The University of Bristol has appointed a black history professor to explore the city’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

Olivette Otele will take up her role as professor of the history of slavery in January 2020. She will be based at the university’s history department and the Centre for Black Humanities, where she will work with staff, students and communities.

Otele became the UK’s first female black history professor after being awarded a professorship and a chair in history by Bath Spa University in 2018. Her research, conducted over almost two decades, examines the legacies of colonial pasts as well as a reluctance to address such issues.

As part of her new role, Otele will undertake a two-year research project on the involvement of the University of Bristol and the wider city in the transatlantic slave trade.

The city’s official participation in the transatlantic slave trade started in 1698, though experts say Bristolian ships illegally traded in slaves well before then. Bristol merchants financed more than 2,000 slaving voyages between 1698 and 1807, with ships carrying more than 500,000 people from Africa to slave labour in the Americas.

Speaking about her new appointment, Otele said: “I hope to bring together Bristolians from all communities, and scholars, artists and educators who are willing to contribute to a stronger and fairer society.

“I want students to see me as a facilitator of a dialogue that needs to take place and that is about the role of the University of Bristol in the transatlantic slave trade. I want to produce a rigorous and an extensive piece of research that will be relevant to the university, to the city and that will be a landmark in the way Britain examines, acknowledges and teaches the history of enslavement.”

Otele holds a PhD in history from Sorbonne University in France and researches transnational history , in particular the link between history, collective memory and geopolitics in relation to British and French colonial pasts.

Prof Judith Squires, the provost and deputy vice-chancellor of the university, said: “We are proud to be appointing someone of Prof Otele’s experience and standing to lead on this important issue for us.

“As an institution founded in 1909, we are not a direct beneficiary of the slave trade, but we fully acknowledge that we financially benefited indirectly via philanthropic support from families who had made money from businesses involved in the transatlantic slave trade.

“This new role provides us with a unique and important opportunity to interrogate our history, working with staff, students and local communities to explore the university’s historical links to slavery and to debate how we should best respond to our past in order to shape our future as an inclusive university community.”