About
The inaugural seminar ‘People not Property, Names not Numbers’ was held on Thursday 21 March, 4.30-6pm (GMT) to mark both the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March) and International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (25 March).
This seminar sets the context of the historic role of the church in enslavement and colonialism, as well as the lasting legacies of this violent past. Moderated by Professor Stephen Small, an expert in British Imperialism at the University of California Berkeley, this panel brings together esteemed researchers of slavery and the church.
Watch seminar recording
Panellists
Professor Robert Beckford (PhD) is the Director of Winchester University’s Institute for Climate and Social Justice. Beckford is also a Professor of Black Theology at the Queen’s Ecumenical Foundation in Birmingham and a Professor of Theology in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Vu University in Amsterdam.
Dr Rachel Cosgrave is Senior Archivist at Lambeth Palace Library leads the team managing the large collections of archives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, other National Church Institutions, and numerous others from the medieval to the modern period relating to ecclesiastical history and wider topics.
Mr Krzysztof Adamiec, joining the panel for the Q&A, is the Archivist managing the extensive archives collections c.1830-1990 at Lambeth Palace Library and has led its work on material relating to the Church and enslavement, including curating the exhibition ‘Enslavement: Voices from the Archives’.
Professor Catherine Hall is Emerita Professor of History and Chair of the Centre of the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at UCL. She has written extensively on the history of Britain, gender and empire including Family Fortunes (1987), co-authored with Leonore Davidoff, Civilising Subjects (2002) Macaulay and Son (2012) and, with others, Legacies of British Slave-ownership (2014). From 2009-2016 she was principal investigator on the LBS project www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs. Her new book is Lucky Valley: Edward Long and the history of racial capitalism (2024).
Dr Alice Kinghorn is a historian of religion and empire. Her research examines the Church of England's involvement in transatlantic slavery through the work of Anglican missionary societies. Alice has also engaged in a number of impact projects, and has worked closely with the Diocese of Bristol to research physical legacies of enslavement in Bristol churches. Alice is currently a lecturer at the University of Gloucester, and consults on contested heritage projects.
People not Property, Names not Numbers Reading List
