I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) & Chancellor’s Fellow in Atlantic World History at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Since November 2022, I have served as a Member of Council and Trustee of the Royal Historical Society.

My academic career began in Spain with a BA from the University of Oviedo, after which I moved to the UK for postgraduate studies. I completed my MA and PhD at the University of Leeds, under the supervision of Prof Manuel Barcia (University of Bath) and Dr Gregorio Alonso (University of Leeds), with my doctoral research generously funded by an AHRC-WRoCAH Scholarship. 

Following the completion of my doctorate, I taught at the universities of York, Cardiff, and Cambridge. In 2022, I was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, which I held at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of History and Corpus Christi College, under the mentorship of Prof Nicholas Guyatt.

My name can be tricky to pronounce, I know... How to Say My Name ↗

I am a historian of the Atlantic World whose research examines the intersections of radical politics, state violence, and systems of social control within the Spanish empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. My work focuses on the institutions of coercion, including enslavement, human trafficking, and carceral systems, and their relationship to racial and class hierarchies.

My first monograph, In the Blood of Our Brothers. Abolitionism and the End of the Slave Trade in Spain’s Atlantic Empire, 1800–1870 (University of Alabama Press, 2021) was a finalist for the Paul E. Lovejoy Prize. In December 2023, Editorial Comares published its Spanish edition.

I am currently co-leading the flagship project 'The Prison Blueprint: How Colonial Incarceration Forged Modern Racial Injustice', together with Dr Lloyd Belton (University of Glasgow). The project encompasses various initiatives to examine the historical origins of systemic racism and class discrimination in contemporary criminal justice systems by bringing together historians, computer scientists specialising in AI, criminologists, philosophers, and justice policy experts. The project is generously funded by the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme, the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, and Strathclyde’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Science.

From the miners’ riots of 1767 in San Luis Potosí and the Great African Slave Revolt of 1825 in Cuba, to Concepción Arenal's radical activism in Spain, I have always been passionate about exploring with my students the courageous struggles of those whose histories have too often been ignored in traditional narratives. Currently, I contribute to the following modules:

History Modules

- V1235: The British Empires: Conquest, Commerce, and Cooperation, 1556-2013  

- V1729: BA Hons. Dissertation  

- V1806: Advanced Topics in Historical Studies

Spanish Modules

- R4228: Counter-Currents in the Hispanic World (co-convener with Dr. Rhiannon McGlade)  

- R4498: BA Hons. Dissertation  

- Spanish 1A & 1B: 'Three Revolutions that Transformed Latin America' (Lectures)

Doctoral and Postdoctoral Supervision

I welcome inquiries from motivated and qualified applicants worldwide who are working in the broad areas of:

• Slavery, the slave trade, race and resistance;
• Crime and punishment, carceral systems, and state violence in the Atlantic World;
• Spanish, Spanish imperial, and Latin American histories, as well as interdisciplinary approaches to the diplomatic, political, military, and social histories of the Atlantic World from around 1700 to 1900. 
• Diplomatic, political, and cultural relations between Britain, Ireland, Spain, and Latin America in the early-modern and modern worlds.

Our research opportunities page allows you to search for projects and scholarships.

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE)