Liberty Collard

Biography

Liberty Collard is a History PhD Candidate at Northeastern University London. Her work uses digital technologies, such as GIS, to explore Britain’s Black past throughout the long eighteenth century. Her research interests include the multiracial presence in early modern Britain and digital mapping methods and theory. Liberty is a research assistant on the Mapping Black London project at Northeastern University which recovers and recenters the often-overlooked histories of people of colour throughout London’s past. Through interactive digital maps, exhibitions, educational resources, and curriculum materials, the project makes visible the varied ways Black people have shaped and contributed to the city’s development. As part of her work with Mapping Black London, Liberty worked as a researcher on The London Archives 2023-2024 exhibition, titled “Unforgotten Lives: Londoners of African, Caribbean, Asian and Indigenous Heritage, 1560-1860.” Liberty is also a research assistant for Countertenor, an AHRC-funded project rediscovering and reprofiling Black musical voices from the past to diversify the current canon. Countertenor aims to create a series of research and performance outputs, establishing an accessible platform for a range of audiences to learn about and enjoy early Black music and opera.

Qualifications

BA (Hons) History with Politics and International Relations, Northeastern University London,
2023 (First Class)
Associate Fellow of Advance Higher Education

Articles

Collard, L. ‘Mapping the Proceedings: The Importance of Spatiality for Reconstructing Black and
Multiracial Communities in Georgian London’, Family & Community History, 28(1), (2025),
10–29. doi: 10.1080/14631180.2025.2479271.

Ayers, O., Collard, L. William Sancho and the Possibilities of Black British Lives in Late
Georgian Britain, Eighteenth-Century Connections Elements Series, Cambridge University
Press (forthcoming 2026).