Ryan Hanley
Board member ofBritish Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Awards
Academic background
Alma materWilberforce Institute, University of Hull
Academic work
DisciplineHistory
Sub-disciplineBlack British Writing
InstitutionsUniversity of Exeter

Ryan Hanley is a British professor of history at the University of Exeter. He specialises in race and slavery in modern Britain, with a focus on the perspectives of people of African descent.[1]

He is notable for being one of only two historians to have been awarded both the Alexander Prize and the Whitfield Book Prize from the Royal Historical Society.[2][3]

Education and academic positions

Hanley earned his doctorate in history from Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull. After obtaining his degree, he worked at the University of Oxford, UCL, and the University of Bristol before taking up a full-time lecturing position at the University of Exeter. He has also had visiting fellowships at Queen Mary University, London and at the Huntington Library in California. He serves as a member of the executive committee for the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.[4]

Professional career

Hanley has published two books and more than twenty chapters and journal articles. His most notable work is that which focuses on the perspectives of those of African descent in Britain, for which he has been awarded both the Whitfield Book Prize and Alexander Prize from the Royal Historical Society. Alongside A. G. Rosser, he is one of only two historians to have received both awards.[2][3]

He received the Alexander Prize in 2015 for his article Calvinism, Proslavery and James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw.[3] In it, Hanley re-examines Gronniosaw's autobiography within the context of Calvinist and Dutch Reformed confessional networks to better understand how the text could advocate for slavery despite being written by a formerly enslaved author. It portrays Gronniosaw as a Black intellectual, and not simply as an ex-slave.[5] The article was deemed significant enough to feature in the Economic History Review's List of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in 2016.[6]

Hanley continued this approach by conducting the first full-length historical study of pre-abolition Black British writing in his 2019 Whitfield Prize-winning book Beyond Slavery and Abolition: Black British Writing, c.1770-1830.[2][7] In each of the eight chapters, Hanley provides a case study on a different Black British writer, and categorises them into three sections. Firstly, 'Black Celebrities', containing Ignatius Sancho, Olaudah Equiano/Gustavus Vassa, and Mary Prince. Next, the 'Black Evangelicals', Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Boston King, and John Jea. Ending with the 'Black Radicals', Ottobah Cugoano and Robert Wedderburn.[8] In his review of the work, Matthew Wyman-McCarthy emphasises the significance of Hanley's choice to frame Black British writers within their authorial 'networks'. He says the book makes strides for scholars who can now holistically approach these individuals as intellectuals, rather than simply abolitionists. He also says that the individual case studies conducted by Hanley deserve their place on undergraduate syllabi.[7]

Publications

Books

Year Title Publisher Notes
2016 Britain's History and Memory of Transatlantic Slavery Oxford University Press Co-authored with Jessica Moody and Katie Donington
2018 Beyond Slavery and Abolition Black British Writing, c.1770–1830 Cambridge University Press Awarded the Whitfield Book Prize

Journal articles

Year Title Journal Notes
2014 Calvinism, Proslavery and James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw Slavery & Abolition
Biography and the Black Atlantic Itinerario-International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction
Affect and Abolition in the Anglo-Atlantic, 1770-1830 Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
2015 The Royal Slave: Nobility, Diplomacy and the “African Prince” in Britain, 1748–1752 Itinerario-International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction
Invoking Slavery in the Eighteenth-Century British Imagination Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Inhuman Traffick: the International Struggle against the Transatlantic Slave Trade Social History
2016 Slavery and the Birth of the Working-Class Racism in England, 1814-1833 Transactions of the Royal Historical Society Awarded the Alexander Prize
A Radical Change of Heart: Robert Wedderburn's Last Word on Slavery Slavery & Abolition
2017 Slavery Hinterland: Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680-1850 Social History
2019 Black Jokes, White Humour: Africans in English Caricature, 1769-1819 English Historical Review
2020 Children Against Slavery: Juvenile Agency and the Sugar Boycotts in Britain Transactions of the Royal Historical Society Co-authored with Kathryn Gleadle
2021 The Shadow of Colonial Slavery at Peterloo Caliban
Tacky's Revolt: the Story of an Atlantic Slave War by Vincent Brown, and: Black Spartacus: the Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies Review essay
Henry Redhead Yorke, Colonial Radical: Politics and Identity in the Atlantic World, 1772–1813, by Amanda Goodrich English Historical Review
Britain’s Black Past, ed. Gretchen H. Gerzina
2022 Not Made by Slaves: Ethical Capitalism in the Age of Abolition Slavery & Abolition

Chapters

Year Title Book Notes
2017 Introduction Britain's History and Memory of Transatlantic Slavery Co-authored with Jessica Moody and Katie Donington
‘There to sing the song of Moses’
2018 The Equiano Effect Migrant Britain
2019 Cato Street and the Caribbean The Cato Street Conspiracy
2022 Black Authors and British National Identity, 1763–1791 African American Literature in Transition, 1750–1800

Prizes

Year Award Institution Work
2015 Alexander Prize Royal Historical Society Slavery and the Birth of the Working-Class Racism in England, 1814-1833
2019 Whitfield Book Prize Beyond Slavery and Abolition Black British Writing, c.1770–1830

References

  1. ↑ "Dr Ryan Hanley | History | University of Exeter". history.exeter.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  2. 1 2 3 "RHS Whitfield Prize Winners | RHS". royalhistsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  3. 1 2 3 "RHS Alexander Prize Past Winners | RHS". royalhistsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  4. ↑ "Dr Ryan Hanley | History | University of Exeter". history.exeter.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  5. ↑ Hanley, Ryan (2015-04-03). "Calvinism, Proslavery and James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw". Slavery & Abolition. 36 (2): 360–381. doi:10.1080/0144039X.2014.920973. hdl:10871/40464. ISSN 0144-039X.
  6. ↑ Hale, Matthew (November 2017). "List of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in 2016". The Economic History Review. 70 (e): 1375–1438 – via JSTOR.
  7. 1 2 Wyman-McCarthy, Matthew (Summer 2020). "Ryan Hanley, Beyond Slavery and Abolition: Black British Writing, c.1770–1830". Journal of Eighteenth-Century Studies. 53 (4): 731–732 – via Project MUSE.
  8. ↑ Hanley, Ryan (2018). Beyond Slavery and Abolition: Black British Writing, c.1770-1830. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108616997.
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