ACCALAIMED academic Professor Matt Cook has been appointed as the first ever Professor of LGBTQ+ history at an Oxford College.
Cook becomes the first ever holder of the title Jonathan Cooper Chair of the History of Sexualities at Mansfield College.
After 18 years at Birkbeck College, where he oversaw the Gender and Sexuality Studies MA course and served as the director of the Raphael Samuel History Centre, Professor Cook will begin his new position at Oxford University in October and further develop the research and teaching of LGBTQ+ history there.
He is a social and cultural historian who has a keen interest in queer urban, public, and communal history as well as work that crosses academic boundaries.
Prejudice and Pride, the National Trust’s first LGBTQ handbook, was co-authored by Professor Cook in 2017 and he has provided advice on a number of other museum and heritage initiatives.
The Arcadia Fund, a grant-making foundation that has given millions of dollars to charities focusing on environmental and human variety, granted £4.9 million to support the full-time position.
He said of his appointment: “I will be working hard to enhance our understanding of the LGBTQ past and to show how these histories matter now. I’m tremendously excited to have this opportunity to help enlarge Oxford’s reputation for cutting-edge work in this burgeoning field.”
His most recent book, Queer Beyond London (2022), was born out of a collaborative effort based in the LGBTQ+ community and local history, with an emphasis on Brighton, Leeds, Manchester, and Plymouth.
The Chair has been named in honour of the late Jonathan Cooper OBE, a legendary human rights lawyer, relentless defender of LGBTQ+ rights, and commentator on subjects including trans rights, conversion therapy, and the rights of individuals living with HIV, who passed away in 2021.
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