Professor Richard Black

PhD in Geography, University of London, 1990
BA in Geography, University of Oxford, 1986

Professor Richard Black is Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Social Sciences. He joined the University of Birmingham in April 2018.  In addition to leading the College, Richard is Executive Board champion for mental health and disability, and Executive Board lead for the University of Birmingham School.

Richard was previously Pro-Director (Research & Enterprise) at SOAS University of London from 2013-18, and founding Head of the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex from 2009. He received his PhD in 1990, and worked as a Lecturer at King’s College London from 1989 before moving to Sussex in 1995. 

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Research interests

Richard’s research interests lie in the relationship between migration and mobility, poverty and climate change. He is particularly interested in when, how and why migration becomes a route out of poverty, or a way of building resilience to climate change, rather than exacerbating vulnerability and insecurity. His work has drawn on empirical evidence from sites across Africa and southern Europe, and also latterly from India, China and Bangladesh. It stresses the key role played by institutions in facilitating or obstructing potential benefits from migration, and the importance of understanding migration, displacement, and ‘trapped’ populations in local and historical context.

Over the past 30 years, Richard has published over fifty journal articles and nine books and edited collections on a wide range of topics based on field research across various sites in Africa, Asia and Europe. In 2011, he was lead author of a “Foresight” report for the Government Office for Science on “Migration and Global Environmental Change”. He has acted as a consultant for numerous UN and international agencies, including UNHCR, the World Bank, the European Commission and the OECD.

Current projects

Richard has recently completed a major project on the impact of development interventions on migration decision-making in West Africa funded by FCDO in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration. The work was conducted with partners in Guinea, Senegal, The Gambia, France, Switzerland and Italy.  

• Trustee and Council Member, Academy of Social Sciences
• Fellow, Royal Geographical Society with Institute of British Geographers
• Governor, University of Birmingham School
• REF 2014: Member of sub-panel 17, Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies
• Director of two major DFID research programmes on migration, globalisation and poverty, spanning Asia and sub-Saharan Africa (2003-13)
• Visiting Professor, Institut de Géographie, Université de Neuchâtel funded by Swiss National Science Foundation, 2011
• Co-Editor of Journal of Refugee Studies, OUP (1994-2009)