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The University of Nottingham is offering a Masters course in Slavery and Liberation – the first of its kind in the world.
Taught by world-leading academics and experts, this unique internationally-recognised distance learning course will introduce students to the key concepts and challenges of slavery, liberation and human rights.
Around the world, nearly 46 million people are forced to work against their will for no pay.
The Slavery and Liberation MA will not only provide academic grounding to those studying, but it will also give comprehensive training on how best to achieve the liberation and social reintegration of people in slavery.
Professional training and education for scholars
Professor Kevin Bales from the School of Politics and International Relations at the University, the course leader and the world’s leading expert in modern slavery, said: “We all want to end slavery and support freed slaves, but how do we do that? Sooner or later, everyone in the world of human rights and anti-slavery asks this question.
“This is the question whenever we face the tough challenges of liberation and reintegration, and this hunger for knowledge is not surprising, given that there has been no professional training and education programme for anti-slavery scholars, activists or workers – until now.
“This MA is designed to prepare students for both future study and to equip them with the skills needed by anti-slavery and anti-trafficking organisations. Its true aim is to answer the fundamental question of how we can work together to end slavery and how best to support freed slaves.”
Students will benefit from several unique elements in the course:
- An in-depth look into an important and growing area of human rights work
- Specialist practical training to plan and carry out anti-slavery and anti-trafficking activities aimed at liberation, rehabilitation, reintegration, prevention, protection and prosecution.
- Training to enable students to carry out independent research into human rights
Professor Todd Landman, Pro Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Social Sciences, said: “The University of Nottingham’s work on modern slavery provides a real beacon for the world—an extensive research agenda to help achieve the international goal of ending slavery by 2030, including with this ground-breaking new degree that will train the next generation of abolitionists.
“Students will share in the study, research, and practical interventions being undertaken, while learning how to address this international problem."
More information on the MA can be found here.
Free online course
Students interested in gaining an introduction to the topic before starting the MA can get a taster in the form of our free online course. In May the University will be running a free online course on contemporary slavery for the second time, following a successful first run in 2016.
‘Ending Slavery: Strategies for Contemporary Global Abolition’ is a massive open online course (MOOC) which is open for registration now. The four-week course starts on 8 May and is open to anyone - no prior knowledge is necessary.
The course is run by experts at the University, including Professor Bales and Professor Zoe Trodd.
Professor Trodd said: “Following the incredibly positive feedback from the first run of the MOOC, we are delighted to be running the course once again. We’ll explore the size and shape of slavery today, brainstorm together new solutions for ending it, and listen to the voices of enslaved people to learn from true lived experience.”
For more information on the MOOC visit the website.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a “distinct” approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.’ (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and was named University of the Year for Graduate Employment in the 2017 The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide. It is ranked in the world’s top 75 by the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, and 8th in the UK for research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world’s greenest campus for four years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.
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