About
Dr. Mary Elisabeth Cox holds dual academic appointments. She is a Research Associate at the Oxford Centre for Economic and Social History and the Global History of Capitalism Project at the University of Oxford, and an Assistant Professor in International Relations at the Central European University in Vienna, Austria. Her work bridges historical analysis with contemporary policy considerations, particularly regarding civilian suffering during conflicts.
Education:
- Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in History from the University of Oxford
Research interests center on the socio-economic and health impacts of war on civilians, focusing on gender and social inequality. She investigates food security, international aid institutions, anthropometric data applications, and 20th-century warfare. Her approach combines quantitative methods with traditional qualitative sources to explore deprivation timelines and recovery patterns across social groups.
Her scholarly work analyses wartime blockades' nutritional consequences on German civilians, highlighted in her award-winning 2015 article and 2019 monograph. These studies demonstrate the interdisciplinary potential of blending anthropometric data with institutional reports, personal letters, and other sources.
Awards include the Dev Book Prize for her groundbreaking DPhil dissertation and the 2016 Alexander Prize for the aforementioned 2015 article. She is also a shortlisted candidate for the Economic History Society's best doctoral dissertation.
In advising and grants, she supervises Masters students at Brasenose College, Oxford, and leads the Leverhulme Trust-funded ‘Hunger Draws the Map’ project. This initiative traces hunger’s geopolitical dimensions across Europe and the Ottoman Empire during 1914–1922, culminating in a co-edited monograph expected in 2020. Collaboration with Dr. Claire Morelon and Sir Hew Strachan is central to this work.
Labs/teams: She co-leads the ‘Hunger Draws the Map’ international network, which includes workshops at institutions like the Hoover Institution and partnerships with scholars worldwide. Her research also draws on lived experiences from her childhood in the South Pacific and Scandinavia, informing her cultural and regional perspectives.
