Professor Matthew Hilton MA, PhD, FRHist

 

Professor of Social History

Department of History

Photograph of Dr Matthew Hilton

Contact details

Telephone +44 (0)121 414 7697

Email m.j.hilton@bham.ac.uk

Arts Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

About

I am currently Professor of Social History. My work focuses on the history of consumer society and on the history of social activism and non-governmental organisations, both in Britain and globally.

Biography

I did my PhD at Lancaster University and have been at Birmingham since 1997. I 2002 I was a winner of the Philip Leverhulme Prize  and I have been a visiting scholar at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies , Harvard.  I sit on the editorial boards of  Past and PresentContemporary British History, Journal of Consumer Culture, Recherches britanniques and History Compass.

Postgraduate supervision

Listed below are the fields in which Matthew Hilton is able to offer supervision of research postgraduates.

  • Consumer society in Britain and the rest of the world
  • British popular culture
  • Non-government organisations and civil society groups

Research

Matthew Hilton is currently collaborating with Dr Nicholas Crowson to research the role of non-governmental organizations in Britain since 1945. This is a Leverhulme Trust funded project which runs until 2011. The project builds on the online Database of Archives of Non-Governmental Organisations and is made up of the same team of researchers: Dr James McKay and Dr Jean-Francois Mouhot

Matthew Hilton's background is in the social and cultural history of modern Britain. His first book was on the history of smoking in British popular culture. Since then he has examined many different aspects of the history of consumer society and the politics of consumption. In recent years, his interests have become more international and he has published on consumer activism in Malaysia and at the global level.

Matthew talks about his research into Non-Governmental Organisations

Publications

Monographs

Edited Collections

Articles

Policy papers

  • (with James McKay, Nicholas Crowson and Jean-Francois Mouhot), Civic Participation and Social Responsibility, Briefing paper for meeting with Strategy Unit of Cabinet Office, 15 June 2010. Revised version published as ‘“The Big Society”: civic participation and the state in modern Britain’, History and Policy website.  

Expertise

19th and 20th century Britain; contemporary global history; the history of consumer society; social movements; NGOs; civil society

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