Dr Philip Boobbyer

Philip Boobbyer read Modern Languages at Trinity College Cambridge, before doing an MA in Russian Areas Studies at Georgetown University, Washington DC (1986-88), and a PhD in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics (1989-1992). After temporary appointments at the University of Westminster and the LSE, he came to the University of Kent in 1995. He is currently the School of History's Director of Graduate Studies.

Much of Philip's work has been on Russian intellectual history. His first book, S. L. Frank: The Life and Work of a Russian Philosopher 1877-1950 (1995), was a study of one of Russia's leading philosophers. He is also author of Conscience, Dissent and Reform in Soviet Russia (2005), an analysis of the ethical thinking of Soviet dissidents and Communist Party reformers in the late Soviet era. 

Philip is also interested in religious thought and the history of spirituality. His book The Spiritual Vision of Frank Buchman (2013), explored the ideas of an American religious leader well-known for his legacy in the fields of reconciliation and interfaith dialogue. 

There is a biographical emphasis in much of Philip's writing. His most recent book, The Life and World of Francis Rodd, Lord Rennell (1895-1978): Geography, Money and War (2021), is about the multi-faceted life of the man who headed the first military government in Allied-occupied Europe.   

Philip teaches on revolutionary Europe, Russia 1881-1945, the decline and fall of the Soviet Union, and Soviet propaganda. He has an interactive approach to teaching in which students are encouraged to contribute to seminars as much as possible.  

Philip is interested in supervising research students in modern political, religious and intellectual history.