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James Walvin BA (Keele), MA (McMaster), DPhil (York) is Professor at the University of York. Professor Walvin has two main research interests; modern British social history, and the history of black slavery (especially the Caribbean). He is the author or editor of numerous books in those fields and is co-editor of the journal Slavery and Abolition. Currently Professor Walvin is working on various aspects of the African diaspora. He is especially interested in the impact of Atlantic slavery on the development of modern Britain (post-1660).

The history of Atlantic slavery has been the centre of an expansive and innovative historiography in the past generation. Although the core of that history is located in West Africa and the Americas, it has fundamental implications for the way Britain developed. After all, the British transhipped more Africans across the Atlantic than any other nation in the 18th century. And the economic well-being which the British acquired from their slave trading and slave colonies, was instrumental in laying the foundations of a more broadly-base British prosperity.
Atlantic slavery, and British involvement with slavery, offers enormous scope for further research.

The holdings in the University of York library, in the Borthwick Institute, the Minster Library and the British Library at Boston Spa provide rich and varied facilities for students keen to undertake research on British slavery – and on the British campaign to end slavey (abolition).