Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Professor Robert Burroughs
Dean of School
Robert Burroughs is Professor and Head of English at Leeds Beckett University, UK. He is a cultural historian and literary critic working on the nineteenth century. He specializes in the areas of empire, humanitarianism, slavery, race, and Black British history. He has also published widely research on travel and tourism, particularly in marine environments.
An expert on King Leopold II's Congo Free State, in 2022, Rob served as an expert witness in the Belgian Parliament's Special Commission on the colonial past.
For 2024, Rob is Linda H. Peterson Fellow of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals, undertaking a project titled 'S.J. Celestine Edwards, the "Black Champion" of Victorian Oral and Print Culture'.
Rob's books include Travel Writing and Atrocities (Routledge 2011, 2015), The Suppression of the Atlantic Slave Trade (co-edited, Manchester UP 2015, 2017), African Testimony in the Movement for Congo Reform (Routledge 2018), and Black Students in Imperial Britain (Liverpool UP, 2022- available freely)
Rob's articles have appeared in leading journals including Victorian Literature and Culture, Journal of Victorian Culture, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Slavery & Abolition, and Postcolonial Studies.
Rob is a recipient of funding from the AHRC, The Leverhulme Trust (Early Career Fellowship, 2007-09, and Research Fellow 2019-20), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (2014-17), and the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (2024).
Current Teaching
- Short stories
- Black British Culture
- Theory into Practice
- Atlantic Slavery
Research Interests
- Black people in print and on stage in nineteenth-century Britain. This research continues the work of his previous book in exploring black people's role in local and national cultures at the heart of the British Empire. As Linda H. Peterson Fellow of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals, in 2024 Rob will pursue these interests in a study of S.J. Celestine Edwards (c.1858-94) , Britain's first black publishers and a prolific speaker and author
- Building on previous work on gratitude and race, study of emotions in British imperialism and debates on empire of today
- Historic consultant in museum/exhibition space, Colwyn Bay, Wales
Ask Me About
- Imperialism
- Ethnicity
- History
- Literature
- Popular culture
- Race
News & Blog Posts
Europe Made in Africa
Other people in this area
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Professor Ruth Robbins
Director of Research / School Of Humanities And Social Sciences -
Dr Daniel Kilvington
Course Director and Reader / School Of Humanities And Social Sciences -
Dr Lisa Taylor
Head of Subject / School Of Humanities And Social Sciences