Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement)

Professor Richard Follett leads the development and delivery of the University’s Global Strategy and has oversight of the University’s global activities, including student recruitment, global experiences for staff and students, establishing and leading the University’s relationships with key global partners, engaging alumni around the world, and working across the University’s Faculties and Professional Services to deliver Exeter’s global agenda.

An elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Richard is also Professor of American History and a specialist on the history of African American slavery.
Richard joined Exeter in January 2023 from the University of Sussex where he was Associate Vice President (International). In his time there, Richard led Sussex’s international activities. He is also Chair of Universities UK International Africa and Middle East Network and serves on Universities UK's International Strategic Advisory Board.

Richard is a graduate of the University of Wales, the University of London, and the University of Illinois. He obtained his doctorate from Louisiana State University where he was Fulbright scholar.

Richard’s scholarship on the history of African American slavery includes The Sugar Masters: Planters and Slaves in Louisiana’s Cane World, 1820-1860; Slavery’s Ghost: The Problem of Freedom in the Age of Emancipation; and Plantation Kingdom: The American South and Its Global Commodities. He is currently writing a history of African American resistance to slavery, 1619-1865. He founded and edited the interdisciplinary periodical Atlantic Studies (Routledge).