I am a social and cultural historian of modern Britain.  My research interests include the New Left, cultural studies, urban history, race, immigration and multiculturalism.  I have published on these areas in Social History, History Workshop Journal, the Journal of British Studies, Twentieth Century British History and other academic journals.  I am the co-editor of Cultural Studies 50 Years On (2016) and my first monograph - Black Handsworth: race in 1980s Britain - was published by the University of California Press in 2019 and shortlisted for the Whitfield Prize. I have curated several public exhibitions, including Janet Mendelsohn: Varna Road at the Ikon Gallery in 2016, and have held visiting fellowships at New York University and Stanford University.  My research has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Fulbright Commission and, most recently, the British Academy.

My latest book, Multicultural Britain: A People's History was published by Hurst in 2024.  It was shortlisted for the 2025 Wolfson History Prize, the most prestigious history prize in the UK.

I have written for various newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, The Irish Times, and the Irish Independent.  I am currently working on a history of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.

Dr Kieran Connell teaches on the following programmes: 

HIS2018 The Making of Contemporary Britain

HIS2055 History and Society

HIS3119 'There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack': race and immigration in post-war Britain

MHY7079 From Blitz to Blair: exploring post-war Britain

MHY7035 Debates in History