Matt Cook (historian)

Professor Matt Cook FRHistS
Title	Jonathan Cooper Professor of the History of Sexuality
Children	2
Academic background
Alma mater	Queen Mary University of London (PhD)
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	History of sexuality LGBT history Cultural history History of London
Institutions	Keele University Birkbeck, University of London Mansfield College, Oxford

Matthew "Matt" Cook FRHistS[1] is a social and cultural historian specializing in LGBTQ and queer history. Since October 2023, he has served as the Jonathan Cooper Chair of the History of Sexuality at Mansfield College, Oxford University. The appointment makes him the UK's first professor of LGBTQ+ history.[2]

Cook received his PhD in history at Queen Mary University of London, then served as a lecturer at Keele University from 2002 to 2005. He went on to teach for 18 years at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he ultimately was named professor of modern history and head of the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology.[3] While at Birkbeck he also directed the Raphael Samuel History Centre.[4]

Cook worked with the National Trust in 2017 on their Prejudice and Pride programme and co-authored its associated guidebook. He has also advised on archival projects related to the history of gender and sexuality, including English Heritage's Pride of Place and the Pitt Rivers Museum's Beyond the Binary.[5] He is a series editor of the Queer and Trans Histories series at Manchester University Press.[6]

Personal life

Cook has three children.[7]

Selected publications

• London and the Culture of Homosexuality, 1885–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• A Gay History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Men Since the Middle Ages (Oxford: Greenwood, 2007); editor and lead author.
• Queer 1950s: Rethinking Sexuality in the Post-War Years (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); co-editor with Heike Bauer.
• Queer Cities, Queer Cultures: Sexuality and Urban Life in Post-1945 Europe (London: Continuum, 2014); co-editor with Jennifer Evans.
• Queer Domesticities: Homosexuality and Home Life in Twentieth-Century London (London: Palgrave, 2014).
• Prejudice & Pride: Celebrating LGBTQ Heritage (London: National Trust, 2017); co-author with Alison Oram.
• Queer Beyond London: LGBTQ Stories from Four English Cities (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022); co-author with Alison Oram.

References

1. "List of Fellows (February 2024)" (PDF). Royal Historical Society. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
2. Sally Weale, Oxford University appoints UK’s first professor of LGBTQ+ history, The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
3. Professor Matt Cook. Oxford University. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
4. Bengry, Justin. "Queer Domesticities: Matt Cook on Home Life, Family and Community in London". Notches. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
5. Weale, Sally. "Oxford University appoints UK's first professor of LGBTQ+ history". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
6. "Queer and Trans Histories". Manchester University Press. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
7. Cook, Matt (2014). Queer Domesticities: Homosexuality and Home Life in Twentieth-Century London. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. xiii. ISBN 978-1-137-31607-3.