three Students walking in Nidd Foyer

Postgraduate study

A PhD or Masters from the Wilberforce Institute is more than a qualification. Our students’ research and study help inform policies and practices around emancipation issues. Their work drives the agenda to help tackle modern-day slavery.

Graduates form the vibrant heart of our community, undertaking cutting-edge scholarship that shapes the direction of slavery studies, past and present.

PhD clusters

Our current PhD clusters are focusing on the consequences of slavery for individuals today and how children can fall through the net of protections that have been designed to prevent their exploitation.

Living with the consequences of slavery

This cluster of three projects is investigating problems experienced by those living in the shadow of modern forms of slavery.
A child worker on a dusty building site

Falling through the net

This cluster is explaining three case studies of children who were moved across borders. Two involve the organised movement of children to new homes in Canada and Australia early in the twentieth century.
Migrant children

Many of our postgraduate students go on to do research and engagement work that informs the policies and practices of government, NGOs, museums, education and the wider community in matters of historical and modern slavery.

Former student Dr Alicia Kidd was named as one of the Top 100 Corporate Influencers in Modern Slavery, and is now employed at the Wilberforce Institute as a Modern Slavery Lecturer and Researcher.  Another former student, May Ikeora, sits on ETAHT’s Board and Committee in Nigeria, and has published a book presenting a case study of human trafficking from Nigeria to the UK.  These are just two of many examples of former Wilberforce Institute students working to dismantle slavery and human trafficking around the world.

Learn more
Postgraduate student reading in the Brynmor Jones Library

The employability of our postgraduates is something we are especially proud of, with our former students securing prestigious roles with Non-Government Organisations, Museums, Universities and other parts of the Education Sector. Our postgraduate opportunities include a number of Masters and PhD programmes. Students can also take an MRes (Masters by research) or MA by Thesis in partnership with the Department of History. Please click on the link to access more information.

More information

For those interested in following our PhD programme, we welcome applications from all disciplines, which to date have included History, Criminology, Law, Education, Anthropology, Modern Languages, and Heritage Studies.

Each graduate is supervised by two experienced scholars, and since we specialise in interdisciplinary research, one of these scholars is usually a permanent member of academic staff at the Institute and the other a leading scholar from a related discipline on the main university campus. This ensures that all our students receive the level of support they need. Students are guaranteed their own dedicated desk space within the Institute to allow them to make maximum use of our on-site research library and its considerable resources. The postgraduates run their own Graduate Seminar Programme, organise internal and external events, and are provided with opportunities to engage with leading scholars from home and abroad. Decisions about applicants are made in the first instance on an individual basis by the academics who will be supervising them. If we are able to provide supervision, you will then need to apply through the usual University channels.

Further information

Doctoral College

Postgraduate fees

Postgraduate Research Scholarships

If you are interested in Postgraduate Study please contact Dr Judith Spicksley attaching a cv and a proposal of c. 800 words in length of the research you intend to carry out.

Email us

Our past students

James Baker

Reconciling Forced Child Migration to Australia.

2023 - Supervisors: Dr Nicholas Evans and Dr Judith Spicksley

Charlotte Russell

Power, Agency and ‘Crisis Maintenance’ - the safeguarding experience of refugees in the Aegean.

2023: Supervisors: Professor Simon Green and Dr Alicia Heys

Sarah Colley

The investigation and representation of multi-perpetrator child sexual exploitation (CSE) in England and Wales.

2024: Professor Iain Brennan

Feisal Farah

'Not quickly cleansed': Bids for Freedom by Former Slaves in Mombasa and the Coastal Strip of Kenya, 1895-1945

2023 P D Richardson and ME Turner

Saphia Fleury

Applying the ‘useable past’ to the protection of climate migrants: Child Displacement from Vietnam and Montserrat, 1975-2000

2023 D Parsons and T Burnard

Loria-Mae Heywood

Child trafficking, child protection and the fitness of the law: Vietnam, Albania and Nigeria

2022 S Green and G Johnstone

Anta Brachou

Human Trafficking from Albania: Interrogating the efficacy of the 4Ps Paradigm of Prevention, Protection, Prosecution and Partnerships

2022 M Wilkinson and M Zernova

Chloe Wilson

The Identification and Treatment of Human Trafficking Victims: Policy, Practice and Protection

2021 G Johnstone and S Green

Edward P. Mair

Indians, Maroons and Estelusti: A Reconsideration of the role of Reciprocity and Slavery in the Biracial Relations of the Florida Seminoles, 1780-1850

2019 J Porter and J Oldfield

Craig Barlow

Child Criminal Exploitation: A new systematic model to improve professional assessment, investigation and intervention

2020 S Green and G Johnstone

Alicia Heys

The Dynamics of Contemporary Slavery and Conflict

2018 S Green and H Johnston

Rowena Elizabeth Shepherd

The Scale and Extent of Forced Labour in the UK: Can the Existing Legislative and Administrative Address the Problem?

2018 M Wilkinson and A R Calverley

Fiona De Hoog Cius

The Complicity of Women in Child Slavery: A Gender Analysis of Haiti and the Restavek System

2017 S M Clisby and K B Bales

Sam North

Contested Pasts, Forgotten Voices: Remembering and Representing Slavery in South Africa

2017 N J Evans and H Dampier

Lauren Darwin

Convict Transportation in the Age of Abolition 1787-1807

2016 N J Evans and J Oldfield

Zhaleh Bahiyyih Boyd

Contextualizing Slavery: A Framework for Understanding the Relationship between the Enslaver and the Enslaved

2016 M Wilkinson and K B Bales

Angelina Gillian Osborne

Power and Persuasion: the London West India Committee, 1783-1833

2015 D J Hamilton and C Prior

Emmanuel Saboro

Slavery, Memory and Orality: Analysis of Song Texts from Northern Ghana

2015 P D Richardson and J R Oldfield

Julie Claire Walsh

Displaying Families: Exploring the Significance of 'Display' in a City that is Increasingly Culturally Diverse

2015 J D Seymour and M Wilkinson

Ryan James Hanley

Black Writing in Britain, 1770-1830

2015 N Evans and D J Hamilton

May Nkriu Ikeora

Interstate Cooperation and Anti-Human Trafficking: Assessing the Existing Approaches between Nigeria and the United Kingdom

2014 J Quirk and R M Burchill

David Wilkins

Repairing Historical Wrongs: The Role of Education and Commemoration in Overcoming the Legacies of Transatlantic Slavery

2013 J G Johnstone and J Quirk

Stacey Jean Muriel Sommerdyk

Trade and the Merchant Communities of the Loango Coast in the Eighteenth Century

2012 P D Richardson and S D Smith

Angel Smith

An Anatomy of a Slave Society in Transition: Virgin Islands 1807-1864

2012 P D Richardson and D J Hamilton

Mary Constance Wills

The Royal Navy and the Suppression of the Atlantic Slave Trade, c.1807-1865: Anti-Slavery, Empire and Identity

2012 P D Richardson and D J Hamilton

Bob Mouncer

Dealt with on their Merits?: The Treatment of Asylum Seekers in the UK and France

2010 M M Kilkey and G Craig

Lindsay Doulton

The Royal Navy's Anti-slavery Campaign in the Western Indian Ocean, c. 1860-1890: Race, Empire and Identity

2010 M M Kilkey and G Craig

Ahmed Nyerere Reid

Economic Growth in a Slave Plantation Society: the Case of Jamaica, 1750-1805

2008 P D Richardson and M E Turner

Hannah Jane Lewis

Interrogating Community: Dispersed Refugees in Leeds

2007 G Craig and S Jansen

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