Nicholas Thomas first visited the Pacific in 1984 to research his PhD thesis on the Marquesas Islands. He has since written extensively on art, empire, and related themes, and curated exhibitions in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, many in collaboration with contemporary artists. His books include Entangled Objects (1991), Colonialism’s Culture (1994), Possessions: indigenous art/colonial culture (1999), and Islanders: the Pacific in the Age of Empire (2010), which was awarded the Wolfson History Prize.

Since 2006, he been Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, which was shortlisted for the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year Prize in 2013.