I am a specialist in slavery and its legacies in the US and the UK. After completing my PhD at the University of Liverpool in 2015, I spent two years at the University of Bristol before joining Liverpool John Moores University in September 2018. After significant time spent in Liverpool and Bristol, two cities that were at the heart of Britain's slave economy, I have developed a strong interest in institutions that deal with difficult pasts. I am one of two international representatives on the Universities Studying Slavery Consortium's steering committee, and I have spoken at a UNESCO conference in the US on British Universities and Slavery. I established the LJMU and Slavery Project in 2018 and worked as academic lead, researching LJMU's history alongside undergraduate and postgraduate students. Some of this research can be found on this website, LiverpoolSlavery.com. I now provide oversight on the project, which is now being undertaken by Dr Isabel Robinson, a postdoctoral researcher.

I have offered commentary and consultation on contemporary racial issues and legacies of slavery to BBC radio, NPR (US), and various national newspapers.

My forthcoming book with Louisiana State University Press is titled ‘Voices of the Formerly Enslaved in Louisiana: The WPA Narratives’ was funded by the British Academy. The work is a monograph/critical collection of unpublished interviews with formerly enslaved people from Louisiana that were conducted by Black and white writers employed by the New Deal’s Federal Writers’ Project. This book is part of a two book project, with the second book due for completion in 2024.

My new book project seeks to understand the intersection of sexual violence and involuntary motherhood under slavery in the Lower US South. I am especially interested in the role of enslaved midwives in helping enslaved women to resist forced reproduction and shape understandings of reproductive justice in the context of the nineteenth century. Associated with this project I am currently leading on two research grants. The first is a British Academy SHAPE Involve and Engage Award, a collaboration with the International Slavery Museum (https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/international-slavery-museum) and Collective Encounters (https://collective-encounters.org.uk/) in a project exploring the use of creative methodologies to engage and include underrepresented voices in museum spaces. The second is a research grant co-led by Clare Maxwell, Reader in Maternal and Infant Health, to work with History and Midwifery students on a set of decolonising interventions into the midwifery curriculum.

Degrees

2015, University of Liverpool, UK, PhD
2008, University of Liverpool, UK, MA Atlantic History 

Academic appointments

External Examiner, History, Queen Mary University of London, 2023 - present
International Representative, Universities Studying Slavery Steering Committee, University of Virginia, 2023 - present
Lecturer in the History of Slavery, University of Bristol, 2016 - 2018