Wendy Davies

Who is Wendy Davies?

Wendy Elizabeth Davies, OBE, FBA, FSA, FRHistS, FLSW is an Emeritus Professor of History at University College, London, England.

Davies studied for her BA degree and PhD degree in history at UCL. Following positions in Munich and Birmingham, she returned to UCL as a Lecturer in Medieval History. She was made a Professor in 1985 and thereafter became Head of the Department of History, then Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dean of the Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences and, from 1995, UCL Pro-Provost. She was made a Fellow of UCL in 1997. UCL marked her retirement at a reception on 30 October 2007. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2008 Birthday Honours. She is also a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.

Though her teaching originally covered a wide area of European and English medieval history it more recently concentrated on Celtic subjects working across and within the disciplines of history, archaeology and Celtic studies.

She is particularly well known for her studies of early Welsh and Breton history. She is co-director, with Prof. James Graham-Campbell, of the interdisciplinary 'Celtic Inscribed Stones Project', established to build a database of all known early medieval Celtic inscribed stones. For the last twenty years she has also convened a major research group, known as the 'Bucknell Group', with the aim of examining the social significance of early medieval European charters. She is notable for her analysis of the Llandaff Charters.