Stanford University, Thurs. March 19 - Sat. 21, 2009

Trafficking Women and Children after the End of Slavery: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives from Africa and Beyond

Now in its eleventh year, the 2009 Stanford-University of California Law and Colonialism in Africa Symposium will focus on trafficking in women and children. We invite submissions from new and established scholars conducting new research on the forms, nature, and impact of the traffic in women and children from the historical past to the present day in sub-Saharan Africa and in comparative perspectives beyond the continent.

Women and children have been bartered, pawned, bought, and sold within and beyond Africa for longer than records have existed. We are interested in examining the changing modalities of the traffic in women and children in the aftermath of the “end of slavery” in late 19th and early 20th centuries. Slavery and the many forms of bondage and subordination that have operated in Africa in the past are often juxtaposed with the nature of trafficking once slavery was made illegal. The formal end of the slave trade and slavery did not end the demand for servile women and children. The contemporary “traffic” in women is increasingly conflated with prostitution; descriptions of child trafficking often blur the boundaries with critiques of child labor practices. We are especially interested in understanding law in practice as we examine the changing conditions of supply and demand for women and children and changing mechanisms of legal enforcement. We seek papers that identify modes of exchange of subordinate women and children, and explorations of the formal and informal legal regimes that underpin subordination. We are also interested in examining efforts to end such trafficking from the international to the local levels. Proposed papers should be based on original research in these areas.

The Law and Colonialism in Africa Symposium explores the connections between the legacies of conquest and the legal systems that undergird domination. We are interested in uncovering and documenting the relationship between modalities of authority and the articulation and praxis of law. Previous symposia have focused on topics as diverse as the role of indigenous intermediaries, domestic violence, Muslim family law, and children. We welcome disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary approaches from scholars in the social sciences and humanities. A number of previous symposia have resulted in edited volumes. The symposium will cover local expenses; a small number of subsidies to defray transport costs are available upon request.

Abstracts of 300 words and a résumé of scholarship should be submitted by October 30, 2008 to Richard Roberts . Papers selected must be ready to circulate by mid-February 2009. For further information about the nature, format, and interests of the symposium, please contact Benjamin Lawrance .