Meet our people

Our team is made up of scholars, research fellows, postgraduate students and affiliates. We’re working together to learn from historical slavery and eradicate modern exploitation.

Our staff

Dr Simon Green

Professor Simon Green

Wilberforce Institute Director

Professor Green's research is primarily in the fields of victimology, vulnerabilities and crime control.

Sophie Blanchard

Sophie Blanchard

Modern Slavery and Partnership Administrator.

Dr Nick Evans

Dr Nicholas J Evans

Wilberforce Institute Deputy Director

Dr Evans’ research focuses on voluntary and coerced migration to, through and from Britain.

Saphia Fleury

Dr Saphia Fleury

Research Fellow

Dr Fleury's research interests include human rights law, climate change and human migration.

Cassandra Gooptar

Dr Cassandra Gooptar

Lecturer in Legacies of Slavery

Dr Gooptar focuses on stories of the enslaved and exploring the links between British organisations and historical slavery.

Dr. Alicia Heys

Dr Alicia Heys

Senior Lecturer & Researcher in Modern Slavery

Alicia specialises in issues of policy, agency and representation. She is a research fellow for the Modern Slavery & Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre, looking at the legal enforcement of modern slavery.

Tiffany-Langford-Wilberforce-Institute

Tiffany Langford

Collections Intern

Tiffany is working with the Wilberforce Institute and Ferens Art Gallery to research Thomas Ferens, founder of both institutions

Dr Daniel Ogunniyi

Dr Daniel Ogunniyi

Lecturer in Modern Slavery

Dr Ogunniyi's interests lie in the areas of modern slavery, children’s rights, human rights, and international law broadly construed, with a particular focus on Africa.

Dr Jen Nghishitende

Dr Jen Nghishitende

Wiseman Khuzwayo Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr Nghishitende's research interests are life after modern slavery and human trafficking, immigration, belonging, intersectionality, women’s rights, vulnerability

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith

Manager, Justice Hub and Coordinator of the Humber Modern Slavery Partnership.

Andrew brings over 10 years’ experience as a practitioner working with at-risk groups to coordinate the Anti-Slavery agenda regionally and across the UK.

Judith Spicksley New

Dr Judith M Spicksley

Lecturer at the Wilberforce Institute

Dr Spicksley is an economic and social historian whose research currently focuses on the relationship between enslavement and debt.

Cristina Talens

Cristina Talens

Director of Modern Slavery Risk Assessments/ Head of Business Risk Assessment Services

Ms Talens advises businesses on how to eradicate slavery from their supply chains.

Our students

Mavuto Kambochola Banda

Mavuto Kambochola Banda

PhD Cluster: Living with the Consequences of Slavery

Supervisors: Dr Elsbeth Robson, Dr Judith Spicksley and Professor Lewis Holloway

Laura Birkinshaw

Laura Birkinshaw

Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarships Centre for Water Cultures Scholar

Supervisors: Dr Nicholas Evans

Fred Bricknell

Fred Bricknell

PhD Candidate: Water, Slavery, and Unfree Labour in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire

Supervisors: Professor Briony McDonagh

Joanne Butcher

Joanne Butcher

Transatlantic Cultures of Incarceration Cluster

Supervisors: Dr David Eldridge and Dr Alicia Heys

Lewis Carter

Lewis Carter

ESRC White Rose Doctoral Training Programme Scholar

Supervisors: Dr Nicholas Evans, Professor Rudi Wurzel and Professor Andy Jonas

Ryan Clarke

Ryan Clarke

Living with Death - Learning from COVID Cluster

Supervisors: Dr Nicholas Evans and Dr Judith Spicksley

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Frantisek Conka

Investigating the long-term reintegration of people with lived experience of human trafficking and modern slavery

Supervisors: Professor Simon Green and Dr Alicia Heys; Funding via ESRC Collaborative doctoral scholarship

Adiva Lawrence

Adiva Lawrence

The memorialisation of transatlantic slavery in museums of black heritage and the uses of art

Supervisors: Professor Helen Johnston and Dr Susan Ashley (Northumbria University)

Lance Parker

Lance Parker

Survivalists: Communities and kinship in enslaved and Maroon societies during the 17th and 18th centuries in South Carolina and the Caribbean.

Supervisors: Dr Cassandra Gooptar

Giulia Repetti

Giulia Repetti

PhD in Social Justice: Centre for Water Culture. Investigating the link between climate-related water stresses, migration and human trafficking

Supervisory team: Dr. Alicia Heys and Professor Briony McDonagh

Laura Skinner

Laura Skinner

Transatlantic Cultures of Incarceration Cluster

Supervisors: Dr Alicia Heys and Dr Jo Metcalf

Associates

Rina Arya 600

Professor Rina Arya

Head of the School of the Arts, University of Hull

Prof Arya’s areas of expertise include decolonising, heritage politics and South Asian visual culture.

Prof Gary Craig

Professor Gary Craig

Visiting Professor

Gary Craig was the world's first Professor of Social Justice when appointed at the University of Hull in 2000. He was one of the three founders of the Wilberforce Institute in 2006 where he led on modern slavery.

Harriet-Deacon

Dr Harriet Deacon

Lecturer in DAIM at the University of Hull

Dr Deacon has research interests in a range of different fields, including intellectual property law, medical history, stigma and discrimination, tangible and intangible heritage.

Helen Johnston UOH_4722

Professor Helen Johnston

Professor of Criminology

Professor Johnston is an expert in the history of crime and punishment from the year 1750 onwards.

Professor Gerry Johnstone

Professor Gerry Johnstone

Professor of Law

Professor Johnstone’s interests include punishment, restorative justice and overcriminalisation.

