Abolishing Slavery - Then and Now

“A Common Ground Against Slavery for Scholars, Activists, and Public Policy Advocates”

May 29th thru June 1st, 2008, the Beecher House Center for the Study of Equal Rights and the University of Connecticut will hold an interdisciplinary conference on the implications of the bicentennial of the British and American closing of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1807 and 1808.

Abolishing Slavery – Then and Now is co-sponsored by:

The Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, Hull UK

The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, York, Canada

Free the Slaves, Washington, DC

The Conference will focus on the history of slavery and efforts to abolish it in the 18th & 19th centuries as well as the unfinished business of slavery, including the legacies of slavery and the continuing scourge of slavery in the 21st century.

Accordingly, the Conference seeks to foster exchange and collaboration among aca-demic historians, other scholars, public policy experts, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and activists who are directly engaged on a day-to-day basis in combating the legacy of 19th century slavery and the persistence of slavery as it is practiced today.

In the largest sense, this Conference aspires to link the study of the past with the activism of the present in order to better understand and more effectively combat both the legacies of 19th century slavery and the continuation of slavery in the world today.

With these goals in view, the Conference’s organizers invite proposals that address specific aspects of these broad areas:

18th &19th Century British and American Abolitionist and Antislavery Movements: Comparisons, Contrasts, and Consequences.

Slave Emancipation Movements “Then and Now”: Comparisons, Contrasts, and Analogies.

Documenting and Combating the Legacies of Trans- atlantic Slavery: Economics, Public Policy, NGOs, and On-the-Ground Activism.

Documenting and Combating the New Slavery: Economics, Public Policy, NGOs, and On-the-Ground Activism.

In seeking to explore such issues, we look for papers and presentations that reflect a rich spectrum of views and research. Mutual understanding and coalition building, both intellectual and practical, are overriding conference goals. We thus invite proposals from historians and other scholars who work in a broad variety of fields as well as from a wide array of public policy experts, NGO officials, representatives of civic organizations engaged in a hands-on manner with slavery’s “unfinished business,” and survivors.

Proposals can take the form of individual papers or complete panels of several participants.

Proposals can also take the form of informational displays, exhibits and conversation areas that will be open to participants and the general public throughout the Conference.

Participants are strongly encouraged to propose informational displays whether or not they also propose individual panels or papers. Such displays would include poster boards, documentary films, interactive websites and works in the creative arts.

The Conference is co-sponsored by:

Beecher House Center for the Study of Equal Rights, Torrington, CT

WISE (the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation), Hull UK

Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, York University, Toronto CA

University of Connecticut

Free the Slaves, Washington, DC

The Conference will be held at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
May 29th thru June 1st, 2008.

Proposals are due October 16, 2007:

Please be informed that the conference organizers put as high a priority on informational exhibits of all kinds, as they do on formal papers and panel presentations.

Submit to James Brewer Stewart, Chair of the Conference Organizing Committee. Submission guidelines available from the Chair.

Please direct all questions or concerns to:

James Brewer Stewart
James Wallace Professor of History
Macalester College
St. Paul, MN 55105
651-696-6496
stewart@macalester.edu

For questions concerning logistics or attending the conference please contact:

Carl W. Schaefer, UConn Conference Chair
Dept. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Connecticut - U3043
Storrs, CT 06269-3043 USA
860-486-4455

Chandler B.Saint
Beecher House Center
PO Box 124, Torrington, CT 06790
860-489-1774
carl.schaefer@uconn.edu
beechers@optonline.net