Dr Anyaa Anim-Addo

Profile

My research focuses on the relationship between race, gender and mobility in the post-emancipation Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora. As an historian with an interdisciplinary background, I have been particularly interested to work alongside colleagues in the arts, humanities and social sicences in order to interrogate experiences in the region and the diaspora. Prior to joining the University of Leeds, I held a Caird Senior Research Fellowship at Royal Museums Greenwich.

I co-founded the public seminar series Conversations in Black History at the University of Leeds and I have delivered numerous Black History Month workshops and events both within and beyond the city.

I am the Deputy Director of Student Education. I have previously served as Director of Taught Postgraduate Studies and Study Abroad Coordinator. In addition to roles within the School of History, I have served as a board member of the Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, the Centre for Global Development and the Centre for the History of Ibero-America. I am currently Vice-Chair of the Society for Caribbean Studies (UK).

Responsibilities

• Deputy Director of Student Education
• Final Year Projects Coordinator
• Vice-Chair, Society for Caribbean Studies (UK)

Research interests

My current research project examines the sites, networks and politics of Black enterprise in the Atlantic world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I have previously worked on the maritime history of the post-emancipation Caribbean, the social history of port towns and the cultural history of the Caribbean diaspora.

Caribbean In/securities

I acted as a Co-Investigator on the project Caribbean In/securities: Creativity and Negotiation in the Caribbean (CARISCC). Supported by the Leverhulme Trust, this interdisciplinary project examined the everyday negotiation of insecurity and adopted a particular focus on creative responses to living with insecure livelihoods and negotiating insecure neighbourhoods. The project involved collaboration with the artist Sonia Barrett, who spent time in residence in Chapeltown, Leeds. As part of ‘Caribbean In/securities,’ a travelling exhibition toured Leeds, London, Glasgow and Birmingham.

The memory and legacies of slavery

I acted as a Co-investigator on the project Apologies for Historical Wrongs. Supported by the AHRC, this piece of research explored campaigns for apology and redress in the twenty-first century. Focusing particularly on charitable groups, campaigners and members of civil society, it adopted a comparative approach to anaysing the memory and legacies of difficult histories. Within this project, I was particularly concerned with diasporic views on the legacies of enslavement.

Qualifications

• PhD
• MPhil in Historical Studies
• BA in Modern History and Modern Languages

Professional memberships

• Society for Caribbean Studies (UK)
• Association of Caribbean Historians

Student education

I convene and teach undergraduate modules on the social and cultural history of the Caribbean. These include the following topics:

• Caribbean Mobilities
• Caribbean Identity, Society and Decolonisation
• The Global Caribbean
• The Popular Caribbean: a History

I also contribute to Histories of Black Britain.

At Masters level I teach on the MA Race and Resistance and I am also part of the teaching team for Histories of Migration from Early Modern to Modern.

I welcome research students interested in Caribbean history during the eras of slavery or emancipation including: histories of mobility, migration or diaspora; women’s and gender history; maritime history; urban Caribbean history; Caribbean business history. I also welcome research students with interests in the history of the Caribbean diaspora in Britain.

Previous postgraduate researchers

• Dr Claudia Rogers
• Dr Oscar Webber

Research groups and institutes

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

Current postgraduate researchers

• Kearn Christopher Williams