Staff profile

Liam J. Liburd studies the history of 'race' and racism in modern Britain. His research and teaching explore Black British history. He understands 'Black British history' not just as historical subject matter but as a theoretical lens. Using this lens, his research reappraises the role of the white supremacist movement within the wider politics of race in modern British history. 

His current and ongoing research focuses on the relationship between institutional racism and what is typically regarded as "extremist" racism. At the moment, this has focused on the history of racism in British prisons in the twentieth century.

He was mostly recently published in the collection The Truth About Empire: Real Histories of British Colonialism (Hurst, 2024), which features a chapter of his on the history of comparisons between imperialism and fascism in Black political thought. He is also revising a journal article for publication on the long history of Black British theorisations of British fascism and is in the process of trying to turn his thesis into his first book. His thesis (completed at the University of Sheffield in 2019) interrogated the relationship between British fascism and British imperialism between 1918 and 1968.

Research areas & clusters

• Modern
• Britain and Continental Europe
• History on the Margins
• Political cultures

• Black British history
• History of whiteness and the white supremacist movement in modern Britain
• History of institutional racism and racist institutions (prisons, police, immigration service) in modern Britain

Book review

• Liburd, L. J. (2021). Turn Again, Fascist Studies: New Perspectives on British Fascism. Twentieth Century British History, 32(3), 462-466. https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/hwab015

Chapter in book

• Liburd, L. J. (2023). White Against Empire: Decolonisation, Immigration and Britain’s Radical Right, 1954-1967. In J. Doble, L. J. Liburd, & E. Parker (Eds.), British culture after empire: Race, decolonisation and migration since 1945. Manchester University Press

Journal Article

• Liburd, L. (2023). The Politics of Race and the Future of British Political History. The Political Quarterly, 94(2), 244-250. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923x.13259
• Liburd, L., & Jackson, P. (2021). Debate: Decolonising Fascist Studies. Fascism, 10(2), 323-345. https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10039
• Liburd, L. J. (2020). Thinking Imperially: The British Fascisti and the Politics of Empire, 1923–35. Twentieth Century British History, 32(1), https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/hwaa009
• Liburd, L. J. (2018). Beyond the Pale: Whiteness, Masculinity and Empire in the British Union of Fascists, 1932–1940. Fascism, 7(2), https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-00702006