Summary
Simon C. Smith is Professor of International International History in the School of Humanities at the University of Hull. He is an expert on British imperialism and decolonization in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, as well as post-war Anglo-American relations. His current research focusses on slavery and the slave trade in the Arab world. In furtherance of this he was based at the Wilberforce Institute in 2023-4. He has published nine books including a trilogy of monographs on the modern history of the Persian Gulf . His OUP/British Academy study, Kuwait, 1950-1965: Britain, the al-Sabah and Oil, and his CUP book, British Imperialism, 1750-1970, have both appeared in translation. In addition, he has published widely in leading academic journals, including Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Middle Eastern Studies, Contemporary British History, and Journal of Transatlantic Studies. He is also on the Editorial Board for a number of journals including Middle Eastern Studies. He was part of the team which delivered the ground-breaking British Documents on the End of Empire Project. This prestigious series, for which he produced the volume on Malta, was supported by the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, and the AHRC. As regards Knowledge Exchange, his expertise has been drawn upon extensively by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office for which he has delivered numerous talks and briefing papers on the modern history of the Gulf.