World History

King’s College London is internationally famous as a centre for the study of world history. The Department of History at King’s has the most comprehensive coverage of the history of the European seaborne empires of any university in the United Kingdom, including leading scholars of the British, Portuguese, French, Spanish, and Dutch empires. It also has key figures in the study of South Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and two historians of Australia. Its Rhodes professorship of Imperial history is the second oldest endowed chair for the study of imperial and global history in the Anglophone world and the Charles Boxer professorship is Britain’s most distinguished chair in the history of the Portuguese empire.

World History academic staff in the Department of History:

• Professor Francisco Bethencourt Racism in the Atlantic World; Portuguese-speaking world; European Expansion
• Dr Frank Bongiorno Australian political, cultural & labour history
• Professor Carl Bridge 20th-century Australian history; Political, diplomatic & military history
• Professor Patrick Chabal Modern & contemporary Africa; Political thought; Biography
• Professor Richard Drayton Empires; Transnational history; Atlantic history; The Caribbean; Decolonisation
• Dr Toby Green West Africa & the Atlantic World (16th-17th centuries); Slavery; Creolization
• Dr Stephen Lovell Cultural & social history of Russia, 1750 to present
• Dr Adrian Pearce Spanish empire; British trade with Latin America; Native Andeans
• Dr Sarah Stockwell End of Empire; 20th century Commonwealth; 20th century colonial Africa
• Dr David Todd French & British imperial history; Political economy; Impact of the world on Europe since 1500
• Dr Jon Wilson Modern South Asia; The Indian State; South Asia; Bangladesh; Empire & Political Thought