Matthew Kidd

Dr Matthew Kidd serves as Departmental Lecturer and Course Director for the Advanced Diploma in Local History at the University of Oxford's Department for Continuing Education, where he has taught since 2019. Awarded his doctorate by the University of Nottingham in 2016, he leads major initiatives preserving World War historical narratives through community engagement.

His educational background includes:

• Doctorate in History, University of Nottingham (2016)

Kidd's research examines how ordinary people interpreted political movements in nineteenth- and twentieth-century England, with emphasis on radicalism, socialism, and local identity formation. His scholarly work bridges academic rigor and public accessibility, particularly through oral history methodologies that challenge conventional class narratives in British historiography. Current projects sharpen focus on memory studies and community-based historical preservation.

His publications reveal consistent thematic threads: the 2020 monograph The Renewal of Radicalism analyzes continuity in Labour Party traditions, while the 2020 Oral History article interrogates social identity in Cheltenham. Together, these works demonstrate interdisciplinary approaches connecting political theory, social history, and community memory across Victorian through post-war Britain.

As manager of the 'Their Finest Hour' project since 2022, Kidd oversees an extensive WWII archive containing over 25,000 crowdsourced objects and personal stories. This initiative follows earlier work preserving First World War narratives, establishing him as a key figure in Oxford's public history landscape through community-driven archival practices.