I am a specialist in the literature, culture, and history of the Atlantic world in the period 1600-1850. I have published extensively on the cultures of slavery and abolition, colonial America and the Caribbean, and discourses of science and exploration in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially natural history and the early life sciences. My most recent book is The Unnatural Trade: Slavery, Abolition, and Environmental Writing, 1650–1807, which was published by Yale University Press in 2024.

My current major project is ‘The Parish Revolution: Parochial Origins of Global Conservationism’. This explores the contribution of the clergy to the development of natural history, and their lasting influence on the nature of the conservation movement. This project was generously supported by the British Academy and the Wolfson Foundation. You can find out more about the project here.

I came to Northumbria in 2016, before which I had taught at Kingston University London for 15 years. I studied English and History at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London, and then took my MA and PhD in English at Queen Mary, University of London. To help develop my scientific understanding, I took a BSc in Natural Sciences with the Open University, which concluded with an ecological study of seaweed species on the Northumberland coast.

I am active within the scholarly community and have been Conference Organiser, Treasurer, International Officer, and, most recently, President of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. I have also been both President and Treasurer of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, UK and Ireland, and President of the Literary London Society. I am a fellow of the English Association, of the Linnean Society of London, and of the Royal Historical Society. You can find more information about my research and career, as well as many free resources for studying literature, slavery, empire, and natural history on my website.