Meet the team
Dr Jon Watson, course leader. Jon teaches on topics including the histories of racism and anti-racism in the United States, France and Britain from the nineteenth century to the present; the intersections of international politics and the national history of the United States; and on peoples’ histories ‘from below’ looking at how such sources as slave interviews, blues music and zoot suits might help us understand histories of power, marginalisation and resistance. .
Dr Eugene Michail (pictured) works on contemporary European history, and he teaches on: War and Resistance from the early twentieth century to today; Nationalism, Fascism and the modern Far Right; the Holocaust, Genocide and Mass Violence; Radical Histories, and Refugee Histories. .
Dr Christian Hogsbjerg’s teaching relates the history of the African diaspora with respect to how ‘slave-powered globalisation’ shaped the Caribbean region. He has specialist research interests in the resulting struggles against racism, slavery and colonialism (including the Haitian Revolution) and ideas of ‘black internationalism’. .
Dr Zoe Sutherland works on philosophy, critical theory, the history of capitalism, feminist theory, and radical and revolutionary movements. Her current research focuses on disability theory and politics, reproductive politics and eugenics. She has also written on the politics and aesthetics of contemporary artistic practice. .
Dr Mark Abel teaches in the areas of history, global politics and international relations and is particularly interested in the world order in the post-Cold War period, and the resistance movements of the 21st century against corporate globalisation and neo-liberalism. .
Dr Vicky Margree works across cultural studies, cultural history, philosophy and literature. She has particular interests in feminist history, the Victorian period, and the role of literature in contributing to social and political transformation (for example, in apartheid South Africa). .
Dr Anthony Leaker teaches on philosophy and literature, cultural politics, and the representation of conflict and violence, as well as the politics of work and labour. His recent research and teaching has been focused on contemporary culture wars and the politics of ‘free speech’. .
Dr Toby Lovat has research interests in Kantian epistemology and metaphysics, German idealism, Neo-Kantianism, the Frankfurt School, Critical Realism, Speculative Realism, Marxist political economy and social theory, structuralism and post-structuralism, and the historical and ideological roots of liberalism and conservatism. .