The Global Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Daniel's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
About Daniel
Crossing the conceptual and methodological boundaries of architectural history, vernacular architecture and material culture studies, Dan Maudlin specialises in intercultural, place-led approaches to the spatial histories of the British Empire and its global contexts, 1600 - 1900. Dan studied Art History at the University of St Andrews both as an undergraduate (MA Hons, First Class, 1996) and postgraduate (PhD, 2002). He is currently Professor of Architectural History and Heritage at the °µÍø½âÃÜ where he has a research leadership role as founder and co-chair of the interdisciplinary Spatial Experiences research group, co-chair of the History and Heritage research group, Faculty Research Lead for Heritage and Culture and founder of the academic-creative industries network Arts and Heritage SW, developing major grant-funded projects, establishing internal and external interdisiplinary networks, supporting colleagues and enabling new collaborations with external partners -Ìý Ìýmost recently, he was a keynote speaker, representing the School of Law Humanities and Social Sciences at the December 2025 launch of the °µÍø½âÃÜ's Future Research Leaders programme. Previously, he was Research Lead (REF Coordinator) for the School of Art, Design and Architecture (stepping down to take up a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship in North America).
Internationally recognised as a 'preeminent scholar' in the histories of architecture and empire (Society of Architectural Historians, USA, 2024), Dan has been a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University, Canada, Research Fellow at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Research Fellow at the Winterthur Museum, Visiting Fellow at UPenn, Visiting Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Visiting Professor at the Centre for Scottish Studies, University of Guelph, Canada. His track-record of research grants include a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellowship, AHRC Network Grant, AHRC Mid Career Fellowship, AHRC Impact Fellowship, Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship and ESPRC Standard Grant. He also has extensive experience of contract research working with heritage organisations including Historic England and the National Marine Park. He has been awarded the Allen G. Noble Prize by the International Society for Landscape, Place and Material Culture; the Jeffrey Cook Prize by the Interntational Assocation for the Study of Traditional Environments and History Book of the Year by the Scotsman for The Highland House Transformed. He has previously taught Art History at the universities of Glasgow and St Andrews and led the University of Pennsylavnia's European Conservation Summer School. Before moving into academia he worked in the heritage sector for organisations including: English Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Victoria and Albert Museum & Royal Malay Museums and the National Galleries of Scotland.Ìý
Dan's research aims to extend the study of historic spaces and places to inform and influence other disciplines, institutions and communities -Ìý including policy - beyond architectural history. He is currently Project Lead on Rethinking Architecture and Empire: intercultural placemaking in James Bay - a transdisciplinary, multi-institution study of imperialism and intercultural placemaking in Hudson Bay, with Anthropology and Ethnomusicology, co-created with the Indigenous Cree communities of Hudson Bay, Canada (£1.18 million AHRC standard grant submitted October 2025, outcome pending).Ìý He is also Project Co-Lead for Empire and Place, an innovative interdisciplinary project exploring the legacies of empire with museums and creative industries across the UK's historic port cities (£1.4 million AHRC standard grant submitted December 2025, outcome pending).Ìý He is also currently leading a new interdisciplinary project with Performance and Sports Psychology in partnership with the National Trust exploring biohaptic approaches to historic spaces (AHRC standard grant in preparation for submission September 2026, costed £1.3 million). From 2023 to 25 he was part of the interdisciplinary project team behind the £1.2 million ESPRC-funded ICONIC digital health project developing extended reality platforms for remote access to historic sites and was Project Lead for the AHRC Impact Accelerator project, Rethinking Georgian Sites with the National Trust, exploring new curatorial approaches to the interpretation of eighteenth-century historic sites across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Working with senior national leads at the National Trust this was the Trust's first thematic project at an organisational-level, establishing a new model for future research and impact partnerships between the Trust and HEIs.Ìý
Dan has two new monographs with Oxford University Press: A Night at the Inn: Space, Place, and the Elite Experience of Empire, 1650 -1850 (OUP, scheduled for publication June 2026); and, British Architecture and its Global Contexts, 1700 - 1850 (OUP, forthcoming 2027), an invited commission for OUP's landmark Oxford History of Art series. Previous books include Inner Empire: Architecture and Empire in the British IslesÌýwith G. A. BremnerÌý(Manchester University Press, 2024); Building the British Atlantic WorldÌýwith Bernard L. Herman (UNC Press, 2016);ÌýThe Idea of the Cottage in English Architecture (Routledge, 2016); The Highland House Transformed: Architecture and Identity on the edge of BritainÌý(Edinburgh University Press, 2009), ScotsmanÌýHistory Book of the Year. He also writes on theoretical approaches to everyday space and place, including the new monograph Histories of Space, Place and Experience (invited commissioned by Routledge, 2025), the forthcoming five-volume Encyclopedia of the World with Marcel Vellinga (Bloomsbury, 2026), On the Occupation, Appropriation and Interpretation of BuildingsÌýwith Marcel Vellinga (Routledge, 2014); and, 'Concepts of the Vernacular' with Robert Brown in the SAGE Handbook of Architectural TheoryÌý(SAGE, 2012).
Dan currently teaches World History, Imperial History, Legacies of Empire and Public History and Heritage across BA History at the °µÍø½âÃÜ and leads the innovative industry-facing postgraduate programme, MA Heritage Theory and Practice in partnership with the National Trust.Ìý
He is the founding director of the spin-out heritage consultancy, . °µÍø½âÃÜ Heritage Praxis (PHP) works across a portfolio of partnership heritage projects including policy research and interpretation planning. PHP works through non-academic grant-funded partnerships and contract research with the heritage sector. Current partners include the National Trust, Historic England, Dartmoor National Park, The Box, National Marine Park and Powderham Castle.
Teaching
Programme LeadÌý
- MA Heritage Theory and Practice, 2018 –
- MRes Architecture, 2008 - 14
Module Lead
- World History, 1st year, BA HistoryÌý
- What is History?, 1st year, BA HistoryÌý
- Ìý‘Public History and Heritage’, 1st year, BA HistoryÌý
- ‘History and Heritage: Legacies of Empire’,Ìý 2nd year /3rd year, BA HistoryÌý
- ‘The British Atlantic World’, 3rd year BA History
- Cultural Contexts Stream Lead (Stage 1 – 3), BAÌý Architecture, 2008 – 14
PhD supervisor
I have successfully supervised a range of PhD students within the fields of cultural heritage, architectural history and theory and material culture from prison graffiti in Malaysia to female agency in the British country houseÌý and the heritage space of rivers.