Hannah Durkin
Hannah Durkin is a British historian and academic, specialising in the transatlantic slave trade and African diaspora. Having been a Leverhulme Trust early career fellow at the University of Nottingham from 2013 to 2016, she became a lecturer in literature and film at Newcastle University. She was awarded the 2025 Wolfson History Prize for her book Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade. She has twice rediscovered the last surviving enslaved person brought from Africa to the United States in the 19th Century: Redoshi Smith (died 1937) and then Matilda McCrear (died 1940).
Selected works
- Bernier, Celeste-Marie; Durkin, Hannah, eds. (2016). Visualising slavery: art across the African diaspora. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1781382677.
- Durkin, Hannah (2019). Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham: dances in literature and cinema. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252042621.
- Durkin, Hannah (2 July 2020). "Uncovering The Hidden Lives of Last Clotilda Survivor Matilda McCrear and Her Family". Slavery & Abolition. 41 (3): 431–457. doi:10.1080/0144039X.2020.1741833.
- Bernier, Celeste-Marie; Rice, Alan; Himid, Lubaina; Durkin, Hannah (2019). Inside the invisible: memorialising slavery and freedom in the life and works of Lubaina Himid. Liverpool Studies in International Slavery: 14. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1789620948.
- Durkin, Hannah (2024). Survivors: the lost stories of the last captives of the Atlantic slave trade. London: William Collins. ISBN 978-0008446512.
References
- ↑ "Staff Profile: Dr Hannah Durkin". Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean. Newcastle University. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ Storch, Phoebe (2 December 2025). "History of the last survivors of the Atlantic slave trade named winner of Wolfson History Prize 2025". The Wolfson History Prize. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ "Hannah Durkin wins the Wolfson History Prize 2025". The Reading Agency. 3 December 2025. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ Norford, Olga (4 December 2025). "Leighton Buzzard author wins £50,000 Wolfson History Prize for book on Atlantic slave trade". Leighton Buzzard Observer. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ "Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade, Hannah Durkin". Unseen Histories. 29 July 2026. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ "Last survivor of transatlantic slave trade discovered". BBC News. 25 March 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ "The Story of the Last Two Transatlantic Slave Trade Survivors". from.ncl.ac.uk. Newcastle University. 14 February 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
