Dr Isabel Davis

Isabel Davis is the Research Theme Leader in Collections and Culture, bringing arts and humanities perspectives to the Natural History Museum's world-class specimen and library and archive collections. She also holds honorary research fellowships at the University of Reading and Birkbeck, University of London.

She trained as an interdisciplinary medievalist at the University of York and taught medieval literature and culture at the University of York, Leeds Trinity University, the University of Warwick, and Birkbeck, University of London. Her research into conception and fertility moved her into cross-period health and environmental humanities. Isabel has had a long-term collaboration with artist and illustrator, Anna Burel, which has developed her interest in creative forms of public engagement. For a complete list of publications, follow the link to her Orcid profile.

Her recent research has been funded by an AHRC Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship, (Mis)Conceptions: A Cultural History of Pregnancy Ambiguity (Sept 2023 to March 2025). Her research interests are in historical health humanities - especially fertility, conception and embryology, human and non-human animal studies, and environmental history.

She supports researchers from all arts and humanities backgrounds to research the Natural History Museum's collections and thematic areas.

She is open to supervising new doctoral students in arts and humanities disciplines, based at UK Higher Education Institutions and with subject expertise from a relevant HEI supervisor, to work on Natural History Museum collections.