Dr Matthew Davies
- Deputy Director - McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
About
I would consider myself a broadly anthropological and historical archaeologist with a wide range of interests and particular experience in Eastern Africa. I joined the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research as Deputy Director in early 2022. Prior to this I was Director of Education and Associate Professor at the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) (2021-18), University College London (UCL), and Lecturer in African Studies at UCL (2018-15). Before joining UCL, I held a Leverhulme/Newton Trust Early Career Fellowship (2015-14) and was Fellow in Eastern African Archaeology (2014-2010) both at the McDonald Institute here in Cambridge. Before this I served as Assistant Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA, 2010-2008) in Nairobi Kenya, and was also a BIEA Trustee and Council member from 2014 to 2022. I hold a DPhil (PhD) in Archaeology (2009-2005) and MSt and BA degrees from the University of Oxford (2005-2001). I currently serve on the Managing Committee of the Centre for African Studies in Cambridge and previously held positions on the managing committees of the African Studies Association UK and African Studies Centre, UCL. I have been a Senior Editor for the Oxford Encyclopaedia of African History and and External Examiner at the University of Aberdeen. I currently sit on the editorial board of the Cambridge Archaeological Journal and am an Honorary Associate Professor at the IGP, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) and Series Editor for the McDonald Institute Monographs and Conversations. I have recieved research funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), British Academy (BA), Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), Leverhulme Trust, Wenner Gren, UCL, McDonald Institute and BIEA. I served as Acting Director of the McDonald Institute from March 2022 to April 2024. I grew up in South Wales in the UK, spent some years in Nairobi, and now live in Cambridge with my wonderful wife and two children. I am and will always be indebted to the support and good will of my friends, collegues and collaborators, especially in Kenya.
Research
My primary research focusses on the contemporary and historical management of landscapes, ecological diversity, climate, and questions of sustainability, conservation, resilience and regeneration. Most of my work has focused on agricultural systems in Eastern Africa and has examined community practice and knowledge archaeologically, historically and anthropologically, often employing the perspectives of historical ecology, contemporary archaeology and post-development theory. This work has involved analyses of the spatial, material and temporal dynamics of farming systems, including understandings of soils, crops, irrigation, exchange networks and forests/vegetation over the last few hundred years. I have also explored contemporary archaeologies of forest conservation and failed external 'development' and my work is increasingly drawn towards wider analyses of food systems, agro-ecology, food sovereignty, farmer innovation, apiculture and intersections with nutrition and health. My work often employs practices of physically mapping the landscape with smartphones and working with communities of Citizen Scientists to co-design research questions and tools - including smarphone applications. This work has also involved collaborations with colleagues in South Africa and Nigeria and I am increasingly drawn to contemporary archaeological analyses of UK food systems including in the Fenland region where I take a leading role in the McDonald Institute's Fenland Futures Archaeological and Heritage Research Initiative (FFAHRI). I have also recently become engaged with the stakeholder networks at the IPBES. My broader research has explored aspects of the Later Stone Age through to Late Iron Age of Eastern Africa, including in western Kenya, eastern Uganda and South Sudan and examining themes including colonization, monumentality, food processing and the organisation of decentralized communities.
Teaching and supervision
Teaching:
I currently contribute to the following modules:
A1 World Archaeology
A10 Archaeological Theory and Practice I
A13 The Past in the Present
A35/G17 The Archaeology of Africa
MPhil World History: Debates in World History
I am also happy to supervise select UG and Masters Dissertations on areas related to my specialism.
I previously led several Post-graduate degree programmes and multiple modules at University College London.
Research supervision:
Current PhD students
Mr Benny Qihao Shen: The Contemporary Past of Apiculture in Kenya - and Archaeological Investigation. Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.
Mr Adam Willman: The economics of organic farming and innovation in Ethiopia and Kenya. Department of Economics, SOAS with Pesticide Action UK. ESRC DTP.
Ms Hadiqa Khan: The Materiality of Refuge and Displacment in UK Museums. Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL. AHRC CDP.
Completed PhD Students
Dr Chioma Ngonadi (2023): The Origin and Development of Farming in Lejja, Southeastern Nigeria c.3000 BP. Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. Gates Trust.
Dr David Kay (2021): Domestic Space and Settlement in Marakwet, Northwest Kenya. Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. AHRC.
Dr Samuel Lunn-Rockliffe (2018): Connecting Past and Present: Sengwer Hunter-Gatherers of the Cherangani Hills, Kenya. Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. AHRC.
Advisory team: Sipke Shaughnessy (2019): The Yaaku: Understanding an emergent identity in Mukogodo Forest, Kenya. Department of Geography, University of Cambridge.
I have also supervised 40+ UG/PG dissertations and have sat on