Miranda Kaufmann: Historian, Author, Raconteuse.Three ways of saying the same thing- I like telling stories. I also like digging for the truth. Or as near to it as anyone is likely to get.
Because the best stories are true stories. As a historian, I've found evidence of over 360 Africans in Renaissance Britain, worked with the National Trust and English Heritage and contributed entries to the Oxford Companion to Black British History and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. My first book, Black Tudors: The Untold Story, was published by Oneworld in October 2017. The TV rights were optioned in 2017 by Silverprint Pictures and the book was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize and the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize in 2018. I've used it to develop a FREE online Black Tudors course with FutureLearn and teaching resources through my Teaching Black Tudors project. My next book, Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery, will be published by Oneworld in the UK and Pegasus in the USA in September 2025. Have a look round my site, where you can find my blog, videos, podcasts, latest news and my published articles. Then do drop me a line and let me know what you think! I'm not giving many talks now as I'm holding fire for the autumn when I'll be out and about telling everyone about my new book, Heiresses.
Until then, you can access a mix of video content, including talks and interviews via my YouTube channel. I would particularly recommend my Black Tudors: Three Untold Stories talk, which is on YouTube, thanks to Gresham College - hope you enjoy! The story of Edward Swarthye the Black Tudor who whipped an Englishman in 1590s Gloucestershire, featured in my book, Black Tudors: The Untold Story, was covered in The Times and The Daily Mail after I spoke about him at the Oxford Literary Festival.
The story of black migrants in England in Tudor times: a short video for BBC Bitesize that I made with David Olusoga. I contributed this page on African freedom in Tudor England: Dr Hector Nunes’ petition to the Runnymede Trust's new Our Migration Story website. In this Introduction from the first "What's Happening in Black British History?" event, held at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies on 30th October 2014, Michael Ohajuru and I explain why we put the series together- I'm on for ten minutes from 6 mins in: You can read more about the event in my blog report. HIGHLIGHTS:
The exciting new FREE online Black Tudors: The Untold Story course I've co-created with FutureLearn is
NOW OPEN for enrolment. Click on the image to sign up now!
My entry on John Blanke (fl.1507-1512) for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. I interviewed artist Graeme Mortimer Evelyn about his work Call and Responses: The Odyssey of the Moor at Kensington Palace for History Today I wrote the letters to Tudor and Georgian Londoners for the Influential Black Londoners exhibition at the National Trust's Sutton House in Hackney in 2013.
Back in 2007, I researched English Heritage properties' links to Enslavement and Abolition. |
Image credit: Rosie Collins
Latest News & Events
Read my latest blog My new book, Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery (Oneworld and Pegasus) is out on 4th September 2025! 
My Teaching Black Tudors Project has come to fruition with a fantastic range of FREE downloadable teaching resources and lesson plans published by Hodder Education. I am delighted to announce the launch of a new Miranda Kaufmann Black British History Scholarship at Gladstone's Library for 2023! I wrote a piece in The Telegraph: Yes, there were black Tudors – and they lived fascinating lives: Ahead of Channel 5's new Anne Boleyn drama, Dr Miranda Kaufmann examines the role people of African descent played in Tudor society I've written a 2-part blog on how we can get more Black British History into our classrooms- read it here. I'm excited to be the Lead Historian on the Colonial Countryside project, looking at connections between National Trust houses, Caribbean enslavement and the East India Company. 
|
|
INTERVIEWS:
The Wolfson History Prize people asked me, as a formerly shortlisted author, for my thoughts in relation to this year's Prize, the importance of History, and what I've been reading in lockdown...
This is an interview with The British Academy in relation to being shortlisted for the Al-Rodhan Prize.
I was interviewed about Black Tudors by Bidisha for The Guardian. Here's another interview with Natalie Anderson for Medievalists.net. I was interviewed by Sky News and The Observer in relation to calls for Solomon Northrup's 12 Years A Slave to be on the national curriculum, and British links to enslavement.
Read my interview on the "Women in Action" spot on the I Shape Beauty blog: Women in Action: Dr. Miranda Kaufmann Read my interview on the History Vault website: Five Minutes With...Dr. Miranda Kaufmann PODCASTS:
|
