Historian, broadcaster and film-maker David Olusoga has joined The University of Manchester as a Professor of Public History.

David, who presented the BBC’s landmark series Civilisations in 2018 alongside Simon Schama and Mary Beard, is one of the UK’s foremost historians whose main subject areas are empire, race and slavery. He was made an OBE in the recent New Year’s Honours List.

He was born in Nigeria to a Nigerian father and British mother, and migrated to the UK with his mother as a young child. He grew up in Gateshead and lived on a council estate. Later his home was attacked by the National Front on multiple occasions and his family eventually forced out of their home. He later attended the University of Liverpool to study the history of slavery.