School of Social & Political Sciences

Dr Theo Williams

  • Lecturer in Social History (Political & International Studies)

Biography

I am a historian of race, empire and political radicalism. I am especially interested in the global histories of Black radicalism and anti-colonialism, and in how the transnational movement of people and ideas has reshaped British society and political culture.

My monograph Making the Revolution Global: Black Radicalism and the British Socialist Movement before Decolonisation (Verso, 2022) argues that the Pan-Africanist ideas promoted by Black activists significantly reconfigured the politics of the wider British socialist movement in this period. I am currently working on a second major project about anticolonialism and Third Worldism in Britain between c.1945 and c.1990.

I studied for a PhD in History at King’s College London, graduating in 2019, and worked as a fixed-term lecturer in modern British history at Durham University between 2020 and 2023. I joined Glasgow as a lecturer in social history in 2023.

Research interests

  • Modern British history (especially as it relates to empire, race, migration, and political activism)
  • Black British history
  • Black radical thought and movements
  • Imperialism and anti-imperialism
  • Socialism and Marxism

Research groups

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2019
Number of items: 12.

2026

Phillips, Jim ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5183-9469 and Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2026) Black essential workers, racialised citizenship and community ‘friendliness’: the British Honduran Forestry Unit in Scotland, 1941-1943. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, (doi: 10.1080/03086534.2026.2644431) (Early Online Publication)

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2026) 'Inside the belly of the monster’: the politics of race in Britain, transnational anticolonialism, and the black liberation front. Journal of Global History, (doi: 10.1017/S1740022825100429) (Early Online Publication)

2025

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2025) Willing conscripts: black radical thought, modernity, and the (im)possibility of return. Global Intellectual History, (doi: 10.1080/23801883.2025.2469177) (Early Online Publication)

2024

East, Saffron, Redhead, Grace and Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (Eds.) (2024) Anti-racism in Britain: Traditions, Histories and Trajectories, c. 1880–Present. Series: Racism, resistance and social change. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526171115

East, Saffron, Redhead, Grace and Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2024) Introduction: anti-racism in Britain: traditions, histories and trajectories. In: East, Saffron, Redhead, Grace and Williams, Theo (eds.) Anti-racism in Britain: Traditions, Histories and Trajectories, c. 1880–Present. Series: Racism, resistance and social change. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526171115

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2024) George Orwell, Pan-Africanism, and reconciling anti-imperialism with "Britishness". In: East, Saffron, Redhead, Grace and Williams, Theo (eds.) Anti-racism in Britain: Traditions, Histories and Trajectories, c. 1880–Present. Series: Racism, resistance and social change. Manchester University Press: Manchester, pp. 64-78. ISBN 9781526171115 (doi: 10.7765/9781526171122.00009)

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2024) Anticolonialism and Black radicalism in the 1930s. In: Holland, Alison (ed.) Routledge Handbook on Anti-racism in Historical Perspective. Routledge. (Accepted for Publication)

2023

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2023) Dark lovers and Desdemonas: Gender, race and Pan-Africanism in Britain, 1935-45. In: Adi, Hakim (ed.) Many Struggles: New Histories of African and Caribbean People in Britain. Pluto Press: London, UK, pp. 91-106. ISBN 9780745347653

2022

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2022) Making the Revolution Global: Black Radicalism and the British Socialist Movement before Decolonisation. Verso: London, UK. ISBN 9781839761980

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2022) The many faces of Pan-Africanism. African Studies Review, 65(2), pp. 504-520. (doi: 10.1017/asr.2021.141)[Book Review]

2021

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2021) Collective security or colonial revolution? The 1938 Conference on Peace and Empire, anticolonialism, and the Popular Front. Twentieth Century British History, 32(3), pp. 325-349. (doi: 10.1093/tcbh/hwaa008)

2019

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2019) George Padmore and the Soviet model of the British Commonwealth. Modern Intellectual History, 16(2), pp. 531-559. (doi: 10.1017/S1479244317000634)

This list was generated on Thu May 21 02:02:04 2026 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Book Reviews | Edited Books
Number of items: 12.

Articles

Phillips, Jim ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5183-9469 and Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2026) Black essential workers, racialised citizenship and community ‘friendliness’: the British Honduran Forestry Unit in Scotland, 1941-1943. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, (doi: 10.1080/03086534.2026.2644431) (Early Online Publication)

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2026) 'Inside the belly of the monster’: the politics of race in Britain, transnational anticolonialism, and the black liberation front. Journal of Global History, (doi: 10.1017/S1740022825100429) (Early Online Publication)

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2025) Willing conscripts: black radical thought, modernity, and the (im)possibility of return. Global Intellectual History, (doi: 10.1080/23801883.2025.2469177) (Early Online Publication)

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2021) Collective security or colonial revolution? The 1938 Conference on Peace and Empire, anticolonialism, and the Popular Front. Twentieth Century British History, 32(3), pp. 325-349. (doi: 10.1093/tcbh/hwaa008)

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2019) George Padmore and the Soviet model of the British Commonwealth. Modern Intellectual History, 16(2), pp. 531-559. (doi: 10.1017/S1479244317000634)

Books

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2022) Making the Revolution Global: Black Radicalism and the British Socialist Movement before Decolonisation. Verso: London, UK. ISBN 9781839761980

Book Sections

East, Saffron, Redhead, Grace and Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2024) Introduction: anti-racism in Britain: traditions, histories and trajectories. In: East, Saffron, Redhead, Grace and Williams, Theo (eds.) Anti-racism in Britain: Traditions, Histories and Trajectories, c. 1880–Present. Series: Racism, resistance and social change. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526171115

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2024) George Orwell, Pan-Africanism, and reconciling anti-imperialism with "Britishness". In: East, Saffron, Redhead, Grace and Williams, Theo (eds.) Anti-racism in Britain: Traditions, Histories and Trajectories, c. 1880–Present. Series: Racism, resistance and social change. Manchester University Press: Manchester, pp. 64-78. ISBN 9781526171115 (doi: 10.7765/9781526171122.00009)

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2024) Anticolonialism and Black radicalism in the 1930s. In: Holland, Alison (ed.) Routledge Handbook on Anti-racism in Historical Perspective. Routledge. (Accepted for Publication)

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2023) Dark lovers and Desdemonas: Gender, race and Pan-Africanism in Britain, 1935-45. In: Adi, Hakim (ed.) Many Struggles: New Histories of African and Caribbean People in Britain. Pluto Press: London, UK, pp. 91-106. ISBN 9780745347653

Book Reviews

Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (2022) The many faces of Pan-Africanism. African Studies Review, 65(2), pp. 504-520. (doi: 10.1017/asr.2021.141)[Book Review]

Edited Books

East, Saffron, Redhead, Grace and Williams, Theo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-5332 (Eds.) (2024) Anti-racism in Britain: Traditions, Histories and Trajectories, c. 1880–Present. Series: Racism, resistance and social change. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526171115

This list was generated on Thu May 21 02:02:04 2026 BST.

Supervision

I am very happy to receive enquiries from prospective research students who wish to pursue projects in line with my research interests (detailed above).

  • Oliver, Adèle
    Black is the Blues on the Ones and Twos: Counter-mapping soundscapes and systems of resistance across the Black Atlantic

Theo Williams