A note from the ISOS comittee

While the Covid-19 situation has led to the need to postpone this event, it is our intention to run the conference in June 2021 (20-22nd approx) and we will send information regarding this after the current situation has passed. Your accepted papers and posters will be carried over until next year. Keep the dates free!

The health and wellbeing of our students, staff and visitors is our highest priority and while we realise that the cancellation of events will cause some inconvenience and disappointment, this measure is aimed at ensuring that our response to the current situation remains responsible and informed by the latest public health advice and expertise.

We have made this decision before taking registration but understand some of you may have unfortunately incurred other costs. We regret that the university cannot be held liable for any loss of travel or accommodation costs arising from this.     

We hope you are in good health and that we may see you in 2021.

Best Wishes,

The ISOS Conference Committee. 

Is this conference for you?

ISOS, the Institute for the Study of Slavery, is pleased to announce its global conference for June 2020 on the theme of After 'Emancipation': The legacies, afterlives and continuation of slavery. 

The University of Nottingham’s Institute for the Study of Slavery (ISOS) is a multidisciplinary network which pursues research on both historical and contemporary slavery and forced labour in all parts of the globe and through all periods.

Throughout slavery’s long history, from the ancient world to the present, there have been numerous moments of individual, group and political ‘emancipations’ and abolitions.

These have occurred through the following:

• Formal abolition

• Manumission—when an enslaved person is freed by a slaveholder

• Enslaved people running away  

• Rebellions and revolts

Today, despite living in a world which is 'post-slavery'—in international legal terms—millions of people continue to be exploited under modern slavery and the negative legacies of historical slavery. 

Within this climate, this conference looks to explore what emancipation meant to the formerly enslaved and what that ‘freedom’ might have looked like. 

It also considers 'afterlives' in a wider sense. At present, many institutions, including universities, are considering the varied ways in which they have benefitted, financially and otherwise, from Transatlantic Slavery.

There are also debates about the renaming of statues and monuments linked to this history and gaps in the presentation of histories of the enslaved and what these mean to descendants of the formerly enslaved. 

The conference will explore these topics and ideas through a range of panels and discussions.