Slaveries old and new: the meaning of freedom

Convenors:
Dr Laura Brace, University of Leicester
Professor Julia O’Connell Davidson, University of Nottingham
Professor Zoe Trodd, University of Nottingham
Dr Mark Johnson, University of Hull

Concerns about human trafficking have sparked renewed awareness of slavery and a revival of the abolitionist movement across the world. Scholars of 'old' slavery can offer insights on the complexities of different forms of slavery as systems of political and economic domination, but these have rarely been brought to bear on the contemporary forms of exploitation, subordination and oppression dubbed ‘modern slavery’. This conference addresses that omission, providing a multidisciplinary overview of slaveries old and new and explores the contested meanings of freedom and slavery in a variety of contexts including migration, debt, marriage, imprisonment.

Speakers include:

Professor Bridget Anderson, University of Oxford
Professor Karen E. Bravo, Indiana University
Professor David Graeber, London School of Economics
Dr Sarah Haley, Gender Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Mr Nicolas Lainez, National University of Singapore
Professor Tommy Lott, San Jose State University
Dr Sam Okyere, University of Nottingham
Dr Srila Roy, University of Witwatersrand
Dr Nandita Sharma , University of Hawaii
Dr Charlotte Sussman, Duke University
Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman, University College London