Robert S.G. Fletcher

Professor Robert S.G. Fletcher holds dual roles as Professor of History and Kinder Professor of British History at the University of Missouri, and serves as an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Warwick (2015-2020). His academic career spans institutions including the University of Exeter, Nuffield College (Oxford), and Princeton University.

Specializing in British imperial history, global history, and nomadic societies, his research examines the intersections of empire-building, desert administration, and maritime frontiers. Recent work (2024-2025) extends to interdisciplinary collaborations with museums like the Royal Museums Greenwich, focusing on colonial expeditions, locust control campaigns, and maritime cultural heritage.

His scholarship appears in leading journals including Past and Present, The English Historical Review, and Journal of Historical Geography. Publications include the award-winning monographs British Imperialism and 'The Tribal Question' (OUP, 2015) and The Ghost of Namamugi (AUP, 2019). As Principal Investigator, he led the AHRC-funded Inlands: Empires, Contested Interiors (2024) and Science in Culture projects on desert locust campaigns.

• Major Awards
  • Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Leadership Fellowship (2015-2018)
  • AHRC Science in Culture award (2018)
• Key Collaborations
  • Co-edited Connected Empires, Connected Worlds with Benjamin Mountford and Simon Potter (Routledge, 2022)
  • Contributed to The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire (2018)