Black British History lecturer named New Generation Thinker

Dr Christienna Fryar, Lecturer in Black British History at Goldsmiths, University of London, has been named by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council as a New Generation Thinker 2020.

As a leading academic in the history of emancipation, the British Empire, and the Caribbean, Dr Fryar was appointed in 2019 to lead Goldsmiths’ new MA Black British History. The course is the first taught postgraduate programme in this subject at a British university. 

On Thursday 26 March 2020 she was announced as one of 10 UK-based early-career researchers to take part in the New Generation Thinker programme.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the scheme, which has seen 100 early-career arts and humanities researchers access training and support from AHRC and the BBC. New Generation Thinkers have gone on to become prominent public figures in their field as well as the face of major documentaries, TV series, and regular figures in public debate. 

Dr Fryar completed her undergraduate degree in History and Latin American Studies at Duke University in 2005 before completing an MA in History at Princeton University in 2007 and a PhD in 2012. From 2013-2017 she was an assistant professor of history at SUNY Buffalo State, New York, and prior to her appointment at Goldsmiths was Lecturer in the History of Slavery and Unfree Labour at the University of Liverpool.

Dr Fryar’s work is about rethinking modern British history by viewing it from the perspective of the United Kingdom’s imperial and postcolonial entanglements with the Caribbean region and its peoples. Her book project on disasters in Jamaica after the end of slavery is just one of a series of projects where she keeps Britain within its Caribbean context.

For the AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinkers scheme, she has pitched a programme about black athletes in the twentieth century who inhabited both Britain and Caribbean identities.

Dr Fryar said: “Sports is a particularly important way to uncover the values and cultural assumptions of a society. It’s one of the most popular forms of global culture, but it is never apolitical. Representing a nation in international competition is a political act, one which I’ll be exploring in my programme.

“Sports have always been embedded in global political forces, something we’ve seen in the past few weeks. Many sports leagues across the world have been among the first institutions to suspend activity in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, heightening public awareness of the emergency in the process. I’m looking forward to using this platform to make radio that brings these ideas together and that also becomes a place for all of us—myself included—to engage in and learn from the process of expanding British history for a broader public.”

Alan Davey, Controller, BBC Radio 3, said: “Looking to the future, I can’t wait to hear what new ideas and research this year’s [New Generation Thinkers] cohort will bring to our listeners in the Free Thinking discussions and Essays we broadcast for BBC Radio 3 and the Arts & Ideas podcast. I hope their experience of working with us on shaping ideas feeds into their teaching and helps them reach a wider public. Now, more than ever, the public need new dynamic ideas from dynamic great minds.” 

Find out more about New Generation Thinkers  

Find out more about the MA Black British History at Goldsmiths