 After a year in the community, Beckford studied for his PhD while also working part-time at The Queen's Foundation, Birmingham, where he became Britain's first tutor in black theology.Professionally, Beckford has spent his career in academia, beginning in 1999 as a research fellow at Birmingham University, then becoming a lecturer in African Diasporan Religions & Cultures.For two years he was Reader in Black Theology and Popular Culture at Oxford Brookes University and then a visiting Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.