Anti-Slavery – Usable Past
Anti-Slavery Usable Past is a £1.8-million research project that aims to draw on the successes and failures of earlier abolition movements to understand what lessons can be learned to tackle slavery today.
It will create a toolkit for policy-makers and societies around the world.
Projects include translating the legal definition of slavery into the five other languages of the United Nations, and educating courts around the world on the law.
The Wilberforce Institute will examine how war has facilitated the slave trades throughout history and how conflict continues to act as a catalyst to enslaving people. It will also look into how the public was mobilised to oppose slavery in the past and assess how this could inform change today.
Our work will also bring together stories of contemporary slavery in an archive, highlighting the painful realities of this global issue.
The Anti-Slavery Usable Past project is a five-year multidisciplinary investigation in collaboration with the University of Nottingham. It is is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.