Tom Lawson

Tom joined Northumbria University in 2013 as Professor of History. He was appointed Associate Dean Academic in May 2014 and then been Faculty Pro Vice Chancellor for Arts, Design and Social Sciences in 2016. Before coming to Northumbria Tom was Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Winchester where was also Head of Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He was appointed as Deputy Vice Chancellor in April 2021, and became Interim Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive on 18th May 2022.

Tom is also responsible for leading the annual planning and budget setting process in order to deliver against our strategic priorities. Tom was responsible for leading Northumbria’s submission to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and is leading the University’s work towards recognition under the Race Equality Charter.

Tom is a historian of the Holocaust and more recently of colonial genocides. He is the author and editor of several books on these subjects including The Church of England and the Holocaust (2006); with James Jordan, The Memory of the Holocaust in Australia (2008); with Stephen Parker, God and War (2010); Debates on the Holocaust (2010) and The Last Man: A British Genocide in Tasmania (2014). Tom was previously a Mid-Career Fellow of the British Academy and am co-editor of Holocaust Studies: a journal of culture and History. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Tom has recently published (with Andy Pearce from University College London) an edited collection on Britain and the Holocaust. He is currently working on a book project provisionally titled Empire of Genocide: The Extermination of Peoples in the British World.