Staff profile

Liam J. Liburd studies the history of 'race' and racism, and empire and decolonisation and their legacies in modern Britain. He is particularly interested in how the work of Black thinkers and insights drawn from Black history can help us to carry out a long overdue revitalisation of the academic study of British history.

He completed his thesis - which interrogated the relationship between British fascism and British imperialism between 1918 and 1968 - at the University of Sheffield in 2019. Since then, in his current and forthcoming publications, he has continued to explore this theme in more detail, aiming to prompt a re-consideration of the place of British fascism in the politics of race in modern British history. He is currently investigating the ways in which Black thinkers and political activists have theorised about fascism.

Aside from his academic writing and teaching, he also featured on the BBC Radio 4 documentary Britain’s Fascist Thread.

Research groups

• Britain and Continental Europe
• Modern
• Transnational history

• Black British history
• History of 'race' & racism in modern Britain
• History of the British white supremacist movement
• British imperial history
• The legacies of empire & decolonisation

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, 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