24th Nov, 7pm
Slavery and the Shaping of British Culture
The past forty years have yielded an astonishingly rich and varied archive and historiography about slavery. Much less impressive however has been the efforts to locate slavery as an integral feature of Western cultural life itself. Too often, slavery is seen as an exotic, discreet subject which belongs outside Western culture. This talk takes a different approach, arguing that slavery was pivotal to the way Western Europe emerged over a period of three centuries.
Speaker: James Walvin, Professor of History Emeritus, University of York
James Walvin has written extensively on all aspects of the British involvement in slavery, including comprehensive studies of the Atlantic slave trade and a biography of the black ex-slave abolitionist, Olaudah Equiano.
This event is the sixth of eight talks in the series titled The British Business of Slavery, curated by Deborah Lavin.
Tickets: individual tickets £5, students and participating society members £3. Series ticket £30, students and participating society members £21.
Book Tickets Here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/slavery-and-the-shaping-of-british-culture-tickets-17636896432
1st Dec, 7pm
A British-Owned Congo, Roger Casement’s Battle with Slavery in Peru (1910 – 1914)
Roger Casement was the twentieth century’s first outstanding humanitarian. Best known for his 1904 chilling report on conditions in King Leopold’s Congo, Casement continued his campaign for human rights in the Putumayo Valley bordering Peru and Colombia, where a rubber company with headquarters in London was abusing and murdering indigenous people on a massive scale – nearly thirty thousand workers had died for a few thousand tons of rubber. Casement’s 1912 Foreign Office published report made for disturbing reading. He was widely celebrated as a hero in his battle to expose widespread abusive labour regimes. In 1916, Casement was hanged on a charge of treason by the British Government.
Speaker: Professor Jordan Goodman
Jordan Goodman is a historian presently affiliated as an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Science and Technology Studies, UCL. He has written widely in the fields of the history of human rights, cultural history and the history of science for both a general and an academic audience. His talk is based on his book, The Devil and Mr. Casement: One Man’s Battle for Human Rights in South America’s Heart of Darkness, (London, 2009/New York, 2010).
This event is the seventh of eight talks in the series titled The British Business of Slavery, curated by Deborah Lavin.
Tickets: individual tickets £5, students and participating society members £3. Series ticket £30, students and participating society members £21.
Book Tickets Here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-british-owned-congo-roger-casements-battle-with-slavery-in-peru-1910-1914-tickets-17263638006
4th Dec, 7pm
Slavery isn’t History: The Argument for Reparations
Speaker: Dr Aidan McQuade, Director of Anti-Slavery International
Should Britain pay reparations for slavery? Join Aidan McQuade in an interactive discussion that will look at the arguments for and against. This is an additional talk in the series The British Business of Slavery, curated by Deborah Lavin, running on Tuesday evenings at Conway Hall until 8th December 2015.
Book Tickets Here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/slavery-isnt-history-the-argument-for-reparations-tickets-19275935843
8th Dec, 7pm
Identifying Unfinished Business, the UK Modern Slavery Act (2015)
Almost two hundred years after the anti-slavery legislation associated with William Wilberforce, the UK government passed the Modern Slavery Act, acknowledging the fact that slavery had never really gone away. What is different now is that “modern slavery”, is present within the UK itself rather than in far-flung countries where Britons preferred to overlook working conditions. This talk will briefly trace the links between historical forms of slavery and its modern manifestations, and will critically examine claims by the government that the Act is world-leading.
Speaker: Professor Gary Craig
Gary Craig is Professor of Community Development and Social Justice at Durham University, and Emeritus Professor of Social Justice at the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University Hull which he helped to found and where he led the team working on modern slavery research. He co-wrote the first major scoping study of modern slavery in the UK, collaborated in several major studies of human trafficking and forced labour and was very actively engaged in shaping the final form of the UK Modern Slavery Act.
This talk is the last in the series titled The British Business of Slavery, curated by Deborah Lavin.
Tickets: individual tickets £5, students and participating society members £3. Series ticket £30, students and participating society members £21.
Book Tickets Here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/identifying-unfinished-business-the-uk-modern-slavery-act-2015-tickets-17263184650