Caroline Davis's main teaching and research interests are in book history and publishing history from the 19th century to the 21st century. Her research focuses on British postcolonial publishing, and in particular on literary publishing histories in Africa. She is the author of Creating Postcolonial Literature: African Writers and British Publishers (Palgrave, 2013) and the co-editor of The Book in Africa: Critical Debates (Palgrave, 2015).
Caroline has specific research interests in the following areas: (1) the relationship between African authors and their publishers; (2) British colonial and postcolonial publishing in Africa; (3) the history of the book in Africa; (4) print and publishing culture in South Africa in the apartheid era.
She is the lead applicant of the British Academy International Partnership and Mobility Project entitled Print Culture in South Africa in the 20th Century (2014-16), between Oxford Brookes University and University of Pretoria. She is also the leader of the Print Culture Research Group at Oxford Brookes University. She organised The Academic Book in the South conference at the British Library in March 2016: an investigation into the future of the academic book in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East.