Clive Harris has lectured for over 20 years in a number of Midland universities – Birmingham City, Warwick and Birmingham. His main areas of teaching were sociological theory, methodology, and ethnic studies. He now works as a Director of QSR2 Solutions Ltd, a Third Sector capacity-building social enterprise. This organisation was established to respond to the policy trends impacting on the voluntary/community sector and to offer a range of services to develop their capacity. 'Managing change through partnership' is its guiding motto. In 2007 – 08, he was Project Director and lead researcher for a Heritage Lottery funded project – Three Continents, One History - that explored the relationship between Birmingham and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. This was the most significant and ambitious community project throughout the country marking the 2007 Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
Recently he has been a member of the Historians Advisory Group that has been assisting BMAG to develop a new Birmingham gallery at the museum. He currently serves on the steering group for the significant project directed by Professor Catherine Hall (UCL) which has been analysing the extensive records of the Slave Compensation Fund, the body that oversaw the distribution of the £20,000,000 compensation given out to planters for the loss of their labourers.