Gillian Macdonald, Ph.D.

Gillian Macdonald, Ph.D. Profile Photo

Director of LEADR

Gillian is Director of the Lab for the Education and Advancement in Digital Research and an affiliated faculty member of the History Department at Michigan State University. She is an early modernist who specializes in the late-seventeenth century British Atlantic World and is originally from Scotland.

May 31, 2025

Episode 15: The Heavens Fall

The detainment of a West African-born enslaved Virginian named James Somerset in London leads to a court case decided by England's most powerful judge that challenges the foundations of slavery in the British Empire.