David Olusoga

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Lord-Lieutenant, graduates, colleagues, family, and friends. 

It is my great privilege to present to you today one of the UK’s most respected public intellectuals, whose voice has reshaped how we think about history – not just as something that happened in the past, but as something that lives with us, speaks to us, and yes, sometimes challenges us. 

Professor David Olusoga OBE is a British-Nigerian historian, author, broadcaster, BAFTA-winning filmmaker, and the list can go on! 

As a Professor of Public History, David is very familiar with what all of you have been going through with essays, deadlines, and a slightly irregular relationship with caffeine.  

David is author of eight acclaimed books, and a public intellectual with a voice so reassuring and authoritative, it could probably get a standing ovation just for reading the weather forecast.  But David doesn’t do weather forecasts – he does history. He has spent his career asking the hard questions: Who built Britain’s wealth? Whose stories were erased? And what does a fair telling of history really look like? He does this not by pointing fingers, but by offering perspective – by bringing forgotten or suppressed voices into the light and doing so with both compassion and intellectual rigour. 

Now, if you’ve ever found yourself deep in a gripping episode of A House Through Time or wrestling with the uncomfortable truths of Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners, then you’ve met David’s work. His ability to dig beneath the surface, to uncover the overlooked and the deliberately hidden, makes him not only a brilliant historian, but a necessary one. But what makes David remarkable isn’t just the breadth of his work – it’s the why behind it.  His belief that history isn’t just for the archives, it belongs in our communities, our classrooms, our conversations; and yes, even in uncomfortable institutional reports.  He probably taught more people about British history from their sofas than most of us do in lecture halls. 

His television series Black & British: A Forgotten History didn’t just win awards; it changed the conversation – offering clarity, compassion. David has helped us confront the legacies of empire, slavery, and race in Britain. He doesn’t write and research simply to be read in footnotes or academic journals; he brings history to life – through screens, through books, through classrooms – and reminds us that history is not just about kings, queens, or battles… but about homes, families, and the systems we inherit. 

Here at this university, we are on our own journey to confront our historic links to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, and with the urgent need for reparative justice. It is challenging work, and it should be. David’s work reminds us that confronting the past isn’t about tearing down – it’s about building up, by telling the whole story. 

He shows us that truth-telling isn’t about shame – it’s about dignity. It isn’t about erasing history – it’s about completing it. And when we engage in that work bravely and honestly, we don’t weaken our institutions – we make them stronger, fairer, and more relevant to the world we serve. 

He has also been a powerful advocate for increasing diversity in academia and media. He’s spoken candidly about the isolation of being one of the few Black historians in British television, and about the importance of representation; not as a box to tick, but as a vital part of understanding our shared history. 

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to public history, his courageous truth-telling, and his unwavering belief in the power of inclusive storytelling, I present to you David Adetayo Olusoga for the award of Doctor of Law, honoris causa.