Profile

Profile

Upon completing my undergraduate degree in English Literature and History at Durham University in 2023, I moved to Leeds to undertake an MA Race and Resistance in the School of History. My research has predominetly focused on intersectional histories of enslavement and resistance in the early 19^th century Caribbean. During this time, I worked in as an Education Outreach Fellow for the Arts & Humanities Education and Engagemernt Team at Leeds.

Prior to my PhD, I worked in the education sector as a Education and Engagement Assistant for UK Parliament. In October 2025, I returned to Leeds to undertake a PhD, where I am fortunate to be funded by the White Rose College of Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH).

Bluesky: @amycottrill.bsky.social

Awards

• The Marion Sharples Prize for Best Taught MA Dissertation, The University of Leeds (2024) – Awarded for best dissertation of a taught MA student.
• School of History Outstanding Achievement Award (MA), The University of Leeds (2024) – Awarded to an MA History student for highest possible classification average across several MA programs.
• Kitchener Scholarship Grant, Kitchener Scholars Association (2020) – Funding for undergraduate study for children of armed forces service personnel.

Conferences

Cottrill, A., ‘Enquiring about Freedom: Networks of Resistance and Confrontation of Women of Colour in Tortola, 1807 – 1828’. Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies’ Caribbean Studies Seminar Series, Centre for Advanced Study, University of London (Seminar paper, April 2025).

Cottrill, A., Enquiring about Freedom: Networks of Resistance and Confrontation of Women of Colour in Tortola, 1807 – 1828’. 10^th Annual Postgraduate Conference of the Society of Caribbean Studies (Conference paper, April 2025).

Research interests

Research Interests

My PhD will utilize legal and trial records to examine the African identities and experiences that shaped resistance within the 1844 investigations of a supposed slave uprising in Cuba known as Conspiración de La Escalera. My research investigates how African languages, religions, warfares, and leadership structures are revealed in testimony, and connected through resistance. Connecting histories of West Africa and Cuba will aid in rejecting the reliance on Western constructions of rebellion and resistance. Embedding this micro-history into the connected histories of Cuba and West Africa will bring the voices and testimonies of enslaved peoples to the forefront of history. My research’s exploration of the cross-Atlantic connections, disparities, and evolutions of enslaved African identities will re-shape approaches to rebellion and enslavement, thus altering constructions of resistance in Caribbean colonialism.

This research sits within broader topics of interest, including (but not limited to) the following fields:

• Transatlantic slavery and forced migrations
• 19^th century Cuba
• Resistance
• Abolition
• Atlantic History
• Caribbean History
• African Diapora
• Empire and Colonialism

I welcome correspondence and avenues for collaboration on any of these topics.

I am a member of the following research groups and associations:

• Society of Caribbean Studies
• Empires and Aftermath
• Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Muesums
• Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Qualifications

• MA Race and Resistance
• BA English Literature and History

Research groups and institutes

• Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums
• Empires and Aftermath
• Women, Gender, and Sexuality