Academic Profile

Research Interests: humanitarianism, human rights, NGOs, globalisation, empire, imperialism, development, immigration and migration. 

Andrew Thompson is Professor of Global and Imperial History and a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, and the Associate Head of the Oxford Humanities Division, responsible for supporting and promoting the Division’s research. He is also the co-chair of the Global and Imperial History Centre at the University of Oxford. Andrew was Former Chief Executive, AHRC, and the International Champion for UKRI.

Andrew's research interests span global histories of humanitarianism, human rights and development; the history of modern globalisation and the relationship between globalisation and empire; the effects of empire on British private and public life during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; histories of migration and mobility (especially postcolonial migrations to Britain and France); and the history of colonial and apartheid South Africa. He has also written on Anglo-Argentine relations, transnational migration and migrant remittances, and public memories and legacies of empire. 

He is currently researching international humanitarianism and human rights and the emergence of the modern aid and development sector which forms the subject of his forthcoming work Humanitarianism on Trial: How a global system of aid, development and human rights emerged through the end of empire (forthcoming, Oxford University Press). He has been given access to previously unseen archives of the United Nations, the International Red Cross, and several NGOs. Aspects of this research have been published in his 2016 article on Nelson Mandela, Political Detention on Robben Island and the Apartheid in South Africa  and his 2015 article entitled 'Humanitarian Principles put to the test: Challenges to humanitarian action during decolonisation', both published in the International Review of the Red Cross. A further work, 'Unravelling the relationships between humanitarianism, human rights, and decolonisation: Time for a radical rethink?' has been published in Andrew's co-edited Oxford Handbook on the Ends of Empire (Oxford University Press, 2018). Andrew's current research closely aligns with a joint project, in partnership with Professor Sir Mike Aaronson, on International NGOs and the Long Humanitarian Century: Legacy, Legitimacy and Leading into the Future, a project which ran until 2023, and subsequently with the Nuffield Humanitarian Forum, of which he and Professor Aaronson are the Co-Directors, and Baroness Valerie Amos and the Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell the Co-Chairs: The Nuffield Humanitarian Forum - Nuffield College Oxford University

Another line of Andrew's research examines postcolonial Britain and immigration in the twentieth century. His research on First Generation Asian Migrants in Britain (2005) was funded by the Institute of Public Policy Research and led to invitations to speak at the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and DCLG. More recently, Andrew was invited to present evidence to the Home Office as part of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review (2019) and advised on the historical content of the review’s report. He is quoted prominently in the report saying if Windrush is a stain on our public life (which it very much is) it was one which was nevertheless “a long time in the making”. 

Before joining Nuffield College, Andrew was Professor of Modern History and Director of the Centre for Imperial and Global History at the University of Exeter from 2011-2018. From 2009 to 2011, he was Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Leeds, and, prior to this appointment, he was Professor of Imperial and Global History at the University of Leeds.  

From 2015 to early 2021 Andrew was Executive Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and the person who led on the international strategy for Research Councils UK and (subsequently) UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). During his period in office at the AHRC he secured a £19 million grant for Museums and Galleries, as part of the Strategic Priorities Fund, Towards a National Collection: Opening UK Heritage to the World. He was responsible for securing the £10 million Policy and Evidence Centre for Modern Slavery and Human Rights and a further £80 million Creative Industries programme, funded by the Industrial Strategy. In addition, Andrew was the UKRI Champion for the £1.5 billion Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and the Newton Funds, as well as responsible for the organisation’s overseas offices in Brussels, Beijing, Washington, and Delhi. He was also Chair of the UKRI Research, Innovation and Strategy Advisory Board.  

Andrew currently or has previously sat on the following strategic, editorial and trustee boards:

• Member of the Global Commission on Modern Slavery, leading on the Commission’s workstream on “Civil Society in Crisis Contexts”, and (with Baroness Theresa May) Co-Director of the Company responsible for the running of the Global Commission 
• Board Member of Oxford University Innovation
• General Co-editor of Studies in Imperialism Series, Manchester University Press
• Vice-Chair and Senior Independent Member of Royal Museums Greenwich, and the lead trustee responsible for oversight of the £80 million renovation of the Royal Observatory 
• Chair of Strategic Advisory Group, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London 
• External Academic Member of the International Editorial Board, Review of the International Committee of the Red Cross 
• Member of the Research Board, British Museum
• Member of the Education Advisory Committee, Royal Shakespeare Company 
• Member of the Marks & Spencer Innovation Board 

Andrew welcomes enquiries from prospective research students interested in: humanitarianism, NGOs, human rights, Imperialism, decolonisation, legacies of empire, development, globalisation, immigration.