This new network will bring together postgraduate students of historic or contemporary slavery and antislavery studies from across the humanities and social sciences. An annual workshop will create research and learning networks; provide opportunities to debate current topics in the field; and provide a supportive environment where postgraduates can establish valuable contacts for the future.

The Antislavery Usable Past is a five year project (2014-19) funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under its ‘Care for the Future’ theme. It will unearth the details of past antislavery strategies and translate their lessons and legacies for today’s movement against global slavery and human trafficking. It includes Professors and scholars at the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE) at the University of Hull, the University of Nottingham and Queens University Belfast.

For the first workshop, to be held at WISE on 16-17 October 2015, the organisers are pleased to invite doctoral students to submit proposals for papers, of no more than 300 words, on the theme: ‘Antislavery lessons and legacies’. The deadline for submissions is 31 May 2015.

The organisers welcome research that ranges geographically and temporally, and which encourages interdisciplinary conversations. For this first workshop, priority will be given to researchers of antislavery, historic and modern.

The workshop will include introductions from Professor John Oldfield, Director of WISE; Professor Kevin Bales, antislavery activist and scholar; and Professor Zoe Trodd, co-director of the Centre for Research in Race and Rights at the University of Nottingham. Professor David Blight, Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University will offer a series of reflections. There will also be an evening film event from the anti-trafficking charity, Unchosen.

Network members will be encouraged to form their own committee, and to formulate future workshop themes.

Funding will be provided for UK travel, one nights’ accommodation, and meals.

To submit a proposal, to express an interest in joining the network, or for any further information, please contact Sarah Colley, s.colley@hull.ac.uk.