Our Team and Partners

For details about our management board and governance please see About Us. You can learn more about some of the current areas of our research. University of Liverpool faculty members welcome communication from prospective PhD students in their areas of interest, and we have a strong record of supervising interdisciplinary projects in this area.

CSIS Team

Dr Richard Benjamin - Co-Director (University of Liverpool)

Richard holds the position of Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Museum Practice in the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures (SHLC) and is the co-director of the Centre for the Study of International Slavery. His primary area of study is museology, with a focus on Black museology, the development and operation of Black and African American museums, and Black cultural spaces. He explores the associated cultural, social, and political movements, including the Black Arts Movement, Black Power Movement, Caribbean Artists Movement, and the UK Civil Rights Movement. He is increasingly interested in post-independence museums and national identity in Africa and the Caribbean, particularly Ghana and Guyana and the exchange of regional cultural knowledge, particularly in the Liverpool City region, and how regional museums contribute to and connect with broader, often city-centric, narratives on topics such as transatlantic slavery, imperialism and colonialism.

Richard obtained his BA (Hons) in Community and Race Relations from Edge Hill College, followed by an MA and a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Liverpool. In 2002, he was a Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research. Richard was the inaugural head of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool from 2006 to 2021. Subsequently, he served as a Visiting Professor of Slavery and Public Engagement in the SHLC. He is a Trustee of the Anthony Walker Foundation, a Board Member of the European Museum Forum, part of the Tate Liverpool Advisory Group, and a member of the Non-Commemoration Advisory Panel for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Additionally, Richard is the Co-Editor of the Routledge book series on Restorative Justice in Archaeology and Heritage Studies and chairs the University of Liverpool's Slavery and Colonialism Advisory Board. 

Michelle Charters - Co-Director (National Museums Liverpool)

Michelle Charters is the head of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, being the first Black Woman to be appointed to this role. She is a community activist and previously worked for 18 years as the CEO of the Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre in Toxteth, Liverpool. She is the Founding Chair of the Merseyside Black History Month Group and has been a trustee on the board of National Museums Liverpool for the past five years, prior to her appointment. Throughout her career, she has been, and continues to be committed to uncovering and promoting the truth of Black experiences, in a collective fight for justice.

Dr Mary Booth - Centre Manager (University of Liverpool)

Dr Mary Booth specializes in American and British studies, museums studies and heritage tourism studies. Her most recent contribution to the field includes a working manuscript focused on tracing the evolution of museological sites, specifically identifying different catalysts for interpretive change and evaluating the longevity and reception of representational developments. Additionally, she has published on topics including race and gender as well as academic pedagogy and continues to the contribute to the ongoing research surrounding university benefactors and their financial links to historic racial slavery in both Manchester and Liverpool.   

Phil Jones - Marketing Administrator (University of Liverpool)

Phil sits within the History, Languages and Cultures Marketing, Recruitment and Events Team, where he facilities the CSIS marketing output and content. 

CSIS Fellows

Leona Vaughn

Beatrice Marin-Aguilera

Partners

The Centre for the Study of International Slavery was founded as a partnership between the International Slavery Museum at National Museums Liverpool and the University of Liverpool. However, we are part of a family of organisations promoting research into past and contemporary forms of slavery or forced labour, and we welcome collaborations with partners across the world. Please see below partners and collaborators who have recently worked on programmes and initiatives with us.

Research centres, institutes and networks

Research projects

Schools and universities

  • Chevening School
  • Gettysburg College
  • Leeds Beckett University
  • Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
  • Liverpool John Moores University
  • Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Task Force, University of Alabama
  • University of Georgia
  • University of Manchester
  • University of Reading
  • University of Sao Paolo, Brazil
  • University of St Andrews
  • University of Western Australia

Scholarly societies, publishers and journals

Museums and heritage sites

Community and charitable groups

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