Dr Matthias Wong

[email protected]

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I was previously the Postdoctoral Research Assistant (Digital) on the Brightening the Covenant Chain project where I contributed to the development of the Project’s digital elements.

I am a historian of early modern mental worlds, with interests in understanding senses of time and place, and the repercussions of trauma and disruption. My doctoral research at the University of Cambridge examined the execution of King Charles I as a moment of ideational change and adaptation. Taking a diachronic approach to periodicals like almanacs and newsbooks, I traced how ideas of time and the future evolved in response to unexpected political change. 

My work at Treatied Spaces understood treaties and diplomatic negotiations as similar sites of ideational encounter and adaptation. These were occasions where different conceptual universes were brought into conversation, where ideas and metaphors were learned and traded. By understanding how each side communicated concepts like territory and sovereignty, we can gain valuable insights into how they saw and understood the world around them, and how they thought the world should function. 

As Postdoctoral Research Assistant, I visualised concepts of space and movement in the form of a ‘Kinetic Map’. This digital platform, created in collaboration with King’s Digital Lab, is an exciting opportunity to communicate historical research and sources in a new visual manner.

I collaborated on a range of Knowledge Exchange projects on decolonising UK history in schools. I am also co-lead on a project to incorporate societal impacts on the evaluation of UK outer space activities, for which I was awarded the University’s Best Knowledge Exchange Postdoc Prize.

Recent and Upcoming Talks

Thinking More Widely About Sustainability in Space @ Cambridge (22 February 2023)

Lunar Ambassadors: British Perceptions of Moon Samples @ NASA & Georgetown (30 September 2022) 

Research/publications

‘A pause in time: history writers and the regicide of Charles I’, Historical Research 94 (2021), pp. 758-781. https://doi.org/10.1093/hisres/htab029 

‘Using Correspondence and Manuscripts in Literary Archives’, in Research Methods for Primary Sources (2021), Adam Matthew. https://doi.org/10.47594/rmps_0098  

‘Using Newspapers as Historical Sources’, in Research Methods for Primary Sources (2021), Adam Matthew. https://doi.org/10.47594/rmps_0105 

Impact, KE and Collaborations

Transforming Treatied Spaces Research Group Decolonization KE Work with Pearson, Edexcel and AQA Exam Boards into U.K. Policy

  • Identify access routes to Department for Education, Ofsted and Ofqual
  • Author a series of policy papers that summarize the importance of retaining or expanding the ‘breadth’ component, with reference to world history
  • Organise the Group’s experience with Pearson, Edexcel and AQA Exam Boards into evidence format for submissions to future Parliamentary Committees inquiries on history education
  • Formulate the Group’s response to the subject specifications reform process at AQA and Pearson Edexcel

‘Green Toolkit for a New Space Economy’

  • We piloted the design of a rigorous toolkit enabling industry to evaluate the social and environmental impact of the entire lifecycle of space projects
  • Co-authored a Green Paper on the Sustainability of the UK Space’s Economy
  • The toolkit would benefit industry, governments and users by offering a unified platform that integrates a range of complex standards across agencies, industries and civil society
  • Collaboration with Universities of Edinburgh, Southampton, York St John and a UK space SME
  • News feature, Project website and Press release.

‘Using computer vision to recover Indigenous presence and knowledge via a genealogy of colonial maps of America’ – The Alan Turing Institute

Exploring the use of high-performance computing to trace the impact of Indigenous cartographic contributions, in collaboration with The Alan Turing Institute and supported by an Alan Turing Post-Doctoral Enhancement Award

‘Movement and Common Worlds in Early America’ – King’s Digital Lab

A ‘Kinetic Map’ with King’s Digital Lab, using historical maps from the British Library to illustrate Indigenous presence across Northeast America

‘Sharing Stories Across the Ocean’ – North American Native Museum (NONAM)

Currently in development in collaboration with NONAM in Zurich.  

Qualifications/Education

PhD in History, University of Cambridge

MSc in International Relations, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University

Joint BA/PhB (Hons) in History, National University of Singapore and the Australian National University

Professional Activities/Service/Memberships, and Honours

Associate Editor of Elements in Indigenous Environmental Research 

Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)

Member of the AHRC Peer Review College, Historical Geography Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society, Society for Renaissance Studies, Folklore Society, UKRI Early Career Researcher Forum.