I am historian of empires whose work focuses on how empires begin, how they rule, how they are resisted, how they end and their complex aftermaths. My research focuses on the political, social and cultural consequences of empires through the example of the French Empire in general and modern Algeria and modern Morocco in particular. I completed my degree in History and French at the Sussex University in 1986 before going on to do a doctorate on the French Resistance to the Algerian War 54 – 62 with Professor Roderick Kedward, also at Sussex University. I taught for twenty-one years at Portsmouth University where I was promoted to Professor of Contemporary History in 2005. I was a Visiting Professor at the University of Sydney in 2006. I joined the History Department in September 2012.

My work seeks to break down disciplinary boundaries and create new collaborative conversations between historians, curators, practitioners and artists. On this basis I co-curated the exhibition 'Paris-Londres. Music Migrations. 1962-89' which ran at the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris, France between 12 March 2019 and 5 January 2020 and attracted 117,000 visitors. I have also worked with the Algerian performance artist Sarah El-Hamed and the Algerian photographer Nadja Makhlouf on Algerian cultural history and I am working with the photographers Charlie Phillips and Eddie Otchere documenting the experiences and trajectories of Black alumni and students. A key aspect of this collaborative work is the desire to engage new audiences in terms of questions of empire.

At present I am completing a research monograph with Yale University Press on modern Morocco which will focus upon historical notions of frontiers and location and how these have shaped the histories of Moroccans, in particular in terms of the relationship with Algeria and Algerians. As such this research will a make a general contribution to the question of frontiers within the Global South.