Research and Publications

Jennifer Davey was appointed Director of The History of Parliament in 2023. Previous to her appointment at The History, she was Associate Professor at the University of East Anglia, where she held a number of leadership positions.

She is an historian of Modern Britain, with a particular expertise in the politics and culture of Victorian Britain. Her research has been funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHCR), the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust. Her most recent publications explore the multifaceted nature of female political influence in Victorian Britain.

Her first book – ‘Mary, Countess of Derby and the politics of Victorian Britain’ (OUP, 2019) – explored how a woman was able to carve out a career as a politician in the mid-nineteenth century. She is currently writing a second book for OUP, provisionally titled “Queen and Country”, which will reexamine the relationship between Queen Victoria and her subjects.