of our historians
Anna Whitelock
Reader in Early Modern History
Area of expertise
The Tudors and Stuarts, the monarchy, royal history, gender and politics, public history and heritage.
Media highlights
Dr Whitelock is a regular media commentator on the Tudors, the monarchy, royal bodies, gender and politics as well as on public history and heritage.
Her media highlights include appearing as a royal expert, historical consultant and commentator for the BBC, ITV News, Sky News, NBC and Channel 9. Dr Whitelock provided commentary for the BBC for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, and featured in media coverage of the birth of Prince George.
She has also appeared in a number of television programmes, some of which include BBC One's 'The Manor Reborn', ITV's 'Britain's Secret Homes', Channel 4's 'Time Team' and BBC Two's 'Newsnight'.
Daniel Beer
Reader in Modern European History
Daniel Beer is Reader in Modern European History at Royal Holloway and a specialist on Russia. He has published widely on the social and cultural history of the Russian Empire and has a particular interest in crime and punishment. His last book, The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars (London: Allen Lane, 2016), won the 2017 Cundill History Prize (CundillPrize.com) and was shortlisted for the Wolfson Prize, the Longman History Today Prize and the Pushkin House Book Prize. Dr Beer has written for The Guardian, History Today, BBC History, The Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. His current research project explores the “Emperor Hunt”, the revolutionary campaign from 1879 to 1881 to assassinate Tsar Alexander II. In his undergraduate teaching, Dr Beer offers focused courses on “The Russian Empire in the Age of Reform and Revolution”, “Stalinism” and “European Culture in the Fin de Siècle” in addition to survey courses on the history of Modern Europe. He welcomes applications from research students in Russian history, especially those interested in biopolitics, empire, law, punishment, violence and modernity.
Justin Champion
Emeritus Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas
Area of expertise
Epidemics and society; the plague; eighteenth century republicanism; the printed image in the eighteenth century; public history; Magna Carta.
Justin Champion has published on the reinvention of Magna Carta as a Liberty document in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was also part of the Advisory Panel for the British Library Exhibition, and a contributor to the MOOC on Magna Carta over 800 years. He is a frequent broadcaster on such themes for the BBC.
Media highlights
Professor Champion has made numerous TV and radio appearances. His highlights include a Channel 4 production of his monograph of the Great Plague of London 1665; he has presented a series on the history of kings and queens and a documentary on contemporary royal finances.
Professor Champion has also made numerous contributions to programmes on Isaac Newton, Timeteam, The Enlightenment, the History of Science and How Christianity Came to Britain.
Helen Graham
Professor of Modern Spanish History
Helen talks about her research interests including political, social and cultural history of 1930s and 40s Spain, especially the Spanish Civil War.
David Gwynn
Reader in Ancient and Late Antique History
David talks about his research interests including ancient Greece, the transformation of the Late Roman Empire and Christianity in the east and west AD 200–600.
Zoe Laidlaw
Reader in British Imperial History
Zoe talks about her research interests including political, social and intellectual history of the nineteenth-century British Empire.
Edward Madigan
Lecturer in Public History and World War I
Edward talks about his research interests including Public History and the cultural history, memory and commemoration of the First World War.
Jonathan Phillips
Professor of Crusading History
Jonathan talks about his research interests including the history of the Crusades, Richard the Lionheart and Saladin as well as the modern day legacy of the crusades in Islam and the West.
Robert Priest
Lecturer in French History
Robert talks about his research interests including the cultural and intellectual history of nineteenth-century Europe, with special attention to France.
