Dr David Kaufman (BA, PhD, FRHistS)

Lecturer; International History

Biography

Background

Other contacts

https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/DrKaufmanWelcomeWeekMeetings@uoe.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/

Roles

  • Programme Director of the Online MSc in History 
  • Membership Secretary of the British International History Group

Biography

I was born in Cambridge and raised in Edinburgh.  Having previously taught at the Universities of Stirling, Glasgow and the Open University, I was appointed to my current post as Lecturer in History, and Co-Programme Director of the online MSc in History at the University of Edinburgh in December 2012.

Useful Links

Online MSc in History: http://www.shca.ed.ac.uk/online-history

The British International History Group: http://www.bihg.ac.uk

Political and International History Research Group: https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/research/research-groups/political-history-research-group

Responsibilities & affiliations

The British International History Group Membership Secretary

Co-ordinator of the Political and International History Research Group

Undergraduate teaching

Sub-Honours

  • The Historian's Toolkit
  • Themes in Modern European History

Honours

  • History Skills and Methods I & II
  • The Holocaust (3/4MA)
  • The Continental Commitment: British Foreign Policy toward Europe in the Era of the Great War (3/4MA)
  • The Origins of the First World War, 1871-1917 (4MA)

Postgraduate teaching

At Masters level in History I am responsible for the first of the two core courses:

  • Historical Research: Skills & Sources
  • Historical Research: Skills & Sources (online)

In addition to this I teach a range of option courses for the online MSc:

  • Willingly to War? The Origins of the First World War
  • The Shadow of Versailles: Europe Between the Wars, 1918-1939
  • Empire or Continent?: British Foreign Policy in the Era of the Great War
  • An Imperial Game? Cricket, Culture & Society
  • Link to online courses

And organise with Dr Luke March (in SPS) two joint History & Politics Courses: 

  • Ideology and Politics in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Space
  • Society and Culture in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Space

And two courses on the Contemporary History MSc:

  • Making Peace, Making War: European International History, 1914-1945
  • Revolutions in Twentieth Century Europe

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I am happy to accept research students who are interested in working in the following areas: 

  • Diplomacy & Decision-Making (in Europe c. 1890-1939)
  • British Foreign Policy, c. 1890-1925
  • The Origins of the First World War
  • Peacemaking, c. 1918-1925
  • The international impact of the Russian Revolution(s), c. 1917-1921
  • History of Cricket

Current PhD students supervised

  • Newton, Avril, PhD, Patriotism and Paternalism: the importance of culture in the banking and insurance industries during the First World War, Joint
  • Vickary-Smith, Peter, PhD, The Dominions and the Origins of the Second World War, Joint
  • Glencross, Nikki, PhD, Money is Not Enough: An Analysis on Women’s Professional Wrestling, 1986-2019, Joint
  • Noah Werner Winslow, MScR, Between Harbin and Hong Kong: The Determining Influences on Britain’s Russia Policy in China, 1894-1902, Joint

Past PhD students supervised

  • Clem, Angela, MScR, Remembering in Stone and Prose: Memory and Memorialisation in Interwar Scotland and Czechoslovakia, Primary
  • Fenoglio, Luca, PhD, Resisting the "final solution"? Ordinary fascists and Jewish policy in Italian-occupied southeastern France, 1942-1943, Secondary
  • Hally, Mike, PhD, Rights not charity: the radical roots of the British Legion, Lead
  • Learoyd, Simon, PhD, Great Britain and the Protection of Minorities, 1878-1939, Secondary
  • Mearns, Ewen, MScR, ‘Harrowing the British soul’: The Channel Tunnel and the Rhetoric of Insularity 1880-1914, Joint
  • Morphakis, Francesca, MScR, The Role and Influence of ‘Special Advisors’ in the Formulation of British Foreign Policy, 1918-1922: A Study of Sir Maurice Hankey and Philip Kerr, Lead
  • Singerton, Jonathan, PhD, Empires on the Edge - The Habsburg Monarchy and the American Revolution 1763-1789, Secondary

Research summary

Places: 

  • Europe
  • Britain & Ireland

Themes: 

  • Diplomatic History
  • Society
  • War
  • Sport History

Periods: 

  • Nineteenth Century
  • Twentieth Century & After

My research interests cover the international history of East Central Europe from the end of the nineteenth century to the outbreak of the Second World War.  I am particularly interested in the role of British foreign policy during this period, and the impact that the Great War on British diplomacy towards Eastern Europe in the immediate aftermath of the conclusion of the conflict.  At the moment, I am researching the link between Reparations and Revisionism in the 1920s.  

Current research interests

British Foreign Policy, c. 1890-1930 Revision & Reparations in the 1920s Cricket & Colonisation

Affiliated research centres

Project activity

Dr Deona Çali, 'The Contribution of Albanian Civil Society to Albania state-building, identity-formation and minority rights between 1920 and 1939', BA Visiting Fellowship, awarded 21 March 2023

The list below is a subset of the information held on the University of Edinburgh PURE system, and includes Books, Chapters, Articles and Conference contributions. For a full list, including details of other publication types (e.g. reviews), please see the Edinburgh Research Explorer page for Dr David Kaufman.

Books - Authored

Kaufman, D. (2012) This Troublesome Question: Poles Jews and the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Lambert Academic Publishing

Articles

Kaufman, D. (2023), The "One Guilty Nation" Myth: Edith Durham, R.W. Seton-Watson and a footnote in the History of the Origins of the First World War. Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 25(3), pp. 1-25

Kaufman, D. (2019) “A house of cards which would not stand”: James Headlam-Morley, the role of experts, and the Danzig question at the Paris Peace Conference. Diplomacy and Statecraft, 30(2), pp. 228-252DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2019.1619034

Kaufman, D. (2015) Restoring the “unbroken continuity of our history”: Commemoration of the Great War in the former Russian Empire. Comillas Journal of International Relations, 2, pp. 31-48

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