Dr Christopher Prior PhD, FRHistS, FHEA
Associate Professor in Colonial and Postcolonial History, Director of Programmes
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A historian researching the British Empire and legacies of empire, with a particular interest in modern Africa
I am a historian of Britain and the British Empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. My research has tended to concentrate on the intellectual and socio-political networks that created and underpinned Britain’s colonial and post-colonial actions and sensibilities in the modern era.
My first book, Exporting Empire, looked at how domestic British social practices and attitudes shaped, and failed to shape, the ways in which empire functioned ‘on the spot’ in sub-Saharan Africa between the end of the 19th century and the Second World War. My second book, Edwardian England and the Idea of Racial Decline, considered the impact of the Second Anglo-Boer War on British ideas about race and identity.
I am currently researching British foreign policy in sub-Saharan Africa in the wake of decolonisation, considering the roles that the British government tried to create for itself in this newly emerging postcolonial context. The resultant monograph will address key policy aims such as the management of external emerging actors such as the United States, key thematic concerns such as democracy and communism, and key policy actions such as military intervention and counter-espionage MI6 intelligence.
Qualifications
PhD, University of Durham 2007
MA, University of Durham 2003
BA, University of Durham 2002
Career History
Associate Professor in Colonial and Postcolonial History, University of Southampton, 2018-present
Lecturer in Twentieth Century History, University of Southampton, 2012-2018
Lecturer in Twentieth Century British History, University College Dublin, 2010-2012
Lecturer in Imperial History, University of Leeds, 2007-2010
Lecturer in Imperial History, Durham University, 2006-2007