Prof Thomas Lundmark

Professor Thomas Lundmark

Thomas Lundmark became the first American law professor at a German university when he was appointed Chair in Common Law and Comparative Legal Theory at the University of Muenster.

Prof John Oldfield

Professor John Oldfield

Emeritus Professor of History and Emancipation

A former director of the Wilberforce Institute, Professor Oldfield’s interests lie in the history of slavery and abolition.

Simon Smith

Professor Simon Smith

Professor of International History/ Graduate Research Director

Professor Smith will use the Wilberforce Institute Sabbatical to research Slavery and the Slave Trade in Arabia and the Gulf, between 1924-1971.

Michael Turner

Professor Michael Turner

Emeritus Professor

Professor Michael Turner is one of the three original founders of the Wilberforce Institute, although his expertise lies in land tenure, and in particular the history of copyhold land.

mick-wilkinson

Dr Mick Wilkinson

Lecturer in Race and Social Justice

Dr Wilkinson’s research interests include 21st century slavery and transnational organised crime.

Honorary fellows and honorary associates

Professor Manuel Barcia

Professor Manuel Barcia

Chair of Global History, University of Leeds.

Dr Craig Barlow

Dr Craig Barlow

Independent Forensic Social Work Consultant & Criminologist

Expert adviser to police and prosecutors in cases of trafficking and modern slavery.

Steven Behrendt

Dr Steven Behrendt

Associate Professor

School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations at the Victoria University.

Gifty Burrows

Gifty Burrows

Educator and Project Lead

Freelance - working to broaden historic and contemporary narratives to include people of African descent.

Dr Dean Clay

Dr Dean Clay

Honorary Research Fellow, University of Hull

Research interests in the field of US activism, with a specific focus on how activists coordinate and the impact of their activism on government domestic and foreign policy.

Ally-Dunhill

Dr Ally Dunhill

Head of Advocacy at Eurochild

With involvement in a range of research projects around the lived experiences of children and young people, inclusion and the SDGs.

Kate Hodgson

Dr Kate Hodgson

Lecturer in French, University College, Cork

Research interests are focused in the areas of Francophone Postcolonial Studies and Slavery Studies.

angela-mccarthy-honorary-fellow

Professor Angela McCarthy

Director of the Centre for Global Migrations, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Professor of Scottish and Irish History with research interests in a range of global migrations including the forced migration of slaves and refugees.

Jeff Morgan

Dr Jeff Morgan

Physician/Psychiatrist (retired)

He is concerned with modern slavery amongst asylum seekers & third world workers with asbestos & other hazardous materials.

Eva Veldhuizen Ochodničanová

Eva Veldhuizen Ochodničanová

Forensic Psychologist

Consultant to international organisations in Child Sexual Abuse and trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Karen Okra

Karen Okra

Community activist and champion of female and race equality

Black History Month advacate and board member for the Hull Freedom Festival.

Prof Andrew O'Shaughnessy

Professor Andrew O'Shaughnessy

Professor at the University of Virginia

Specialist in eighteenth century atlantic history, including the British Empire.

Angelina Osborne

Dr Angelina Osborne

Heritage consultant, independent researcher on Black British and imperial histories, and author.

joel_quirk

Professor Joel Quirk

Professor in Political Studies, University of the Witwatersrand

His research focuses upon slavery and abolition, human mobility and human rights, repairing historical wrongs, and the history and politics of sub-Saharan Africa.

anthony-rabin

Dr Anthony Rabin

Honorary Research Fellow

Research on History of the Jewish People in the Greco Roman Period and Slavery in the Ancient World.

Emma Roberts Wilberforce Institute Affliliate 600

Dr Emma Evelyn Roberts

Associate Dean for Global Engagement, Liverpool John Moores University

Art historian based at Liverpool John Moores University. Her areas of research focus on Jamaican art and design, industrial regeneration, and maritime art history.

Theresa Roberts Wilberforce Institute Affiliate 600

Theresa Roberts

Jamaican Ambassador for Arts and Culture to the UK

Founder and owner of The Jamaica Patty Co. a Jamaican restaurant chain with several outlets in London. She is also a philanthropist, art collector, and Jamaican Ambassador or Arts and Culture to the UK.

Chandler Saint

Chandler B. Saint

Honorary Research Fellow

Co-director of VENTURESMITH.org and President of Beecher House Center for Equal Rights

prof-suzanne-schwarz

Professor Suzanne Schwarz

Professor of History, Politics and Sociology, University of Worcester

Research interests in the transatlantic slave trade and abolition in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Dr Zahra Shirgholami

Dr Zahra Shirgholami

Research Fellow

A former Wilberforce Institute researcher, Dr Shirgholami works at the University of Manchester, Re-envisioning Business as a Force for Good

meghna-singh-echoes

Dr Meghna Singh

Honorary Research Fellow

I work with mediums of video and installation, blurring boundaries between documentary and fiction to create immersive environments highlighting issues of 'humanism'

Lee_Karen_Stow

Dr Lee Karen Stow

Documentary photographer & visual researcher of untold narratives of women survivors of war, conflict, persecution & forced displacement. Wilberforce Women & Freedom Women Collective founder.

James Wavin

Emeritus Professor Jim Walvin

Professor of History Emeritus at the University of York.

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Dr David Wilkins

Teacher of Religious Studies, History and Classics

Research interests focus on the histories and legacies of slavery, lessons for today and education, truth telling and reparations.

mary-wills

Dr Mary Wills

Formerly Postdoctoral Researcher at the Wilberforce Institute, Dr Wills studies Britain's role in historic slavery and abolition.

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Nuala Zahedieh

Honorary Research Fellow

Research: Slavery in the early modern British Atlantic economy with a focus on the Caribbean.

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