Research presentations
Experts present on research papers and topics relating to the history of slavery.
Please note: we have a dedicated section for events that took place during Black History Month.
9 March 2023 - 502 Teaching Hub, University of Liverpool
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2023, we celebrated our unique partnership with, and the inspiring women of, the world-renowned International Slavery Museum (ISM).
The Centre for the Study of International Slavery was founded as a partnership between the University of Liverpool and National Museums Liverpool. It works with universities and organisations locally, domestically and globally to develop scholarly and public activities related to slavery in its historical and contemporary manifestations.
The International Slavery Museum serves as a starting point for different forms of engagement with slavery and abolition across time and space.
24 September 2025 - Arthur West Room, University of Liverpool
Kyla Raby, an antislavery specialist with experience as a researcher, educator and practitioner, spoke on Australia’s modern slavery landscape, which is shaped by a complex legacy, from the forced labour of penal colonies and the exploitation of First Nations peoples, to today’s challenges of human trafficking, forced labour, and forced marriage.
Drawing on case studies from the co-authored book, Modern Slavery in Australia, her applied research, and her experience as an anti-traffpicking practitioner, Kyla discussed key gaps and challenges within this contemporary landscape.
She examined Australia’s survivor support framework, including barriers to accommodating survivors, and the unique challenges faced by survivors who are parents.
Given the transparency approach of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), which relies heavily on consumer pressure to drive change, the talk explored how public engagement initiatives, such as the Everyday Slavery project, aim to bridge the gap between research, policy, and community action.
Lessons from the Australian experience were considered in an international context, with reflections on how these insights can inform antislavery efforts in the UK and beyond.
6 March 2025 - 126 Mount Pleasant, University of Liverpool
Guilaine Kinouani, an award-winning writer, psychologist, group analyst, and thinker, discussed her research on the possible psychological and physical health consequences for researchers and scholars who are racialised as Black.
21 August 2024 - School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool
For Slavery Remembrance Day 2024: Centre for Study of International Slavery Symposium.
This event brought together museum practitioners, scholars, and community-based historians to discuss the buildings, places, and spaces associated with the representation of slavery and its legacies.
It included conversations about the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery (1994); the development of the International Slavery Museum, which opened in 2007 during the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the British Slave Trade; and projects, buildings and spaces throughout the African Diaspora.
The event also explored the connections between the Waterfront Transformation project in Liverpool, models of co-production and design, African architectural history and practice, and diverse knowledge systems. Additionally, it considered how local landscapes interact with the global perspective and how we inclusively and equitably utilise past experiences and new practices in future museum design and development.
Speakers included Dr Richard Benjamin, Senior Lecturer for Contemporary Museum Practice; Professor Ola Uduku, Head of School at the Liverpool School of Architecture; Michelle Charters, Head of International Slavery Museum; and Professor Mike Boyle, Liverpool historian and author of Liverpool Black Heritage: From Granby to Pitt Street.
30 April 2024 - The Bluecoat, Liverpool
In this talk, Dr April Pudsey addressed some of the questions facing one of the most under-researched areas of ancient slavery: the lived experiences of enslaved children. Across such a vast, harsh empire, in which slavery was so heavily embedded, we know comparatively little about how children featured.
Dr Pudsey argued that many non-Roman children were susceptible and vulnerable to captivity, and what she argues amounts to a system of organised trafficking on a huge scale.
Using Egypt as the case study, she presented the papyrological evidence for the enforced movement of enslaved children into and around Egypt, and more widely. For a society in which we have no written testimony of enslaved people, let alone children, some of this material can provide us with what comes close to partial life stories of these children.
23 May 2023 - 502 Teaching Hub, University of Liverpool
This event, supported by CSIS and the Department of English at the University of Liverpool, explored the concept of decolonisation from the perspective of "place" and the role of literature, in particular, in thinking through the connections between place (and especially Liverpool) and decolonization.
Malik Al Nasir, author, poet, and academic, was in conversation with Dr Sreya Datta (University of Liverpool). The author spoke about his own relationship with Liverpool over the years, how that has shaped his thinking, and how he understands the concept of literature and literacy itself. The conversation drew on Malik's research on the legacies of transatlantic slavery.
15 March 2022 - 502 Teaching Hub, University of Liverpool
Dr Michael Bennett (University of Sheffield) presented on new evidence relating to English slave trading in the middle decades of the seventeenth century. His paper demonstrated that the early English slave trade was of larger proportions than is currently suggested by the quantitative data contained within the Transatlantic Slave Trade database.
It also argued that the networks developed by these private slave traders in the 1640s and 1650s would later be of vital importance to the commercial operations of the Royal Adventurers in the 1660s, the new monopoly company formed to govern English trade with West Africa.
11 March 2022 - 502 Teaching Hub, University of Liverpool
This panel event, for International Women's Day, was introduced by Dr Laura Sandy, Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of International Slavery and Senior Lecturer in the History of Slavery.
Dame Sara Thornton, Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and Honorary Professor in Modern Slavery at the University of Liverpool, provided the opening remarks, followed by Jo Bezzano and Dr Samantha Currie from the University of Liverpool’s Law School, who outlined the challenges faced by women victims of trafficking to secure legal status in the UK.
Dr Amy Benstead, from the University of Manchester’s Department of Materials, then discussed how modern slavery and trafficking affects women in global textiles and fashion supply chains. Panel remarks were followed by a moderated Q&A.
23 February 2022 - Rendall Building, University of Liverpool
In this event, Dr Laura Sandy, Reader in the History of Slavery at the University of Liverpool, and former Co-Director of CSIS, explored her research, ‘Slave Stealing Women, Slave-Owning Women and Stolen Slaves in the American South’.