Dr Robert Frost

I specialise in the history of ideas (also commonly referred to as intellectual history), in relation to the history of archaeology, especially Egyptology. At the University of Nottingham, I completed an AHRC-funded PhD on the work of the British antiquary and Egyptologist Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797-1875), specifically into neglected areas of his work. From such research, it is clear that much early 19th century archaeology was of a high standard, and anticipated modern landscape history and environmental approaches by over a century. 

I joined the University of Leicester in November 2023 to work on a Leverhulme-funded project on the relationship between Egyptology and cartography, by interrogating how scholars and Egyptologists -- from the 18th to the 20th centuries -- have used maps to advance arguments and showcase findings.

At Leicester, I participate in the Urban history research group. Beyond my university, I am a member of the British Cartographic Society; the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East; and the Egypt Exploration Society. My hobbies include reading and walking.

Frost, R. (2023). Sir John Gardner Wilkinson: the self-fashioning of an antiquarian Egyptologist. Journal of Victorian Culture, 20, 1-23.

Frost, R. (2022). A Forgotten Chapter in Egyptology: Sir John Gardner Wilkinson’s Investigations into a Dynamic Nile. Journal of Historical Geography, 75, 1, 42-54.

Frost, R. (2022). A Geologist and an Egyptologist in Conversation: Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John Gardner Wilkinson. Notes and Records of the Royal Society.

Frost, R. (2022). John Gardner Wilkinson’s Fieldwork in Alexandria and Thebes: an Early-Nineteenth-Century Predecessor to Modern Landscape Archaeology? Bulletin of the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East, 86, 7-13.

Frost, R. (2021). Book Review: Egyptologists' Notebooks. African Archaeological Review, 38, 1.

Frost, R. (2019). Book Review: The Landscape Studies of Hayman Rooke (1723-1806). Antiquarianism, Archaeology and Natural History in the Eighteenth Century. Landscape History, 40, 2: 148-149.