About us

The Centre for the Study of International Slavery (CSIS) is a unique partnership between the University of Liverpool and the International Slavery Museum. Since 2006, we have established a powerful international network of partners across the globe dedicated to studying slavery, in its contemporary and historical manifestations.

CSIS brings together researchers, curators, and educators who are leading and reshaping slavery-related studies: its histories, its legacies, and the injustices that persist today. And where better to do it than Liverpool - a city whose past and present make it a crucial crossroads for this work?

The Centre aims to contribute to greater understanding and informed debate about slavery and its many legacies. We promote an international, comparative, and interdisciplinary approach to examining the cultural and social effects of the slave trade, slavery, and resistance on all societies involved. We also further the study of memorialisation (how we preserve our collective memories of the past), and of the interpretation of slavery as part of a wider public history agenda.

The work we do spans continents, connecting museum practitioners, academics, and leading thinkers from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Australia, and the Americas to share insight, spark debate, and push the conversation forward. Our research fuels public talks and debates, community events, school programmes, and museum exhibitions that challenge, provoke, and inspire.

International Slavery Museum

Currently, the International Slavery Museum is closed to undergo a substantial transformation as part of the Waterfront Transformation Project. With funding from the National Heritage Lottery Fund – Heritage Horizon Awards, the Dr Martin Luther King Jr building (Old Dock Traffic Office) will become the new entrance to the Museum. This will mark the start of a new journey for visitors to discover the legacy of Liverpool's Waterfront and the city's role in transatlantic slavery.

We and our partner organisations and wider interdisciplinary network celebrate this moment of transformation as an opportunity to renew our critical attentions toward, and deconstruction of, the colonial and systemic power dynamics that have shaped our societies throughout the generations.