Emma Christopher specialises in the global history of slavery and its legacies, which include not just racism and global inequity but also modern day slavery. She gained her PhD from University College London in 2002 and has also studied at the University of Pennsylvania and taught at the University of Toronto. She has received grants and fellowships from the British Academy, Harvard University's Atlantic World Center and Yale's Gilder Lehrman Center as well as formerly holding a four-year ARC postdoctoral scholarship and then an ARC five year senior fellowship. She is the author of three monographs, has co-edited a collection of essays with Marcus Rediker and Cassandra Pybus, and is also the director/producer of the multi-award winning feature documentary They Are We. Her work was cited as "an inspiration... a victory over slavery" by then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.