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Professor Matthew Seligmann is a leading scholar in naval and military history at Brunel University London, where he serves as Professor of Naval History in the Department of Politics and History within the College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences. He joined Brunel as a Reader in 2012 and was promoted to Professor in 2015. His research focuses on intelligence, threat assessment, armaments races, and the origins of the First World War, with particular emphasis on Anglo-German naval competition and British naval policy.
His educational background includes a D.Phil in History from the University of Sussex and an M.A. (Hons) in History from the University of Edinburgh.
Seligmann’s research interests center on the Royal Navy during the early 20th century, especially the Anglo-German naval race, naval intelligence, espionage, battleship building, and naval strategy. He has published extensively, authoring or co-authoring over ten books and numerous articles in top-tier journals. His work often explores how British policymakers perceived and responded to the German threat before 1914. He has won the Julian Corbett Prize for an article on the origins of the Home Fleet.
His recent publications span themes such as economic warfare, convoy systems, Catholicism in the Royal Navy, amphibious warfare, and historiographical debates on naval strategy. These works reflect a deep engagement with primary sources and a critical eye toward official narratives and historical interpretation.
- Julian Corbett Prize for excellence in Naval History
Seligmann supervises PhD students on topics related to the Royal Navy and British foreign policy before and during the First World War. He has secured research funding, including an AHRC Fellowship for a project on the Royal Navy and the German threat (1901–1914). He also holds a Caird Library Fellowship. He plays a significant administrative role as Director of Internationalisation and Academic Exchanges Coordinator for Politics and History.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Navy Records Society’s Publications Committee, contributing to the broader academic and archival community in naval history.
