Meghan Tinsley

Meghan Tinsley is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester, affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities. She holds a PhD from Boston University (2018), an MSc from the London School of Economics (2010), and a BA from Wellesley College (2007). Her research focuses on nationalism, imperial memory, decolonization, and postcolonial theory. She has held visiting fellowships at the University of Cambridge, University of Melbourne, and University of Ghana.

Research Interests:

• Contesting statues and imperial nostalgia
• Decolonizing museums and public memory
• Postcolonial nation-building through memorials
• Global histories of empire, slavery, and anti-colonial struggle

Key Projects:

• Commemorating and Constructing the Postcolonial Nation (mixed-method study of monuments in Ghana, Guinea, Barbados, and Martinique)
• Commemorating Muslims in the First World War Centenary (Routledge book analyzing national identity narratives)

Awards:

• 2024 Fellowship for Postcolonial Nation Study
• 2023 Shortlist, Memory Studies Association Book Award
• 2020 Indigenising Museum Fellowship

Engagement: Convenor of the Decolonial Reading Group, co-founder of the British Sociological Association's Postcolonial Transformations Study Group, and editorial board member for Sociology and The Sociological Review.

Activities: Over 100 academic engagements including conferences, editorial work, and media appearances (e.g., BBC, Nature, culturalstudies podcast).