The WISE conference will bring together scholars, educators, heritage practitioners, policy influencers and policy makers to consider both historical and contemporary aspects of slavery, emancipation and human rights. Three sub-themes for the conference have been identified. These are: the past and the present; movement and identity; and the boundaries of freedom and coercion.

Hull is the birthplace of William Wilberforce, the Parliamentary leader of the British antislavery movement, who in alliance with Thomas Clarkson, Olaudah Equiano and those who fought slavery from within, led the campaign that succeeded in convincing Parliament to outlaw the British slave trade. This marked the beginning of an international crusade against slavery that ultimately resulted in the formal outlawing of slavery worldwide. But two hundred years on from the abolition of the British slave trade, slavery and other forms of coerced labour continue to blight millions of lives. Slave trafficking, child labour, forced prostitution and other abuses of human rights, according to some authorities, have increased in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in the context of globalisation and widening differentials in wealth. The emancipation movement still has unfinished business.

The closing date for proposals, whether for papers or for panels (the latter preferably with a chair person) is 30 November 2006. We anticipate finalising the conference programme by 31 December 2006.