“Using History to Make Slavery History”
In October 2017, Historians Against Slavery will hold its biennial conference outside of the United States for the first time, at the International Slavery Museum (ISM) in Liverpool. The two-day conference will mark the 10th Anniversary of the ISM as well as Black History Month 2017.
It is co-hosted by Historians Against Slavery, the ISM, the Centre for the Study of International Slavery (University of Liverpool) and the AHRC-funded Antislavery Usable Past project (Universities of Nottingham and Hull).
Connecting past with present, we will deepen dialogue and collaboration between scholars, teachers, activists and community representatives, and build coalitions for antislavery scholarship and activism. Our panels, workshops and plenary sessions will bring together a distinguished body of leading scholars, museum professionals and antislavery activists from around the world, reflecting on cutting-edge scholarship and debating practical examples of how history can inform contemporary efforts to end the enslavement of 46 million people worldwide.
Registration for the conference is free and includes lunch on both days. Conference attendees are responsible for transportation, lodging and evening meals. We will announce speakers in March 2017.
Historians Against Slavery is a community of scholar-activists who contribute research and historical context to today’s antislavery movement, in order to inspire and inform activism and to develop collaborations that empower such efforts. Based in the US with an 800-strong membership, it launched a UK chapter in 2016.
The International Slavery Museum opened in August 2007 during the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade. By 2016 it had welcomed nearly 4 million visitors. It is the only museum of its kind to look at aspects of historical and contemporary slavery as well as being an international hub for resources on human rights issues. It is located in Liverpool's Albert Dock, at the centre of a World Heritage site and only yards away from the dry docks where 18th-century slave trading ships were repaired and fitted out.
The Centre for the Study of International Slavery (CSIS) was founded in 2006 by National Museums Liverpool and the University of Liverpool to collaborate with international and local communities of scholars researching slavery, abolition and their legacies ahead of the opening of the International Slavery Museum on 23 August 2007. It supports and shares leading research about human enslavement and its legacies, and works together with other universities and organisations to develop scholarly and public activities related to slavery in its historical and contemporary manifestations.
The Antislavery Usable Past is a five-year AHRC-funded project based at the University of Nottingham and at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation (University of Hull). It translates the lessons of historic abolitionism for contemporary use - providing today's antislavery movement with a usable past of examples and methods. Its partners include Historians Against Slavery and the International Slavery Museum.